Jinn (Arabic: جن, jinn) – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic culture and beliefs.[1]Like humans, they are accountable for their deeds, can be either believers (Muslim) or unbelievers (kafir); depending on whether they accept God's guidance. Since jinn are neither innately evil nor innately good, Islam acknowledged spirits from other religions and was able to adapt them during its expansion. Jinn are not a strictly Islamic concept; they may represent several pagan beliefs integrated into Islam.[2][a] To assert a strict monotheism and the Islamic concept of Tauhid, Islam denies all affinities between the jinn and God, thus placing the jinn parallel to humans, also subject to God's judgment and afterlife. The Quran condemns the pre-Islamic Arabian practise of worshipping the jinn, or seeking protection from them.[4]
Although generally invisible, jinn are supposed to be composed of thin and subtle bodies (ad̲j̲sām), they can change at will. They favour snake form, but can also choose to appear as scorpions, lizards or as humans. They may even engage in sexual affairs with humans and produce offspring. If they are injured by someone, they usually seek revenge or possess the assailant's body, refusing to leave it until forced to do so by exorcism. Jinn do not usually meddle in human affairs, preferring to live with their own kind in tribes similar to those of pre-Islamic Arabia.
Individual jinn appear on charms and talismans. They are called upon for protection or magical aid, often under the leadership of a king. Many people who believe in jinn wear amulets to protect themselves against the assaults of jinn, sent out by sorcerers and witches. A commonly-held belief maintains that jinn cannot hurt someone who wears something with the name of God (Allah) written upon it. While some Muslim scholars in the past have had ambivalent attitudes towards sorcery, believing that good jinn do not require one to commit sin, most contemporary Muslim scholars associate dealing with jinn with idolatry.
Jinn is an Arabic collective noun deriving from the Semitic root JNN (Arabic: جَنّ / جُنّ, jann), whose primary meaning is 'to hide' or 'to adapt'. Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, 'beings that are concealed from the senses'.[5] Cognates include the Arabic majnūn (مَجْنُون, 'possessed' or, generally, 'insane'), jannah (جَنَّة, 'garden', 'eden' or 'heaven'), and janīn (جَنِين, 'embryo').[6] Jinn is properly treated as a plural (however in Classical Arabic, may also appear as jānn, جَانّ), with the singular being jinnī (جِنِّيّ).[b]
The origin of the word jinn remains uncertain.[3](p22) Some scholars relate the Arabic term jinn to the Latin genius – a guardian spirit of people and places in Roman religion – as a result of syncretism during the reign of the Roman empire under Tiberius and Augustus;[7](p38) however, this derivation is also disputed.[3](p25) Another suggestion holds that jinn may be derived from Aramaic ginnaya (Classical Syriac: ܓܢܝܐ) with the meaning of 'tutelary deity'[3](p24) or 'guardian'. Others claim a Persian origin of the word, in the form of the Avestic Jaini, a wicked (female) spirit. Jaini were among various creatures in the possibly even pre-Zoroastrian mythology of peoples of Iran.[8][9]
The anglicized form genie is a borrowing of the French génie, also from the Latin genius. It first appeared[10] in 18th-century translations of the Thousand and One Nights from the French,[11] where it had been used owing to its rough similarity in sound and sense and further applies to benevolent intermediary spirits, in contrast to the malevolent spirits called 'demon' and 'heavenly angels', in literature.[12] In Assyrian art, creatures ontologically between humans and divinities are also called genie.[13]