Question: Is there any truth behind the myth that humans can be possessed by jinns?
The Jinn - Views from Quran & Ahadith, Actions & Precautionary Measures
Question: Is there any truth behind the myth
that humans can be possessed by jinns?
Answer: To exorcise (expel evil spirits) on humans is an act
which had been practiced by the Prophets alaihimus salaam themselves and
the pious, using those ways regarding which Allah
Ta’ala commanded.
The Holy Prophet Isa
used to practice this as well as our Noble
Prophet.
Imaam Ahmad has narrated in his Musnad and Imaam Abu Dawood in his Sunan the hadith of Matr ibn Abdur Rahman Al-Anaq. He says:
‘Umm Aban binte al-Wazi ibn Zare ibn Aamir Al-Abdi narrates from her
father that her grandfather Az-Zare’ went to the Holy Prophet
with his possessed, insane son (or his nephew (sister’s son). She says
my grandfather said:
“When we came to the Holy Prophet
I said, ‘I have come to you with my son (or nephew) who is possessed
so that you pray to Almighty Allah for him.” The Prophet
said, “Bring him to me.”
He further says, “I took him to the Holy Prophet
while the child was mounted. I dismounted him and took off his travel clothes
and made him wear a pair of beautiful clothes. Then I grasped him by the
hand and led him to the Messenger of Allah
who said, “Bring him close to me and put his back towards me.”
He also commanded for his clothes to be taken off. Then he raised his hands and put them on the child’s back in such a way that I saw his armpits. He was saying, “Come out O’ enemy of Allah! Come out O’ enemy of Allah!” Then the boy began to gaze with his true eyes and not with the previous gaze.
Then the Holy Prophet
made him sit in front of him and sent for some water with which he wiped
the child’s face and the Holy Prophet
prayed for him.
After the Holy Prophet’s
prayer for the child, no one in the group was superior to the child (i.e.
in intelligence and understanding).’
Imaam Ahmad says in his Musnad that Abdullah ibn Nameer narrated to us from Uthman ibn Hakeem, he says:
“Abdur Rahman ibn Abdul Aziz informed us about Ya’la ibn Murrah that
he said, ‘Surely I have seen three things from the Messenger of Allah
which no one has seen before me nor will anyone see them after me.
I went with the Holy Prophet
on a journey. When we had covered a little distance we passed by a woman
who was sitting down with a child. She said, ‘O’ Messenger of Allah ,
this child has been inflicted with a calamity and we have been inflicted
because of him. I cannot count the amount of fits he has during a single
day.’
The Holy Prophet
said, ‘Bring him to me.’ The woman lifted the child towards him and placed
the child between the Holy Prophet
and the saddle.
They lifted him up and the Holy Prophet
spat at him three times.
Then he said, ‘In the name of Allah. I am his servant. Come out O’ enemy of Allah.’ Then he returned the child to the woman and said, ‘Meet us on our return, at this place, and inform us about his actions.”
The narrator says, “We went and then we returned to find her in that
place. She had three goats with her. The Noble Prophet
asked, ‘What is the condition of your child?’
She replied, ‘I swear by the name of the Divine Being who sent you with the truth that up to now we have not perceived anything from him. Sacrifice these goats.’
The Holy Prophet
said, ‘Get down and take one goat from her and return the rest.” Then he
narrated the remaining hadith.
Wakee’ narrates that Al-Amash conveyed to us from Al-Madinah ibn Amr who narrates from Ya’la ibn Murrah who says that his father said:
“A woman came to the Holy Prophet
with her child who was insane. The Holy Prophet
said, ‘Get out O’ enemy of Allah, I am the Messenger of Allah.’
He says the child became healthy and the woman gifted to the Prophet
two rams, some cheese and butter. The Holy Prophet
said, ‘Take the cheese, butter and also one of the rams but return the
other to her.’”
Ya’la ibn Murrah Ash-Thaqafee
says, “I have seen three things from the Holy Prophet ,”
then he narrated a hadith and in it he said, “Then we travelled and passed
by some water. A woman came to the Holy Prophet
with her son who was possessed by a jinn. The Holy Prophet
took hold of his nose and said, ‘Come out, surely I am Muhammad, the Messenger
of Allah.”
The narrator says, “Then we went and when we returned from our journey
we passed by that place. That woman came to the Holy Prophet
with a goat’s child and some milk.
The Holy Prophet
ordered her to take the goat’s child back and ordered his companions 
to drink the milk. Then he enquired about her child she replied, ‘In the
name of the Being who sent you with the truth we have not seen anything
wrong with him after you went.”
Question: Is it permissible to write the aayaat
(verses) of the Glorious Qur’aan for
the ill and to use Ruqyah (taweez)?
Answer: It is permissible to write a portion from Allah’s Book
for the distressed and other types of illnessess with permissible ink and
to wash it and consume it.
Imaam Ahmad and others who have specified it say, Abdullah ibn Ahmad relates,
‘I read to my father the hadith from Hazrat Ibn Abbas
who narrates that when childbirth becomes difficult upon a woman the following
verses should be written:
On the day when they behold it, it will be as if they had but tarried for an evening or the morn thereof. (Naziat:46)
Then have patience (O Muhammad) even as the stout of heart among
the messengers (of old) had patience, and seek not to hasten on the doom
for them. On the day when they see that which they are promised (it will
seem to them) as though they had tarried but an hour of daylight. A clear
message. Shall any be destroyed save evil-living folk? (Ahqaf:35)
Then my father said, “Aswad ibn Aamir has related with this chain of narrators and in this meaning.” He has also said,
“It should be written on a clean plate then drunk.” My father further said, “Wakee’ has elaborated upon this, he says, ‘Water should be sprinkled below her navel.(by those for whom it is permissable)”
Abdullah says, “I saw my father write for a woman in a goblet or something clean.”
Ali says that it should be written on a piece of paper then tied to the woman’s arm. Ali further says, “We tried it out, we never saw anything stranger than that. Once when the woman has given birth it should be unfastened quickly and wrapped in a piece of cloth or burned.”
