Quote from: Man of Faith on January 08, 2015, 08:50:40 AM
Harmony Freedom,
I think I cannot really agree with you on the Jinn root as meaning hidden. جان is regarded as meaning snake and this is because it has usually seen seen as a 'lowly being' as the letters ج and ن mean literally 'lowly entity'.
"Trapped" inside a beast as you say is the general message of both Jesus and Quran. It is of course difficult to comprehend exactly how things work, but it is a sort of spiritual assimilation with what is Allah that is the aim for a person who has grasped the message.
If you mention Gnosticism then you place me in a religion which I am not.
We are information yes, or rather, our physical bodies and everything else in the world we see, is made of energy as its base. If a staff can turn into a snake this is nothing strange since God is in control of the creation.
Have faith
Why have so many linguists associated the root or radix of the term Jinn as well as Jannah with "hidden"? What does Jannah have to do with snakes? Are you trying to mix up Nachash from the Bible with Jinn?
What is your objection to the Jinn being a natural being alongside the human race? Why is this a problem? Is it because you haven't seen them or met them personally?
I'm not accusing you of being a Gnostic, its just that the idea of an "ethereal body" or whatever that is within matter is an idea that seems somewhat important in Gnosticism.
Do you perform worship? I'm just curious how you practice your system, if you worship with prostration or at all or what.
I'm also wondering why you've come to these conclusions and what basis you have for what you are saying and also what motivation (like why you particularly don't like the idea).
The root the term jinn is well known among non-muslim linguists to mean "hidden" as well, so this is not some idea coming from Muslims only. Just a few months ago you didn't seem to be so confident on the matter, but now you are spreading the idea very frequently and with lots of confidence, how did that come about?
Snake is a different word, lowly is a different word. Is Jannah lowly somehow? Is Jannah like a snake or a place of snakes?
Regardless of that, the jinn have often been associated with snakes because of their misty form and movement, moving like the aurora at times, like big or little mist snakes or "dragons", nagas, and other things that twirl around and slink, and the "daemons" which are "made of aer" which is basically misty looking stuff in the Roman understanding, appeared heavier than the atmosphere.
They have been referred to throughout the ages, its not some new idea, and yes the people of the world were superstitious, but that does not mean that the creation of the jinn, which the Qur'an says are made of "smokeless fire" and made "before" the "nas" of which "Iblis" was one who even knows and believes in Allah and prayed to Allah so is not "without faith" if by "faith" you mean "belief", since Iblis believes in Allah but he is still a disbeliever in the sense that he lost hope or "despaired" as the root meaning of the word Iblis (balasa) means. He was of the jinn, the jinn who were made before humankind.
Do you read the Qur'an every day or often? Is the Bible very important to you? Arabic didn't derive from Hebrew, and Arabic is considered by some non-muslim linguists to have retained many of the original meanings of words that are found in the Akkadian language and so they look to Arabic often to figure out the root meanings much of the time.
Do you have Edward Lane's lexicon? You should get it, it discusses all the roots and gives huge insight, also to look into the Akkadian language dictionary or lexicon which is available online. It gives lots of insight into words like Muslim, Allah, and whatever, even roots for Jnn or whatever.
Even Nachash, the serpent, can also mean "whisperer", "enchanter", as well as "shining one", besides "snake" which was commonly associated with these creatures around the whole world due to their appearance of being a misty wavering slinking form like the tail often depicted in cartoon genies.
I don't just believe this stuff out of the blue though, and you might be imagining them in a silly way which makes you completely reject the idea of Jinn as being a creature created by Allah, but I showed videos that shows you what they look like, you can see them slinking around in the heat vision camera in one video or doing other things, it isn't even that hard to find them or encounter them, people used to pour out libations for them that they would come to and suck off the fumes. They are not supernatural, they are completely natural, maybe you would believe only if you met one?
Did you not even look at the videos I linked?