An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 78: The Private Lives of the Fire People (The Jinn (al-Jinn))

The Jinn (al-Jinn)
The Private Lives of the Fire People.

Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Qur’an version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Qur’an, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post https://bit.ly/2ApLDy0
For the online Qur’an that I use, see here http://al-quran.info and http://quran.com

The Jinn (al-Jinn) 1-28
“Say, ‘It has been revealed to me that a team of the jinn listened [to the Qurʾān].’ and they said, “Indeed we heard a wounderful qurʾān”

I didn’t notice that spelling mistake at first – a “wounderful” Qur’an. But that’s the website I use, not me, I merely copy and paste quotes directly from it. Oops! Still, the Qur’an’s perfect. In the original Arabic, obviously. 

This surah is mostly about the words of the jinn when they discover the truth of the Qur’an, pitched as a thinly veiled message to polytheist worshippers and pagans that worshipping jinn is a waste of time. What it doesn’t say, oddly, is that the jinn don’t exist in the first place (spoiler alert: they don’t), but that the jinn are just as clueless about the nature of the universe as humans. The only difference, really, between the jinn and the humans are that one is created from fire and the other from clay.

So the polytheists or animists are “some persons from the humans would seek the protection of some persons from the jinn”. But the jinn have tried to visit heaven (so evidently their fiery nature means that they are more able to travel spiritual realms - “We used to sit in its positions to eavesdrop”. However, now they find it barred to them. Which in a way is interesting, as apparently at one time they could travel there freely. So what event barred the way for them? The revelation of the Qur’an?

The jinn, as I mentioned, no more know the intent of Allah than the humans do - “We do not know whether ill is intended for those who are in the earth, or whether their Lord intends good for them”. I mean, I’d presume He means well, but perhaps this is meant to be the concept of if you go to heaven or hell. And in that respect, I agree with the jinn – it’s not obvious if Allah is benevolent or malevolent, or whimsical. It seems to depend on if you follow his largely arbitrary rules released with a narrow geographical focus, or not.

Again, the jinn point out how they’re not worthy of worship, being a fractious bunch - “Among us some are righteous and some of us are otherwise: we are multifarious sects.” But then the focus changes to the Prophet, who is urged to downplay his own role to merely a conduit. The Prophet, unlike Christ, is not a supernatural figure - “Say, ‘I have no power to bring you any harm or good [of my own accord]’”. Instead he’s only the messenger - “[I have no duty] except to transmit from Allah, and [to communicate] His messages”. Now, leaving aside the occasionally personal sounding surahs we’ve already seen, this is not entirely an unprivileged position, since this surah also says that “He does not disclose His Unseen to anyone, except to an apostle He approves of”. In other words, who me? I’m just a humble messenger passing on the word of God. But of course, God chose me because I’m special.

Did I mention that jinn aren’t real?

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