It is very hard to find any adequate information about the Jinn and their world as well as their role in magical rituals. Today's available sources consist mostly out of religious literature and web sites which, according to their definition don't offer any data except one and the same transcription and repetition. The story about the Jinn is of course something more than that and it is very interesting and no matter how much text is written about them it will never be enough to describe their miraculous world and all of the beliefs that go with them. To write about them in a realistic way one needs to use both religious and magical data because the real truth is somewhere in between.
As we are thought by theology Jinn's are demons made out of flames of a smokeless fire, thousands of years before the creation of the first man. "And He created Jinn's from fire free of smoke:" (Surah Rehman, verse no.15:). The transmission says that God, while creating the world first created the vast sees and then Jinn's to quarry diamonds from them. Because they were created from fire they also have a fiery temper which is unstable and abrupt. Their emotions are more expressed than the emotions of the humans which explains their unstoppable urge to take revenge if they are wronged. The same is true for their love emotions. Some authors believe that Jinn's are the former demons of the desert from various Arabian tribes which received new characteristics when Islam arrived. There are two sources about the origin of their name. According to the first version "ginn" is an Arabian word which is a root of "ganana-ganna" which means "hide" or "conceal". Another source claims that Jinn derive from the old Zarathustrian religion of dualism where one believed in women Jaine or Jahi. In our region we meet various names for the Jinn- the Albans say "dreć", Gypsies "beng", in Sanjak you can hear the name "konđolos" etc.
Humans and Jinn's are inseparable. According to the transmission, when Allah vanquished Adam and Eve from Heaven, he then created a curtain between humans and Jinn's, which were by that time living on Earth, so that their appearance wouldn't frighten the humans. Analyzing various stories and traditions from Bosnian, Turkish and Arabian populations we see various interferences of the Jinn in human lives. In Egypt they believe that Karin, a Jinn copy of a human, occupies the womb of a pregnant woman during the first months of her pregnancy. By a Moroccan transmission a male child is born with 60 Jinn's in his body, while a female child is born pure. But while the male child is growing up he loses a Jinn every year, while the female child gains a Jinn every year. That's why it is believed that women in their 60's have 60 Jinn's in them and that they are in the same rank as them.
Jinn is a demon that has its own character, personality and whimsicality. Like humans Jinn's are also divided in tribes, they also inhabit various locations and they have their own rulers, they get married, have children, they are born and they die. In other words they are a copy of everything that is happening in the human realm. It is considered that there are 70 groups of Jinn which are sub-divided into 70 000 tribes. The servants of the day in a week, or the seven big Jinn's are the rulers of the tribes, they rule over 49 tribes and how much members they have no one knows. The king of all the Jinn is called Malik Gatshan, he lives on the mountain Qaf which encircles the whole world leaning on the stone Sakhrat, according to the transmission it is a big emerald that gives color to the sky. In the east there are 300 thousand servants and only 30 thousand in the west.
The Jinn are mostly active at night, in the middle of the day (afternoon) and during sunset. It is considered that they can harm those that whistle at night, that bathe during sunset or those that enter the places that they inhabit. In some Arabian countries like Mauritania or Algeria there are certain places that are believed to be the summing junction of the Jinn and they are usually avoided by the humans. One of those which are known to the public is Gareth al Djenoun which means the "Mountain of the Jinn's" which has a lot of myths and legends around it. In a lot of the Arabian literature the Jinn are an unavoidable motif and certainly the most famous one "One thousand and one nights" is teeming with the stories of wizards and Jinn's. In one of the stories there is a mention of the Jinn which inhabit the city of roses Shadukiam.
The reason why the Jinn attack humans lies in their nature which is whimsical, vengeful, playful, unpredictable and therefore very dangerous. If they feel that they are challenged, they will possess the person's body causing him pain, without a second thought. They cause various illnesses in humans, from distemper to blindness, infertility, chronic rheumatism, impotency or general paralysis. Not even animals are spared from their attacks, causing them to lose milk and to become infertile. As it is believed the Jinn are the cause of sinister diseases which devastate whole herds, like the cow plague. Through strong winds and sand whirlwinds they can cause harm to crops.
The Jinn reveal themselves to humans in various forms and shapes, but most often they take the form of a dark man, a bird or a dog, a cat, a snake, etc. There were cases, when Jinn want to deceive and manipulate the human senses, that they appeared in the form of someone known or very close to the human. When they take the form of a human they are easily discovered by their eyes which are red and bloody. Every Jinn group has their characteristic way in which they like to reveal themselves to humans, for example: the amrad's like to take the form of a snake, the powerful ifrit's are prone to the form of winged beasts, etc. Besides this the Jinn are also differentiated by their temperament, therefore we have a group called hadi which are very peaceful and calm while on the other hand we have their counterparts in the group hasidi which are very envious and mischievous.
The most dangerous Jinn are the three female demons Umm al-Sibjan which tortures babies, Habobat al-Sughar and Umm al-Juhal whose specialty is to harm children up to two years causing them epilepsy and arrestment. Old books describe these demons as ugly and skinny women. Jinn are also divided by religions, therefore besides Muslim, we have Christian and Jewish Jinn's. Bibjun is a Christian Jinn who causes epileptic seizure in humans. A Jewish Jinn Al-Mukalbe al-Uhud is often called upon by those magicians who want to cause marital distress with their magic. According to the transmission, the Jinn live longer than humans and in some old scriptures we can find data that a Jinn who is thousands of years old is only a baby in our human terms. It is believed that one of the Jinn rulers, Meymun Aba Nuha, is over 7000 years old. Long-life is not just reserved for Jinn champions, there are some Jinn tribes called Munzarun which will live until the end of time.
Jinn attack people very often in a falsehearted way making them absent minded. An especially convenient place to attack humans in the house is the bathroom. The Jinn spend most of their time in there because they enjoy in human nudity. For this reason any human who wants to be protected from this sort of danger should say "bismillah" because it is the invisible cloak for the body which disperses the Jinn. Because the bathroom is such a dangerous place for humans, they should avoid masturbation or sex inside the bathroom. However, Karin or Hamzad has the worst influence on humans because they influence them from an astral level from which all magic is done. It is also mentioned in the Quran: - "And his friend will say: This one, beside me, he is ready" (Kef: Verse 23).