Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn

6. Jinn in Animal Shapes

89 6 JinninAnimalShapes The jinn are of three kinds: one has wings and flies, serpents and dogs are another, and the third keeps roaming. —Prophetic tradition1 Humans seem always to have spiritualized animals, and keenly associated the spiritual realm with the animal one. This correlation might have its origin in the enduring human belief animals are mysterious beings, somehow related to the invisible domain. People believe animals could feel the approach of disasters ; for example, they sense the approach of a storm, an earthquake, or a flood. Scientists nowadays, like contemporary American biologist Rupert Sheldrake, suppose both wild and domesticated animals have a kind of sixth sense regarding impending natural catastrophes. Sheldrake maintains, “premonitions occur among many species of animals. They are natural, not supernatural.”2 He seems to think those animals that have a sharper sense of premonition than others are better privileged by biological choice. In this sense, animals are conscious beings, and not mere automata, as Cartesians would have it. In general, animals seem to strongly interact with humans, nature, and all things in the universe. It is to this “animal energy” Eliade (d. 1986) alludes when he writes, “Animal language is only a variant of spiritual language.”3 Eliade’s assertion opens the door to all kinds of speculations regarding the relationships between spirits and animals. It also hints at the fact animals make us discover a different consciousness, and return us to the rhythms of nature, not intellectually, but rather intuitively. Spirits in Animals Forms Across Traditions The great ancient civilizations presented a vision of the world in which natural and supernatural were constantly combined. The delineations between gods, 90 | Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn demons, spirits, and animals were not always very clear—wild animals were often thought of as demons, or vaguely as “spirits.” Gods were represented as taking their energy from specific animals, which made them sacred. In Egypt, for example, almost all Egyptian gods were associated with certain animal aspects, and some gods were never represented except with the head of their appropriate animal, although their bodies were human. The scorpion-goddess Serqet, or Selqet, was associated with the powers of an evil spirit in some of her aspects. Horus, the sky god, had the head of a hawk and the body of a man. Anubis, the god of mummies who guided the souls of the dead into the underworld, was often represented as a man with the head of a jackal. Some Egyptologists, such as E. A. Wallis Budge (d. 1934), firmly believed, “The Egyptians developed the idea that individual animals were the abodes of the gods, and they believed that certain deities were incarnate in them.”4 However, this opinion is exaggerated. It is true the ancient Egyptians worshiped at an early stage some animals, or at least considered them sacred, like the cat at Bubastis, the wolf Ophois who was a god of war, and the Ibis Thoth who was a god of knowledge. However, Thoth was also identified with the baboon. When one carefully surveys the Egyptian myths, one notices gods were not becoming animals, or at least dwelling in the bodies of animals. Throughout Egyptian history , we see gods always accompanied by animals, even when their heads were those of animals. The Babylonian pantheon, parallel to the Egyptian one in time, was one of the richest in gods and demons having animal forms. Thus, the demon Gallu was often portrayed in the form of a bull, while Alu was represented in a composite form, half human and half animal. The demon Pazuzu was represented as a five-footed monster, half bird, half lion and scorpion. The demon Mukil-ReshLemutti had the head of a bird, but the feet and hands of a human. The demon Samanum had the head of a lion, the claws of an eagle, and the tail of a crayfish. The demon Lamastu had the head of a woman who holds a serpent in each hand, while a dog and a pig are suckling at her breasts. Besides demons in the Babylonian religion, there were the good genies—protectors of humans—who also took on animal forms, especially that of huge bulls and lions.5 These good genies sat at the entrance of the underworld to protect humans from attacks by demons that manifested themselves in animal forms. Good genies and bad demons bellowed, roared, barked, and vociferated at each [3.138.122.195] Project MUSE (2024-04-24...