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Brendan Hubenak

English 1302

Ms. Klotz

22 April 2016

Genies

The majority of people’s perception of genies comes from Aladdin, where the genie

humors us with his adventures. However, genies were not that way when they were first

mentioned in the Quran. Genies can be frightening and evil creatures with immense power. Even

though some adaptations still show the original characteristics and abilities of genies, our

perception of genies has changed over time due to certain adaptations of great influence.

Genies go by many names such as: Djinn, Jinni, Djinni, and the original Arabic Jinn. The

other pronunciation/spelling of jinn come romanized versions from the original Arabic word

Genies to seem to have powers that are god-like; however, according to the .(al-jinn) الجن

Quran, genies and humans worship the same god who created them: “Indeed We created man

from dried clay of black smooth mud. And We created the Jinn before that from the smokeless

flame of fire” (Quran 15:26-27). Genies can choose be a Muslim or not. Majority of genies are

not Muslim, due to their fiery natures, and are labeled as devils. Despite the power genies have,

they are not immortal and have a life span; however, that life span is unknown except for the fact

that they live longer than humans.

Christians and Muslims share similarities when it comes to evil beings: “The latter aspect

of Satan is a commonly shared belief of both Muslims and Christians.” The Genies that choose

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to not believe and support god are considered demons who work for the devil. However, genies

differ from Christian demons since genies were never angels who betrayed their god and

supported the devil. In both religions, Satan is considered the same being full of evil, but goes by

Iblis. Iblis is a Jinn and is considered their leader, or at least the leader of the Jinns who don’t

believe in god (Encyclopedia Mythica Online).

Genies have magical abilities given to them by god to test them. Like humans, genies

face judgement whether they go to paradise or hell, and God’s decision will be based on the

genies actions. Genies are able to take any form they want to. The second ability mentioned is

the ability of possession. They have the ability to possess living and nonliving things. Malicious

genies use these abilities to trick people:

possession of idols is one way to do this. Not so long ago the world-wide phenomenon

of Hindu idols drinking milk, shocked the world. From Bombay to London, Delhi to

California, countless idols were lapping up milk. Ganesh the elephant god, Hanuman the

monkey god and even Shiva lingam, the male private organ (!), all seemed to guzzle

down the milk as if there was no tomorrow! Unfortunately people were taken in by this

and many flocked to feed the Hindu gods. This feat was undoubtedly done by the Jinn as

a classic attempt to make people worship false gods. ("The World of the Jinn.")

Genies are an integral part of Muslim beliefs because “Jinn provide Islamic explanations for evil,

illness, health, wealth, and position in society as well as all mundane and inexplicable

phenomena in between” (perlmutter). If possessed, only the word of god can be used to save

people, but “In Saudi Arabia, only qualified individuals, usually natives designated by the

religious authorities, are allowed to practice Qur'anic treatment methods” (perlmutter). People

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who try to practice healing methods, whether it’s for their own good intentions or their own

profit, will end being executed for witchcraft.

Genies are mentioned in the storybook One Thousand and One Nights particularly in the

stories “The Fisherman and the Genie,” “The Merchant and the Genie,” and “Aladdin and the

Magic Lamp.” One Thousand and One Nights (also commonly called the Arabian Nights), is a

“collection of largely Middle Eastern and Indian stories of uncertain date and authorship.”

(Encyclopædia Britannica Online) Genies in these stories don’t show the abilities that was stated

in the Quran, and have seem to have new abilities like granting wishes. These stories is

contributed to what our perception of what genies are, and how they give us what we desire.

In the “Fisherman and the Jinni,” an Ifrit (a Fire Djinn) is released when a fisherman

brings a jar up from his fishing net. The Ifrit is angered for being trapped in the jar for many

decades, and as a result, he asks how the fisherman would like to die. To avoid death, the

fisherman tricks the Djinn back in his jar by asking how he was able to fit. The Djinn pleads with

the Fisherman to release him and he’ll give him riches or whatever he wants. The Djinn leads

the fisherman to a pond with exotic fish, and tells him to show the fish to the sultan. The fish is

able to speak and the sultan is very impressed by the unique fish. The sultan goes to the pond a

found a prince with half man and half stone. The prince explained that his wife, who is

committing adultery with a back slave, cast a spell on him turning him half stone and left him in

a tomb. The sultan befriends the prince, and decides to help him in revenge. The sultan and

princes friendship grew, and after they succeed in the prince’s revenge, they return to the

fisherman and marry his daughters (“Fisherman and the Jinni”, 23). Despite the dangers of

genies mentioned in the Quran, this story is the first example on how a genie can grant us our

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desires whether its riches, power, and etc. This can contribute to people wanting to find a genie,

and using their powers to benefit themselves.

In the “Merchant and the Jinn,” a merchant confronts an angry jinn who wants to kill

him. It turns out the when the merchant threw a stone on the side of the street, the stone ends up

flying into the jinn’s son’s eye and kills him. The merchant asks for a year to live to make

amends for anything he has done, and meet the jinn back at the same place for his fate. After the

jinn gave him his year to live, the merchant pays his debts, releases his slaves, and makes

donations to the poor. After his year ends, he went to the desert to await his fate. While waiting,

many people passes by, and after hearing his story, the people stay to see what would happen.

When the genie arrives, a random person steps up and asks the genie to hear his story. If the

story ends up showing that he is worse human than the merchants, the jinn would kill the random

man instead. The jinn agreed to listen, and that was the end of the story. The ending is a mystery.

In this story, the nature of the jinn is fiery and frightening. The story portrays with the fire/smoke

nature of the genie when “towards the plain, a thick vapour or smoke, like a column of dust,

raised by the wind. This vapour approached them; and on its sudden disappearance, they saw the

Genie” (“Merchant and the Jinn”, 53).

In “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp,” Aladdin is tricked by a Magician to retrieve a lamp

using a magic ring he gives Aladdin. The Magician traps Aladdin in the cave when he wouldn’t

give him the lamp. Aladdin accidentally rubs his ring and a genie appears. The genie helps

Aladdin escape the cave and he goes back home. While Aladdin’s mom is cleaning the lamp, the

genie of the lamp appears and grants them wishes. With vast riches, Aladdin goes to the sultan

hoping to marry his daughter. The sultan advisor asks the sultan to see if he can see if can meet

the advisor’s son to see who is better. Aladdin ends up losing his chance to marry the princess.

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Aladdin uses the genie’s magic to “curse” the couple and they break up. Afterwards, Aladdin

marries the daughter. After the Magician hears about the success, he tricks the princess into

giving him the lamp and kidnaps her. The sultan gives him forty days to save her, or he will die.

When Aladdin finds the princess, she pretends forgets him to make the Magician off guard.

When the Magician was off guard, she poisons his wine and dies. When the brother of the

Magician hears of his brother’s death, he goes to the palace hoping to kill Aladdin. The genie

warns Aladdin, and the brother is killed (“Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”, 123). In this story, we

can see how the genie has the ability to grant wishes. Disney’s adaptation was made from this

story, and invented new laws from that adaptation such as: not being able to bring back the dead

and make people fall in love. The Disney adaptation is how people think a genie is today.

Oddly enough, the definitions for genie and jinn are different in the dictionary. A Jinn is

“(In Arabian and Muslim mythology) an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to

appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans.(oxford dictionary)” A Genie is “A

spirit of Arabian folklore, as traditionally depicted imprisoned within a bottle or oil lamp, and

capable of granting wishes when summoned.” The adaptations and stories about genies have

influenced people to have certain differences, but they are the exact same thing.

Genies shows up in a lot of different popular culture. In TV shows, a genie was shown in

Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place. This episode had the stereotypical qualities of genies, like

granting wishes, but also shows the trickster qualities mentioned from the Quran. Every wish

Alex, the main character, made would ends up not like she wants, and the genie plays with her

words. Alex asks the genie for her to stop being compared to her brother, but instead everybody

forgot about her brother. Trying to reverse the wish, she tells the genie: "I wish everyone would

see Justin clearly for who he is"(Wizards of Waverly Place). This backfires when the genie

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makes her brother invisible. Alex ends up tricking the genie into reversing all the spells with a

reset button, and everything went back to normal. Genies are featured in videos games. In Sonic

and the Secret Rings, sonic the hedgehog has to enter the One Thousand and One Nights book,

because the evil Erazor Djinn had erased the stories from the book. The adventure game King’s

Quest VI has a genie named Shamir Shamazel who serves an evil vizier. Ifrits have made an

occurring appearance in video games such as Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry. Genies are even

mentioned in music from Girls’ Generation’s single “Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)” and “Genie in

a Bottle” by Christina Aguilera.

The adaptions over time have been modeled from our changed perception of how genies

have become. In the Quran, they were frightening creatures. Even though we may know of the

danger, our desire to have any of our wishes being granted trumps any fear of the genie.

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Work cited

Perlmutter, Dawn. "The Politics of Muslim Magic." Middle East Quarterly 20.2 (2013): 73-80.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

“The Merchant and the Genie.” The Arabian Nights. Trans. Husain Haddawy. Ed. Muhsin

Mahdi. New York: Norton, 2008.Print.

”Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.” The Arabian Nights. Trans. Husain Haddawy. Ed. Muhsin

Mahdi. New York: Norton, 2008. Print.

”The Fisherman and the Genie.” The Arabian Nights. Trans. Husain Haddawy. Ed. Muhsin

Mahdi. New York: Norton, 2008. Print.

Aladdin. Dir. Ron Clements, John Musker. Per. Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin,

Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale. Disney, 1992. DVD

"The World of the Jinn." The World of the Jinn (All Parts). Missionislam.com, 17 Dec. 2007.

Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"Iblis." Encyclopedia Mythica. 2016. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.

27 Apr. 2016 

"Jinn." http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us. Oxford dictionary, 2016. Web. 27 April 2016

"Genie." http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us. Oxford Dictionary, 2016. Web. 27 April 2016

The Qur’an. Ed. M.A.S. Abdel Haleem. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.

"Justin’s little sister." Wizards of Waverly Place. Disney. DISN, Atlanta. 19 Jul. 1998.

Television.

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"The Thousand and One Nights". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2016