Page 424 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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NEGLECTED ARABIA
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it. They were created from lire and so in a way are of a higher order
than man who was created from clay.
Naturally the fear of jinn is rampant. The other day L asked my
students whether any one of them had ever seen a jinn. 1 had put the
question wrong for 1 should have asked whether any one of them had nut
seen a jinn, since they all claimed that at one time or another they had
seen one. One of my hoys told the story about how just a few nights
before that he had heard a noise in the well in the courtyard of his house
which he was sure had been made by a jinn. When I asked him how he
knew that a jinn was responsible, he just repeated that he knew that it
was a jinn. 1 pointed out that it might have been a cat prowling around
at night as cats will do, but he said, “You people might think it was a cat,
but it would be a jinn in the guise of a cat.” No amount of argument
would change his opinion. I said that I would be glad to go with him
wherever he chose to go to prove there were no jinn. He then said that
he wanted me to go in the dead of night to the building where corpses are
washed, but when 1 consented he would not go with me because of fear;
fear that something might happen to him not only, but also that something
might happen to me and that of course as far as he was concerned would
be far worse.
Some lime ago an older student, a young man about Iwenly-lhree years
of age, who was quite well read, when I asked him what he believed about
jinn told me that he believed in them, but that they were not what the
ignorant people thought them to be. They were microbes or germs which
could not be seen with the naked eye. Some of them were a great bless­
ing to mankind and some, of course, did great harm even bringing death
in its worst forms. Mohammed in his day could not explain this great
truth for the people were too ignorant and so he did not try to explain
what the jinn were, but simply stated the bald fact that there were jinn.
Now with advanced knowledge we had come to see the truth that Mo­
hammed had prophesied about hundreds of years ago. When l spoke
about Mohammed being a prophet of bugs and insects, he winced and
did not seem at all happy with my interpretation of his explanation.
The Traditions of Islam have ascribed a great number of miracles to
Mohammed in spite of the fact that the Quran denies him this power.
When Mohammed first claimed that he was a prophet, the people at
Mecca asked him to prove that lie was a prophet by performing a miracle.
Then God is supposed to have answered by the verse found in the Quran
which says, “Nothing hindered us from sending thee with miracles, except
that the people of old treated them as lies.” But the people accept the
Traditions in preference for they cannot have their prophet one whit less
than any other prophet and the Quran tells of the miracles of other
prophets.
A short time ago I was talking to a young man who was speaking about
various prophets. Finally he mentioned Moses and asked me whether
I knew how Moses came to stutter. I answered that i thought that he
had been born that way. Tie laughed at my ignorance and told me that
one day when Moses was still a baby. In* was silling upon Pharaoh’s lap
and playing with Pharaoh’s beard, which incidentally was strung wilh very
beautiful pearls. At this moment it was revealed to Pharaoh by an evil
S^ll *Vrl1 was a ProPhct and would one day cause his death. He
wise men and asked them to divine the truth of this matter and

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