Jinnpossessionandtouch(al-mass)

What mass is

Al-mass, literally "touch", is the term the scholars use for the harm a jinn causes by attaching itself to a person or entering the body. It ranges widely:

• Touch (mass): the jinn is near or attached to the person and affects them from outside or intermittently: nightmares, pressure at night, whispers, sudden fear, or pain that moves. The person is fully themselves.
• Full possession (ṣar‘, "epilepsy of the jinn"): the jinn overtakes the body for a period, so that the person speaks or acts without awareness and remembers little or nothing afterwards.

Between these two are many degrees. Most people who come to a raqi with a genuine jinn-related complaint have the lighter type, not the dramatic kind seen in films.

The scholars of Ahl as-Sunnah, including Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymeen, hold that jinn can enter the human body. This is the position of the vast majority of scholars, and it is affirmed by the Quran and Sunnah.

Proof from the Quran and Sunnah

Allah says of those who consume ribā:

الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ الرِّبَا لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُ الَّذِي يَتَخَبَّطُهُ الشَّيْطَانُ مِنَ الْمَسِّ

Alladhīna ya’kulūnar-ribā lā yaqūmūna illā kamā yaqūmul-ladhī yatakhabbaṭuhush-shayṭānu minal-mass

Those who consume interest cannot stand [on the Day of Resurrection] except as one stands who is being beaten by Satan into insanity.

Al-Qurṭubī and others cite this verse against those who deny that jinn can affect a person's body: Allah compares the state of the ribā-eater to something known and real, "the one whom the shaytan strikes with a touch".

From the Sunnah:

• The Prophet ﷺ said: "The shaytan flows through the son of Adam like the flowing of blood" (Bukhari and Muslim).
• Musnad Ahmad and others record that a boy was brought to the Prophet ﷺ who was afflicted, and he struck the boy's chest and said "Come out, enemy of Allah!", and the boy was healed.
• The Prophet ﷺ said that a shaytan came to him during prayer to interrupt him, and he seized it, and considered tying it to a pillar of the mosque before recalling the du‘ā’ of Sulaymān (Bukhari and Muslim).
• Abu Hurayrah was told by a jinn, whom he had caught stealing from the charity, that whoever recites Āyat al-Kursī before sleeping will have a guardian from Allah, and no shaytan will approach him until morning; the Prophet ﷺ confirmed: "He told you the truth, though he is a liar" (Bukhari).

Why a jinn attaches to a person

The jinn are a created nation like us: some Muslim, some disbelievers, some righteous, many not. Most keep away from humans. When one attaches to a person, it is usually for one of these reasons:

• Heedlessness. Long neglect of prayer, dhikr, and the Quran; living in sin; entering unclean places or moments of intense anger, fear or grief without remembering Allah. Allah says that seeking protection from the jinn only "increased them in burden" for those who did so without Him (Al-Jinn 72:6).
• Passion or infatuation. A jinn becomes attached to a person out of desire, and interferes with marriage or produces disturbing dreams.
• Revenge for harm. A person unknowingly harms a jinn: pouring hot water down a drain, urinating in a hole, killing a snake in the home without warning it, or throwing stones in a deserted place, without saying "Bismillāh".
• Being sent by a magician. Sihr very often works precisely by sending a jinn to the victim. This is why sihr and mass are frequently found together, and why treating one treats the other.

None of this means the afflicted person is a sinner. Righteous people are tested with it too, and the Prophet ﷺ himself was harmed by sihr.

Symptoms in daily life

Every symptom below is more often a sign of a medical condition than of a jinn. Consider them only after proper assessment, and only when several appear together with reactions to the Quran.

• Persistent nightmares of being chased, falling, of snakes and dogs, or of intimate encounters; sleep paralysis with a sense of a presence.
• Extreme aversion to prayer, the adhān, and the Quran, or a strong desire to leave when it is recited.
• Sudden anger, hatred of one's spouse or family, or withdrawal from people, without a psychological explanation.
• Pain that travels around the body and does not respond to medicine, especially in the head, back, and limbs.
• Loss of memory, absent-mindedness, or brief periods the person cannot account for.
• Hearing whispers, seeing shadows, or feeling something moving under the skin.

Symptoms during ruqyah

When the Quran is recited over someone with genuine mass, common reactions include:

• Yawning, tears, sweating, or a heavy drowsiness.
• Trembling, twitching, tightness in the chest, or a headache that comes and goes with the recitation.
• Screaming, fainting, or a change of voice, in cases of full possession.
• Sometimes the jinn speaks. The raqi's response is not to converse or to entertain it, but to remind it of Allah, order it to leave, and continue reciting.

Some people feel nothing on the first sessions and are still affected; some feel much and are not possessed at all. Reactions are an aid, not a verdict.

Distinguishing mass from mental illness

This is where the most harm is done, and where the raqi and the family must be most careful.

• Assume medical until proven otherwise. Epilepsy produces seizures. Schizophrenia produces voices and beliefs. Bipolar disorder produces extremes of mood and behaviour. Depression produces aversion to worship, isolation and despair. Every one of these is treated by doctors, and every one of them can be made worse by delay.
• A psychiatric diagnosis is not a religious failure. The brain is an organ like the liver. Taking medication for it is like taking insulin.
• A person can have both. Someone with a real psychiatric condition can also be tested with a jinn, and someone with mass can develop anxiety or depression as a result. Ruqyah and medicine work together.
• Signs that make a purely medical cause more likely: symptoms that began after a clear trauma or a family history of mental illness; symptoms that respond to medication; no reaction whatsoever to repeated recitation; symptoms that fit a known diagnostic pattern.
• A raqi's role is limited. He recites, advises the daily adhkār, and encourages medical care. He does not diagnose mental illness, does not tell anyone to stop medication, and does not strike, choke, or force anything on anyone. Any "raqi" who does these things must be avoided.

Cure

The jinn are creatures who fear Allah's words. The Quran is a healing:

وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاءٌ وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۙ وَلَا يَزِيدُ الظَّالِمِينَ إِلَّا خَسَارًا

Wa nunazzilu minal-Qur’āni mā huwa shifā’un wa raḥmatun lil-mu’minīna wa lā yazīduẓ-ẓālimīna illā khasārā

And We send down of the Qur'an that which is healing and mercy for the believers, but it does not increase the wrongdoers except in loss.

• Ruqyah with the Quran and the authentic supplications: Al-Fātiḥah, Āyat al-Kursī, the last verses of Al-Baqarah, Al-Ikhlāṣ, Al-Falaq and An-Nās, and the verses that address the shayāṭīn, recited over the person and into water and olive oil for drinking and application. Repeated over days or weeks.
• Self-ruqyah. The person recites over themselves daily. Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymeen stressed that ruqyah on oneself is more effective than depending on a raqi.
• Guarding the prayers and the morning and evening adhkār. Nothing weakens the jinn like a heart that returns to Allah five times a day.
• Al-Baqarah in the home. The Prophet ﷺ said the shaytan flees from a home in which Al-Baqarah is recited (Muslim).
• Removing what invites the jinn: images and statues, music, dogs kept indoors, and neglected sins. Keeping ablution, saying "Bismillāh" on entering, eating and drinking, and covering vessels at night.
• Addressing the jinn may be done by an experienced raqi, calling it to Islam and to leave, but without conversations, negotiations, or fascination. If sihr is behind it, the sihr is treated as well.
• Medical treatment continues throughout.

Long-term protection

• Āyat al-Kursī after each prayer and before sleep; the last three surahs three times morning and evening; the supplications on entering the toilet, the house, and the bed.
• Regular recitation of the Quran, especially Al-Baqarah.
• Avoiding the states in which the shaytan gains ground: rage, panic, deep despair, and heedless idleness. Remember Allah in them.
• Say "Bismillāh" before anything you fear may harm an unseen creature.

What to avoid

• Do not go to anyone who claims to command the jinn, uses amulets, asks for animal sacrifice, or wants your mother's name. That is the path of the magician.
• Do not let anyone hit, choke, starve or restrain the afflicted person. Nothing in the Sunnah requires it and it has killed people.
• Do not stop medication on anyone's advice except the prescribing doctor's.
• Do not become obsessed. The believer's life is with Allah, not with the jinn.

Mass is a test like any other illness. It has a cure sent down from above the seven heavens, and no jinn can stand against it when the servant holds fast to his Lord.