072- AL- JINN
THE JINN
Al-Jinn is a late Makkan sūrah that takes its name from the mention of jinn in the first verse and the report about a group of jinn who heard the Prophet’s recitation of the Quran, recognized it as Divine Revelation, and embraced Islam. This sūrah’s response to the travails of the last Messenger (rasūl) sent to humanity, Muhammad, connects it to the previous sūrah, which tells of the travails of Noah, widely regarded as the first messenger (Āl), although he had been preceded by other prophets (anbiyāʾ), who are thought to have had a less universal function, such as Adam. Some commentators also see a connection between the mention of the abundant rains promised to Noah’s people in 71:11 and the abundant water promised to the Quraysh in 72:16.
This sūrah is said to have been revealed at a time of great difficulty for the Prophet, in the year 619, when he had lost the protection of his uncle Abū Ṭālib and was vulnerable to those in Makkah who opposed his mission. At that time, the Prophet traveled to the nearby town of Ṭāʾif seeking support from its leaders, but they reviled him and set a mob upon him. The Prophet and Zayd ibn Ḥārith (d. 629), who had traveled with him, sought refuge in an orchard, where the Prophet prayed to God for support. There he met Salmān al-Fārsī, an originally Zoroastrian slave from Persia, who helped him escape and later became one of his closest Companions. While traveling in the desert, still searching for a protector, the Prophet stood for prayer at Nakhlah. Some say that he was reciting al-Raḥmān (Sūrah 55), when a group of seven or nine jinn came upon him and stopped to listen; enraptured, they repented and embraced Islam. In light of this account, this sūrah is seen as a gift of solace from God, letting the Prophet know that, despite his trials, the message continued to be heard and his mission continued to spread.
According to another account, al-Jinn was revealed at a time when the jinn were distraught that they were no longer able to intercept messages from Heaven. After consulting among themselves, the jinn realized that obstacles to their receiving messages could only have resulted from a momentous event, so they searched the globe. A group of them came upon the Prophet while he was leading his Companions in the morning prayer. When they heard the Quran, they listened to it attentively and said, “This is what has caused obstacles between us and the reports from Heaven.” They went back to their people and said, “O our people, we have heard a marvelous Quran which directs us to the right path; we affirm our faith in it, and we would never associate anyone with our Lord.” Then God revealed this sūrah.
To contextualize this account and the place of the jinn, one must consider the nature of the spiritual cosmology of the Quran. In Islamic cosmology, there is something both literal and symbolic about the heavens and the earth. God is not literally physically “above and beyond” the heavens; yet “up” is the reality in physical space that best symbolizes and communicates the meaning of “toward God.” In this sense, the heavens represent both higher physical levels and higher ontological planes. The jinn, as psychic beings unseen to most human beings, occupy an intermediate state between the material realm of our physical experiences and the angelic and spiritual realms. Nonetheless, they are also on the earth, and according to some occupied the earth before human beings. As witnesses to the cosmic order in ways to which most human beings are denied access, the jinn are said to have the ability to “eavesdrop” on angelic communications, inform people of what is to come, and grant special powers. It should be noted, however, that in Islamic spirituality knowledge that comes from the jinn carries no spiritual value, and the spiritual masters have always made a distinction between the forms of knowledge of the Unseen that are tantamount to magic and those that result from what is believed to be a Divine or angelic inspiration. Differentiating between these different kinds of “inspiration” is in fact an important traditional science.
(source: “The Study Quran” a new translation and commentary by Seyyed Hossein Nasr)
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