The Invisible Beings

Jinns are a creation of Allah ﷻ like humans possessing a free-will. Unlike humans who are created of earthly substances, jinns are created from a special sort of fire (fire & air) invisible to our physical sight, hence they belong to the unseen. In Islam every word has a relation to its meaning and same applies for the term jinn. It comes from the root j-n-n meaning 'to conceal' also related to the term majnoon, someone insane because their ability to thinking is covered. Jinn is also related to the Arabic term jannah means ‘paradise’ and 'concealing' which exists in hereafter and hidden from us.

The Quran describes their creation as: maarijin-min-naar (Quran 55:15) meaning ‘from a flame of fire’ and nar as-samum (Quran 15:27), meaning ‘fire of scorching winds’. According to renown salaf such as Ibn Abbas maarijin-min-naar is the “extremity of the flame” or “purest and best of fire”. Renowned 11th century scholar An-Nawawi said “the smokeless flame of fire is that mixed with the blackness of fire” i.e. special kind of fire and not the observable fire. Only Allah ﷻ knows their true form, however, reading these terms implies their creation from a form of fire that carries its heat, invisible to humans. The Quran mentions their creation happened before humans: “whereas the jinn (invisible beings) We had created, [long] before, out of the fire of scorching winds.” Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told us their types: “...one that flies through the air, one that are snakes and dogs, and one which stay in places and travel about.” They have good & evil among them like us. The evil are referred to with the Arabic term shayateen meaning ‘devils’. Singular shaytaan (satan) is one of the shayateen and is their leader.