Does Islam believe in Exorcism?

[marianna]

I ask because am watching about this very subject on the History Channel. It is known in the bible Jesus was tempted by the Devil when he fasted...this is found in the Synoptic Gospels, at Matthew 4:1-11 and Jesus acted as an exorcist.

What are your thoughts to the origin of the Devil and demons? To fallen angels?

Some interesting info on this subject:

link (http://www.abu.nb.ca/Courses/NTIntro/LifeJ/ExorcismJesus.htm)

[El Rey]

We believe that reading Quran kicks evil spirits and some Islamic scholars are experts in this. I mean it also needs a strong faith in Allah to goes right. Devils and demons are created from fire and Angels are created from light.

But this line marianna provoked some question in my mind:


It is known in the bible Jesus was tempted by the Devil when he fasted

Didn't the devil know that Jesus PBUH was God? If he did know, how could he dare to tempt HIS God?

[Nella]

excuse my ignorance, but what are fallen angels? sounds very interesting.

Yes we do have exorcism in Islam.

[marianna]

We believe that reading Quran kicks evil spirits and some Islamic scholars are experts in this. I mean it also needs a strong faith in Allah to goes right. Devils and demons are created from fire and Angels are created from light.

But this line marianna provoked some question in my mind:



Didn't the devil know that Jesus PBUH was God? If he did know, how could he dare to tempt HIS God?

Satan tempted Jesus because he still thought he was better than God. Pride, pure and simple, is at the heart of the devil's fall and the temptation of Jesus.

Jesus resisted Satan's temptation to turn stones into bread so that he could be the bread of life for all who believe in him. Memorize this truth: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (John 6:51a).

Anyway, I don't want this to turn into a contest of wills regarding Jesus' status as God, son of God. I am curious to know about exorcism and fallen angels in Islam.

[marianna]

Fallen Angels:

Angels are created beings used by God as messengers, warriors, and servants. The word "angel" comes from the Greek word "angelos" which means messenger. Angels are spiritual beings without bodies of flesh and bones, though they apparently have the ability to appear in human form (Gen. 19:1-22). Angels had many functions. They praised God (Psalm 103:20), served as messengers to the world (Luke 1:11-20, 26-38; Luke 2:9-14), watched over God's people (Psalm 91:11-12), and were sometimes used as instruments of God's judgment (Matt. 13:49-50).1

Fallen angels are those angels who rebelled against God along with Lucifer, an archangel who became the devil. Following are verses often quoted in reference to the evil one:

* "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13"But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High,'" (Isaiah 14:12-14).

[El Rey]

Satan tempted Jesus because he still thought he was better than God. Pride, pure and simple, is at the heart of the devil's fall and the temptation of Jesus..

This is very interesting really. But better than God above or Jesus the man? Sorry indeed but this interests me. You dont have to answer the question or just pm it to me so we don't spoil the main topic :) .

We don't have such fallen Angels. We just have Angels like Gibrel who I guess been mentions in Christianity as well. Allah Created them to do different tasks.

[marianna]

In the bible this is what Jesus said:


Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

The devil attempted to tempt Jesus but he failed.

In the Catholic church there is a formality to exorcising someone. It simply is not something one can do without the approval of the church. There has to be tests done to ensure the person is not suffering from a physical or mental ailment.

[Nella]

Thank you for elaborating marianna, very interesting info. =)

according to my knowledge, that description only fits Satan in Islam.
Angels in Islam have no free will and therefore are not able to rebel against god.

[marianna]

Thanks Nella. So what are Jinn? Are they similar to demons in the Christian faith? For demons can posses. Demons are seen as fallen angels with the same origins as angels who still serve God.

[Nella]

hope I'm not confusing you marianna, Satan was never an Angel. he's a Jinn who was granted the privilege of living among angels by Allah. that's why he was able to rebel against god, cuz like humans, Jinn posses free will.

Jinn are creatures made out of fire, capable of comprehending like humans, they live in a parallel world to us. they have the ability to take many shapes and do things which us humans are incapable of, and although jinn are invisible to humans, humans are visible to them.

Some of the jinn are believers, obedient to Allah just like some humans, while others are outcasts and defiant of Allah.

[Abdullah]

We do believe in exorcism and bad spirits, alot.
Put this word in YouTube, it will give you the creeps. جن

[marianna]

hope I'm not confusing you marianna, Satan was never an Angel. he's a Jinn who was granted the privilege of living among angels by Allah. that's why he was able to rebel against god, cuz like humans, Jinn posses free will.

Jinn are creatures made out of fire, capable of comprehending like humans, they live in a parallel world to us. they have the ability to take many shapes and do things which us humans are incapable of, and although jinn are invisible to humans, humans are visible to them.

Some of the jinn are believers, obedient to Allah just like some humans, while others are outcasts and defiant of Allah.

Thanks for sharing. I am not confused because I also understand we each have our own beliefs regarding this topic but is still interesting to learn.

For Catholics, Lucifer was the greatest of all Fallen Angels. He was one of God's favorites:

From the Catholic dictionary:

the Devil and the other demons are spiritual or angelic creatures created by God in a state of innocence, and that they became evil by their own act. It is added that man sinned by the suggestion of the Devil, and that in the next world the wicked shall suffer perpetual punishment with the Devil. The doctrine which may thus be set forth in a few words has furnished a fruitful theme for theological speculation for the Fathers and Schoolmen, as well as later theologians, some of whom, Suarez for example, have treated it very fully. On the other hand it has also been the subject of many heretical or erroneous opinions, some of which owe their origin to pre-Christian systems of demonology. In later years Rationalist writers have rejected the doctrine altogether, and seek to show that it has been borrowed by Judaism and Christianity from external systems of religion wherein it was a natural development of primitive Animism.

As may be gathered from the language of the Lateran definition, the Devil and the other demons are but a part of the angelic creation, and their natural powers do not differ from those of the angels who remained faithful. Like the other angels, they are pure spiritual beings without any body, and in their original state they are endowed with supernatural grace and placed in a condition of probation. It was only by their fall that they became devils. This was before the sin of our first parents, since this sin itself is ascribed to the instigation of the Devil: "By the envy of the Devil, death came into the world" (Wisdom 2:24). Yet it is remarkable that for an account of the fall of the angels we must turn to the last book of the Bible. For as such we may regard the vision in the Apocalypse, albeit the picture of the past is blended with prophecies of what shall be in the future:

And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Apocalypse 12:7-9)

You can go to the Catholic online bible here to read more here (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04764a.htm)

[Jeff]

I think this is one of the differences between Christianity and Islam:

~We have no jinn; we have only angels.
~Angels are not fire, though fire is used to represent their nature. They are not material or physical at all. Angels are pure spirit. Like a soul, or like God. But God is infinite spirit. Angels are finite spirits.
~God creates nothing evil. If something is evil, it is due to the free choice of some person other than God.
~Angels are persons, as humans are persons, and God is personal. Therefore, they have free will. Some chose God, others chose themselves.
~Those who are with God we still call angels. Those who chose themselves, we call demons or devils. THE Devil or Satan or Lucifer is the chief of these.

[Fact HearT]

an interesting topic . .

[Jeff]

This is very interesting really. But better than God above or Jesus the man? Sorry indeed but this interests me. You dont have to answer the question or just pm it to me so we don't spoil the main topic :) .

We don't have such fallen Angels. We just have Angels like Gibrel who I guess been mentions in Christianity as well. Allah Created them to do different tasks.

I'll let marianna answer most of this. She's doing a great job.

But I did want to point out that so far as I know, most Catholic teachers would hold that the Devil did NOT recognize Who Jesus was.

His Nature was hidden.

Christ didn't TELL his disciples Who or What He was. He almost never tells anyone. He expected them to try to discover it.

So He ASKS the disciples, "Who do men say I am?". They tell Him. Then He asks, "And who do YOU say I am?" Peter says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And Jesus says, "Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven."

Philip asks Him later, "Show us the Father!". And Jesus says, "I've been with you so long and you still don't know Who I Am?"

If you've never seen "The Passion of the Christ", it's a bang up movie, no matter what your beliefs are. It will help you understand the Christian view of Christ in a million ways.

But you may remember, Christ is being tested by the Devil the night before He dies. The Devil knows He is about to suffer for mankind's sin...he's figured that out. But He tells Jesus that no one can do what He is trying to do: Give up!

As he watches Christ suffer in the Garden, he is trying to understand Him. "Who are you?" he asks. He hears Jesus praying to His Father. "Who is your Father?" he tries to discover.

It's only after Christ's death on the Cross that the Truth hits him like a sledgehammer.

[BrAiKi]

I think this is one of the differences between Christianity and Islam:

~We have no jinn; we have only angels.
~Angels are not fire, though fire is used to represent their nature. They are not material or physical at all. Angels are pure spirit. Like a soul, or like God. But God is infinite spirit. Angels are finite spirits.
~God creates nothing evil. If something is evil, it is due to the free choice of some person other than God.
~Angels are persons, as humans are persons, and God is personal. Therefore, they have free will. Some chose God, others chose themselves.
~Those who are with God we still call angels. Those who chose themselves, we call demons or devils. THE Devil or Satan or Lucifer is the chief of these.

Just few slight corrections Jeff:
Angels are not fire according to Islam either, they are made up of light.
We believe that God controls everything. It's just us Human beings categorizing things as Good & Evil. That doesn't necessarily mean whatever we categorize as evil is seen as evil by God. That's why he controls everything and it's not up to us to decide which comes from him and which doesn't.

[STING]

El Rey, fantastic posts!

[Jeff]

Just few slight corrections Jeff:
Angels are not fire according to Islam either, they are made up of light.
We believe that God controls everything. It's just us Human beings categorizing things as Good & Evil. That doesn't necessarily mean whatever we categorize as evil is seen as evil by God. That's why he controls everything and it's not up to us to decide which comes from him and which doesn't.

You are right, I got that mixed up. Jinns are fire, but angels are light, correct?

Anyway for us, angels are neither fire nor light...literally. Literally, they are pure spirit.

True about Good and Evil as a difference. I don't know for sure, but just from talking to Muslims and reading stuff they write, it seems to me that this is one of the differences.

God is NOT beyond Good and Evil, as we understand it. There is such a thing as Evil and it has nothing to do with God. It comes from the exercise of free will. Evil is anti-God.

Now, some things we may experience as evil that are not truly evil.

And there are other things that are evil but God uses them for good purposes.

But say a man decides he wants to kill and eat his child. And he does so.

That is Evil. In no way whatsoever does that come from God. God is Good.

God may ALLOW that, but He did not create it and He does not bless it.

God may USE that evil thing for another good. For example, He may arrange for someone to see it happening and be shocked into understanding how terrible evil is and how much he needs God.

But Evil is Evil. Good is Good.

Sometimes I think that Christianity is the ONLY religion that believes in Good and Evil as absolute realities.

[IceTea]

I think this is one of the differences between Christianity and Islam:

~We have no jinn; we have only angels.

It is not something optional to have them or not Jeff like food menu. They do exist as one of God creation.



~Angels are not fire, though fire is used to represent their nature. They are not material or physical at all. Angels are pure spirit. Like a soul, or like God. But God is infinite spirit. Angels are finite spirits.

Even human have souls, souls gives life thats why when the soul is taken out of human body he will be just dead body without soul. Same goes to angels they also have bodies, Prophet Mohammed PBUH saw angel Jbreal on his actual shape and it is mentioned in the Quran they have wings (it means physical).



~God creates nothing evil. If something is evil, it is due to the free choice of some person other than God.

Everything is created by God in this universe, even if someone discover something it is by God will. Do you consider Hell as good or evil, if evil then who created Hell some person or God? Natural disasters are evil but they are not planned by some person, it can be as a result of human sins, disobey of God and corruption on earth but the event itself is from God as a punishment or a reminder to mankind.



~Angels are persons, as humans are persons, and God is personal. Therefore, they have free will. Some chose God, others chose themselves.
~Those who are with God we still call angels. Those who chose themselves, we call demons or devils. THE Devil or Satan or Lucifer is the chief of these.

Angels have no free will, when Allah swt ordered them to bow to Adam they obeyed Allah while Iblees (Satan) refused that means Jinn have free will while angels don't.

[amo_l_oman]

God is NOT beyond Good and Evil, as we understand it. There is such a thing as Evil and it has nothing to do with God. It comes from the exercise of free will. Evil is anti-God.


But when evil prevails on good, and it often happens in wordly matters, then according to this theory, human being has more power than god

[Geya]

i;ve seen a lot of exorcism done in Islam there was a tv series thing on MBC once on it, really freaky!!

[marianna]

Lucifer chose to leave God on his own. I consider that free will.

Anyway how is an exorcism done in Islam? As I said before, the Catholic Church has a prescribed ritual that they use through adjuration via the Roman Ritual (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13088b.htm).

The priest demands the evil spirit to leave:

Read more here Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01142c.htm)

[Nella]

Lucifer chose to leave God on his own. I consider that free will.

Anyway how is an exorcism done in Islam? As I said before, the Catholic Church has a prescribed ritual that they use through adjuration via the Roman Ritual (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13088b.htm).

The priest demands the evil spirit to leave:

Read more here Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01142c.htm)

That IS free will. According to Islam, Satan/Lucifer is Jinn, which means he has free will.

I'm not sure how it's done in Islam, all i know is that the person performing exorcism has to be a person of great faith. he demands the Jinn to leave by reciting certain verses of the holy qur'an.

Anyone more knowledgeable about this is more than welcome to correct me. :)

[marianna]

That IS free will. According to Islam, Satan/Lucifer is Jinn, which means he has free will.

I'm not sure how it's done in Islam, all i know is that the person performing exorcism has to be a person of great faith. he demands the Jinn to leave by reciting certain verses of the holy qur'an.

Anyone more knowledgeable about this is more than welcome to correct me. :)

:yes: Ice confused me saying angels have no free will yet Lucifer was the top angel and he chose another path. I too thought when I was younger that angels had no free will but how does this explain Lucifer's fall from grace? Another question I have and would like to hear from the Christian and Islamic point of view is God had to know Lucifer would betray him. Maybe this is going off topic but am curious as to how such evil could prevail in the world. Maybe to make us humans appreciate the Grace of God more? To not take it for granted?

For myself, if I watch movies or documentaries regarding exorcism it really does scare me because I believe in an afterlife, that the Devil and demons do exist and they can enter someone and "take over."

Edit: I saw where Ice said Islam considers Lucifer a Jinn. That still confuses me because I don't distinguish. I believe demons were former angels (the way I was taught) and as stated earlier, Lucifer was top angel). But nonetheless I enjoy reading what you guys have already discussed.

[IceTea]

marianna, are you saying that angels can also go to hell.

Becuase Satan will end up in hell.

Evil is prevaling because many people following Satan path who is no 1 enemy to mankind. Satan requested God to keep him alive till the day of judgement and God accepted his request.

[Jeff]

It is not something optional to have them or not Jeff like food menu. They do exist as one of God creation.



Even human have souls, souls gives life thats why when the soul is taken out of human body he will be just dead body without soul. Same goes to angels they also have bodies, Prophet Mohammed PBUH saw angel Jbreal on his actual shape and it is mentioned in the Quran they have wings (it means physical).



Everything is created by God in this universe, even if someone discover something it is by God will. Do you consider Hell as good or evil, if evil then who created Hell some person or God? Natural disasters are evil but they are not planned by some person, it can be as a result of human sins, disobey of God and corruption on earth but the event itself is from God as a punishment or a reminder to mankind.



Angels have no free will, when Allah swt ordered them to bow to Adam they obeyed Allah while Iblees (Satan) refused that means Jinn have free will while angels don't.

"not something optional to have them or not Jeff like food menu"

I understand. It's just a way of using language in order to have a discussion.

I can say "We are right!" And you can say, "No! We are right!"

Or...we can say "We believe this..." etc.

Jinns are no part of the religion of Christianity. You say they are real. We don't believe we have any reason to believe in them, so we don't. Whatever language satisfies you to express this is fine with me.

We believe that all persons have free will. Angels, humans and any other kind of person that God created, even if we don't know about them.

***

We believe that angels can sometimes have an appearance to men. If we can't see or hear them, we won't know they are there. Wings and many other descriptors are actually symbolic of the infinite speed with which angels can "travel". We don't believe they are material beings. They don't have bodies.

***

Hell is a response to the evil of human beings. It's not something God loves. He doesn't want to send anyone there, in the Christian belief. As I said, some thing seem evil but are not. Natural disasters might fall in this class. The suffering that follows from them, though, is linked to human free will and the Fall of Man.

All true evil is either moral evil (killing and eating your child) or else the result of moral evil. It does not originate with God.




But when evil prevails on good, and it often happens in wordly matters, then according to this theory, human being has more power than god

I see the problem, Amo.

It seems to me one has two choices.

1. God creates everything and is responsible for everything. All human actions, even sin, come ultimately from God for some purpose.

The argument against this is that it seems ultimately there is no difference between good and evil and God is responsible Himself for the things He condemns.

2. God creates everything, but allows for genuine freedom. Human actions, such as sin, and whatever results from it, do not come from God. God allows them, but does not ordain or will them.

The argument against this is that it seems then that God is not all powerful. Human beings are competing with Him and can challenge Him.

I THINK Muslims believe in number 1. We Catholics believe in number 2.

We believe that God's sovereignty is not a question of pure power. God's sovereignty is demonstrated at a higher level by allowing for true freedom. True freedom is allowed for by God's sovereignty and it cannot ultimately challenge Him. God's sovereignty means that He can bring Good even out of Evil. If your action "defeats" Him, He can use it to produce an even greater Good.

But on some level, it's true: God in His sovereign power allows Himself to be "defeated". He is great enough to create truly free beings who can challenge Him. This makes God greater, in the Christian view, than a God who only created puppets.

In my exploration of Islam over the years, it seems to me this is one of the deepest differences between it and my religion. Maybe it's the foundational difference. I am happy if some Muslims tell me that we actually agree, but so far I haven't found any...

If you start from this difference, suddenly all the disagreement about original sin, whether we need a Savior or not, etc, starts to become much clearer.

[amo_l_oman]

God creates everything, but allows for genuine freedom


original sin

In your previous post, you said that evil has not been created by God because it is something against Him
Now you say that he created it but allows human beings to chose whether to go for it or not
It's slightly different but the concept remains the same : He creates something He can keep under control

if you believe the Islamic view of the relation God - worshipper, is that of puppetteer - puppett, then also the Christian one is :
God needed to pass the sin from Adam to his descendants, to prove his power

And how can you say that good to be defined thus, doesn't need the evil as counterpart ?

[ns8t]

google "Sheikh Ayesh Quran" for much information on 'posession' and treatment. D.I.Y. treatment.