Ashes & Flame: Humans & Jinn
Author: K. F. Zuzulo

"Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust." This is believed to be the
cycle of the human spiritual life by many faithful — Christians,
Jews, Muslims, and Hindus. Humans were brought forth from the
earth … and to the earth they are returned. The soul is set
free. Yet, there is another spiritual entity accepted by
millions as real. The jinn — genies or djinn — are another
aspect of God's creation as understood by millions of Muslims
and countless other sects.

According to Islam's most sacred book, the Koran, the jinn were
created by God before man was created:  "We created man from
dried clay, from black mud and We created the jinn before from
the fire of hot wind." (15:26-27)

This description is not contrary to the Old Testament
description of the birth of man: "And the Lord God formed man of
the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of
life, and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7)

Where have the genies gone? They lingered for millenia in
pre-Islamic folklore; later validated with surah, or books of
the Koran, that described acceptable behavior and comportment
specifically for the race of jinn. The entrance of the jinn into
Western consciousness came primarily through the stories of "The
Arabian Nights," which detail interactions between humans and
jinn on a narrative scale. For the most part, however, the
concept of the jinn has remained relatively unexplored.

The legends tell us that like man, jinn are able to marry, have
children, eat, drink, and die; though their lives are extended
hundreds and even thousands of years beyond that of man. And,
according to the Koran, the jinn, like man, were given free
will. They can choose to follow the word of God or to defy it.
In fact, a powerful jinn who "fell from grace" through his
disobedience to God was named Iblis. When he sinned, his name
was changed to Shaitan. Followers of Judaic and Christian rites
will recognize the similarity to the name Satan. Was the
well-known fallen angel not an angel at all, but a genie?

The depiction in the Koran of the "fall" describes how Iblis
refused to pay tribute to the human Adam when God commanded him
to do so. Iblis complained that, "You created me from fire and
You created him from clay."

The proud jinn felt superior to man and, therefore, resentful
that he should prostrate himself before an inferior creation.
For this transgression, Shaitan was cast from God's presence. He
promised vengeance against humans by telling God that he would
"…come upon them, to their faces and behind their backs and from
their right and their left: and You will not find most of them
grateful to you."

God reprimanded Shaitan with the words "Get out of here,
despised and rejected: Indeed, if any of them follow you, I will
fill hell with you all."

And so a literal and literary antagonism was bred between two
races: humans and jinn. While most civilizations maintained the
lore of both humans and even angels, the thread of this third
creation was lost to myth until Mohammed called them out. Yet,
even now, many people refuse to acknowledge the possibility of
jinn. Is it that the concept of a potentially massless being
that can shift shape and travel great distances in the blink of
an eye seems ridiculous? Or perhaps it is the similarities that
give man pause. Historically, culturally, and mythologically,
jinn are described as spiritual counterparts to man. Like the
jinn, the human capacity for sin and potential for redemption
lie in free will and the choices that result.


About The Author: K. F. Zuzulo researched the djinn for her
supernatural thriller "A Genie in the House of Saud: Zubis
Rises." This first installment in the trilogy has been published
by Mystical Publishing and is available as an ebook at
http://www.zubisrises.com.