Interview With An Exorcist - Part 8

September 20th, 2005 · No Comments

Jinn

After posting part one, part two, part three, part four, part five and part seven here is the 8th (and final) part in the exorcism series (for now):

Interview No. 8
Location: Karachi,
Pakistan
Date: 18/7/88

Name: Raana Muhammad Anwaar
Age: 35 years old
approximately Place
of Birth: Karachi
Education: Matric (Grade 10)

Q. When and why did you begin to practice exorcism?
A. I began about 16 or 17 years ago. As a youth I heard people
talking about the jinn and that they possessed people. I became
interested in how they were expelled, so I began to gather
information and about exorcism.

Q. Did any of your family members practice exorcism?
A. No. I am the only one.

Q. How did you learn?
A. I learn by questioning those who are known to practice exorcism
and by attending
their sessions.

Q. Does the possessed person have fits and become unconscious?
A. He usually displays erratic action, sometimes fighting and
striking those around him.

Q. In what language does the possessed person usually speak during a
fit?
A. He speaks in his own language 90 percent of the time.

Q. How can you tell that a person is possessed?
A. Possession is determined by giving the possessed person tests by
asking him different questions.

Q. Can you tell the person’s physical appearance?
A. No.

Q. Please describe the tests, which you use.
A. There are three possible methods: In the first method I read
Qur’anic verses over a glass of plain water and give it to the
patients to drink. If they find that it tastes bitter it means that
they are possessed. If the water tastes insipid, it means that they
are afflicted by magic. And if it tastes salty, then the person has
been cursed. In the second method I ask the afflicted person to
bring me a piece of reasonable thick cotton cloth that he wears. I
then measure it and give it to another person to measure. If it
decreases or increases in length, it means that the person is
possessed. In the third method I ask the patient to bring a half of
a gram of sugar and ask him to taste it. I then read over it. If the
taste bitter, the person is possessed. If it is salty or insipid, he
is under the influence of magic, and such a person will not have
fits and/or becomes unconscious. If the person cannot describe the
taste at all, it also means that he is affected by magic.

Q. What type of jinn possesses men, and what type of people gets
possessed?
A. Both good and bad jinn possesses good and bad people.

Q. What are the reasons why jinn possess humans?
A. The jinn live in trees and abandoned buildings. If a person
disturbs them, they may be possessed because the jinn are stronger
than humans. Possession may also be a result of humans defiling,
damaging or destroying property of jinn. They may also do so out of
love. For example, in our village there was a girl from among my
relatives who was possessed by a jinnee.

Q. Did she speak in her own voice?
A. It communicated in a slightly lower tone of her voice. I asked
it, “Why have you bothered her?” It replied, “Because she had put on
make-up and went into the forest to defecate. When I saw her looking
so beautiful, I fell in love with her.

Q. What percentage of your cases of possession involve women?
A. Approximately 70 percent of those brought to me are women.

Q. Do female jinn possess men and vise-versa?
A. Yes.

Q. What percentage of cases involve male jinn and women, and female
jinn and men?
A. About 95 percent of cases involve jinn entering human beings of
the opposite sex.

Q. Do the jinn always speak in the voice of the possessed person? If
not, in what percentage of cases is it different?
A. They do not always speak in the voice of their host. Maybe in
about 20 percent of the cases the voice changes and around 80
percent remain the same.

Q. What percentage of possessing jinn are disbelievers and what
percentage are Muslims?
A. It is not possible to tell because they lie and one cannot
observe the life of the jinn in order to determine the truth. But I
believe that both types possess.

Q. In you view, what benefit do jinn derive from possessing humans?
A. Sometimes they possess in order to tease humans because they are
irritated with them. At other times they possess due to their
ignorance.

Q. Is possession a swift process or a slow process, possibly taking
years?
A. Sometimes the jinn play with the person for a period of time and
tell him not to contact anyone to have him removed. Later they take
possession of him.

Q. Through which part of the human body do the jinn enter and leave?
A. They do not enter from a particular part of the body or leave
from any particular place.

Q. Do they affect particular sections of the human body?
A. They can affect all parts of the body or only certain places.

Q. Can the possessed person tell when they are possessed?
A. They usually know when the jinnee comes and leaves. When it
comes, it may cause them to change their position and shiver, and
when it leaves, they feel as if they have been untied.

Q. Have you observed particular parts of the body shaking when the
jinn leave?
A. I have not noticed this; however, after fits, possessed people
usually become extremely weak and their whole body aches.

Q. Have jinn tired to take possession of you while you were
expelling them?
A. Yes, this occurred twice, but they did not succeed. However, I
have been beaten up by the jinn while expelling them.

Q. After you determined that the patient is possessed, what is the
usual procedure that you follow in exorcising?
A. Before I try to remove the jinnee, I first make wudoo. Then I use
different methods to make the jinnee manifest itself in the person’s
body. I pour some scented oil on cotton, and read some Qur’aan over
it and make the patient smell it. Then I read some more verses in
the person’s ear and blow in it. But I do not use any verses or
methods that are not according to the sharee’ah.

Q. What methods do you employ to make the jinnee manifest itself?
A. In the case of female patients, I usually take a lock of their
hair from their foreheads and wrap it around my finger.

Q. Do you ever strike your patients?
A. Through the jinn, a frail woman may have the strength of two
grown men, so I sometimes hit patients on their backs with my open
hand in order to make the jinn submit. However, I always try not to
bruise or do any damage to the person.

Q. Do you at any time tie threads around fingers or toes of those
being exorcised?
A. No.

Q. Could you describe three cases of exorcism, which you have
performed within the last two years?
A. Case 1:
A. pregnant woman around forty-five years from Karachi,
Qaidabad, was brought to me.

Q. What was her name?
A. I do not ask people’s names. I treated her in her home. She was
the wife of my friend, Yaar Maqsood, and she was possessed. I gave
her amulets on which certain Qur’anic verses were written.

Q. What verses?
A. That’s my secret. I gave her one to tie on her arm, because
putting amulets around the neck is not permitted. I also gave her
water to drink, upon which I had done some readings. I gave her some
nails, which I read over, to hammer into the four corners of her
house. It has been three months now since she was given this
treatment, and she seems to have been cured after being affected for
more than two years.

Q. Had she been treated previously?
A. She was taken to see some other exorcists before me. However,
when she was given something to drink, she would not take it. If a
Maulavi was called in, the patient would beat people up.

Case 2
A neighbor from the same district heard about the first case and
brought for treatment his maternal aunt, who was about 45 years old.
Her nephew and the husband of the woman in case number one were
present. I first examined her to see if she was possessed, then I
caused the jinnee to manifest itself by reading verses from the
Qur’aan. When I did this, the patient began to have fits. Her face
became contorted, showing clearly that she was possessed. The jinnee
would talk for a moment and then become silent and cause pain in
different parts of her body. I took a lock of hair in my hand. (It
should be noted that solid objects in the vicinity of the person
have to be removed so that the jinnee cannot hit you with them.) I
asked the jinnee who he was. His Urdu was weak, yet he told us that
he was a Muslim. I scolded him by telling him that he did not behave
like one and asked him why he was not ashamed of bothering a poor,
widowed woman with six or seven children. He said that he was
sitting in the bathroom and she came in and urinated on him. I told
him that it was her house and he should have exited when she
entered. He said that he was only resting. I informed him that he
should reside in his own areas, such as forests, and not in places
where humans live. I hit him on his back (and one jinnee told me
that he got boils fro beatings.) Anyway he became weakened by it.
After listening to me, he promised to go away. I threatened him that
if he returned, I would not let him live. It has now been two and a
half months since she was cured. She used to have continuous fits
six or seven times every 15 days. I first try to gently make the
jinn leave, but if they resist, I then use force.

Q. Is she still okay?
A. Just recently I went for tableegh, and she was still okay.

Q. Is possession by more than one jinnee at the same time possible?
A. I have never experienced it.

Q. Do the jinn always talk in the language of the one they possess?
A. Most of them speak in the same language. However, an educated
jinnee may speak in more than one launguage.

Case 3.
This case involved and eighteen year old girl living in Faisalabad.
I was preparing to go to Saudi Arabia when I was asked to treat her.
I went to her home, which was quite modern. Her family was not very
religious. Her problem was that she would have epileptic fits
whenever she attended marriages, listened to songs or went to
cinema. She was to be married within three months, and her relatives
were quite worried. I gave her an amulet to put around her arm and
gave her some water to drink upon which I had recited. After
approximately ten days, she want to the cinema and nothing happened.
Three or four months later she was married. However, one time she
was preparing to attend a marriage in Jhang. While bathing, she took
off the amulet I had given her and had an epileptic fit. An exorcist
had to be brought in from Faisalabad, and he cured her using Jafr,
astrology and lines. I do not use these branches of knowledge to
cure. Only the ignorant use such methods to cure and make money. The
book I read from was al-Bareili on Palm Reading by `Allaamah Is-
haaq. I myself do not use any shirk in my treatments.

Q. Do the jinn have names?
A. Their names are just like ours. Some have Hindu names, Sikh
names, etc.

Q. Is it possible to burn the jinn?
A. We can burn the jinn by lighting lamps. I do not know whether it
is permitted by the sharee `ah or not. I have heard of many cases
where burning is used to deal with stubborn jinn. On One occasion, I
expelled a jinnee who had fallen in love with a woman and he
promised not to come back, but then he did. I hit him a lot and I
tried to make him feel ashamed by asking him, “What if someone did
something to your sister?” He said that no one would dare do
anything to her. The jinnee said that in his family he was the only
son and that he had been expelled from home by his parents. The jinn
live on earth in trees but not in the air. He said that he could go.
I told him to be our friend and go to some other place. If he did, I
would not hurt or harm him in any way. I said to him, “See, I have
more strength at this moment, you are sitting listening to me.” He
said, ” It is only a question of time. I can harm you a lot.” I
said, “I will not let that happen.” He said, “I will go for now but
I will come back again.” I burnt him by burning lamps in front of
the patient. One can see that the patient was getting better during
such treatment.

Q. Why do you do this type of exorcism?
A. I am doing this work our of necessity. It is not permissible
according to sharee `ah. There is Hellfire for it. I read something
before I light the lamps, then I blow on the lamps. This process is
repeated until the jinnee enters into the lamp. When it does so, the
patient usually shivers. If you ask the patient he will tell you
that he can see things burning in the lamp.