Paranoid about jinns.
Q0003: I am someone who seeks knowledge but I get really paranoid when I hear about jinns does that mean I have weak eman?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
It is not really a question of eman or knowledge, because you could be sitting in a gathering where our eman is strong and attaining knowledge and still felt that paranoia at the mention of jinns etc.
I suppose it doesn't help if I was to say that there is no real way to block this feeling, as such because it’s a natural human instinct to exaggerate the harm and then be over protective.
Maybe an example will help
e.g. If you remember the Dettol advert where they begin by saying "There are more bacteria on your chopping board than the toilet seat..."
As you can see from this example that as soon as someone tells us about the bacteria on our chopping boards, we feel a bit of paranoia, our minds exaggerates the reality and we imagine nasty little bugs and instinctively think twice about using the chopping board and may even go out of our way to clean it with anti-bacterial washing up liquid or a detergent of some type to get rid of the germs.
Even though we have been using the same chopping board for months even years and just washing it normally with normal Fairy Liquid. And we have not fallen ill or become infected with some disease or something.
I suppose it doesn't help if I was to say that there is no real way to block this feeling, as such because it’s a natural human instinct to exaggerate the harm and then be over protective.
Maybe an example will help
e.g. If you remember the Dettol advert where they begin by saying "There are more bacteria on your chopping board than the toilet seat..."
As you can see from this example that as soon as someone tells us about the bacteria on our chopping boards, we feel a bit of paranoia, our minds exaggerates the reality and we imagine nasty little bugs and instinctively think twice about using the chopping board and may even go out of our way to clean it with anti-bacterial washing up liquid or a detergent of some type to get rid of the germs.
Even though we have been using the same chopping board for months even years and just washing it normally with normal Fairy Liquid. And we have not fallen ill or become infected with some disease or something.
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And likewise we become paranoid if someone said there was a spider in the room but it’s scurried off somewhere before being caught or killed.
Our mind naturally exaggerates the issue and we imagine this spider dangling down or crawling into our nose or ear. Sometimes we refuse to sleep in the room, other times we stay awake from fear. If no mention of the spider was made then you would undoubtedly slept in the room with no fear. |
So in the same way, the mention of jinns is bound to create some paranoia in people's mind since we have so much exaggerated rubbish that are promoted by movies (Exorcist, Darkness Falls to name a couple) and ghost stories.
Sometimes a bit of paranoia is good because it increases our awareness and we start to take necessary precaution and protective duas, but obviously too much of it is not good.
I don't think eman and knowledge can prevent paranoia as such because a person can have both and still feel paranoid.
The only way to overcome it (from experience) is to have strong conviction in the hadith about the reality of the jinn. I suppose it helps if you have "seen" them in action so to speak.
E.g. The shayateen run away when you recite the adhaan (with eman), they can't open/ enter through a door which you closed saying bismillah, they cant enter the home if you recite surah Baqarah, they can't even touch you if you read the protective adkhaar below;
It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“Whoever says “Laa ilaaha ill-Allaah wahdahu laa shareeka lah, lahu’l-mulk wa lahu’l-hamd wa huwa ‘ala kulli shay’in qadeer” one hundred times in the day, will have a reward equivalent to that of freeing ten slaves, one hundred hasanahs (good deeds) will be recorded for him, and one hundred sayi’ahs (bad deeds) will be erased from his record, and it will be protection for him from the Shaytaan for that day, until evening comes. No one could achieve any better than him except the one who does more than he did.”
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 31119; Muslim, 2691)
When you have that certainty that the words of the prophet (pbuh) are the truth and therefore definitely "work", when recited with understanding and sincerity (as opposed to parrot fashion), then it creates peace and tranquility in the mind.
Kamal Ahmed
Former Raqi
DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE THE ANSWER ABOVE IS BASED PRIMARILY ON MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE UNLESS EVIDENCE FROM THE QURAN AND SUNNAH IS PROVIDED. IF HOWEVER THERE ARE MISTAKES OR ERRORS OF ANY SORT PLEASE USE THE LINK BELOW TO BRING IT TO MY ATTENTION.
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