Dear brother psyah, please correct yourself I do believe in jinns because the quran mentions them but I differ in the definition of those beings the quran is talking about. I take jinns to be things or being the quran explains in light of self evident realities. I do not take jinns to mean the way people make up stories about them. Those stories cannot be true that make them supernatural beings or with supernatural powers. I have same problem with accepting that magic is anything supernatural and for same reason I have problem with accepting so called any miraculous events told about by people throughout the world. The main reason is these things serve no good purpose and can be explained in ordinary way so why make them something extraordinary for no reason at all? This way we think we are proving something but in actual fact we end up disproving it. Therefore why someone should not accept an ordinary explanation for things when it makes perfect sense and go onto make beliefs? To me it is sign of ignorance about the actual reality of these things so whatever people cannot explain or do not learn explanations of them from those who can explain they just make up any stories about them and start spreading those stories and then time comes that people take them to extreme level and so they become very very harmful.
If these make beliefs were harmless no one will bother countering them but because they destroy a human society therefore they are and they must be opposed by way of educating people out of these things. That is what the quran came to counter in the first place.
Let me try and explain it if I may, suppose we are children and our mothers frightened us about something right from the start because we are mischievous, how long are we going to be frightened about it? For as long as the truth does not become exposed for us we will always react to those fears. Likewise when people tell so much nonsense to each other that is frightening, so long as people remain ignorant about its reality it keep them frightened.
You and I are both part of this world and we see so many ignorant people doing all sorts of ignorant things in the name of so many made up things and ideas. Spirits, jinns and magic etc etc are all part of that kind of mindset.
Concept of God is a different thing because it is explained by the quran in light of universal realities that makes sense and there is no acceptable better alternative explanation of things. So there are good reasons to accept existence of God, the creator, the provider and the guider but there are no good reasons to accept existence of other supernatural beings and powers. The main reason is that alternative explanations exists for terms used for this purpose and also the wrong concepts attached to the terms are very harmful for uneducated and illiterate masses.
For example, due to so called taweez taaga, there is ample fightings in the house between mother in laws and daughter in laws. Each time things happen to anyone he finds an enemy within the family, friends or rivals. Not only that people who claim such powers take full advantage of ignorant people both psychologically and physically. It is mind game people play on each other. Just as clever people take advantage of ignorant people in other thing in life it gives them more ways to exploit them remotely yet more. When a mother in law and daughter in law fight over something simple, a 3rd person comes along telling them they are fighting because they are under some magic spell. So a simple fight which could be resolved by7 simple explanation is turned into an unending battle. The while this house is being ruined the mr magic man makes money both from mother in law and daughter in law and as they believe in him more and more, soon they will be his victims otherwise as well.
So to attribute all such nonsense to the quran is not right. All because the quran is book of clear guidance not confusion. If the quran itself led to all sorts of confusions then it will be a useless book because a book that is full of nonsense cannot guide anyone. The very claim that it is word of God, frees it from being taken as a book of pooja paat and jhaad phoonk, taweez taaga or magic spells. The real purpose of the quran is to guide people to the ways whereby they can remove all man made ills from their society so that the human society is at ease within itself. Those nations that will work towards its set out goal according to its set out guidelines will be awarded dually ie great life in this world as well as in hereafter.
Since the quran tells us to seek good life in here and hereafter after, it gives us insight into proper understanding of the quran, how? Because if we as a nation understand its message properly then by acting upon it we will have the better life in here and if we succeed in doing that then we are also sure that whatever the book says about here after will come true because it did not fail us in this life. Not only that our success in this life will prove to us that we have understood the book properly.
If by following the quran we end up worst than all other nations then either the quran is wrong or that we have not understood is properly. It is impossible that the quran be the word of all knowing, understood by us humans properly and followed faithfully by us yet we fail. We know for a fact that the quran is word of God because no matter much we misinterpret it and misrepresent it, it proves right in many of its statements that are not possible by humans in any way. It is because humans are still not that rational as the quran is about things. This is why it is not human work. So if the quran is word of God and we claim to act on it yet if we are still failing ourselves, we must question our understanding of it and must have another go at it and keep repeating it till we get it right and then act upon it as we should.
You see if I want to build a house the first thing I need is planning. The plan has to be exactly right as I want the building to be. If I start building the building without any planning or without understanding it properly I am unlikely to end up with what I want. Likewise if we do not understand the plan of God and do not act according to his program then we will not get the result that we are promised by him instead we will get what we make of it. The way the world is today and the way the people are, does it tell us we are heading the right way? By results of our actions it is clear that we are doing some things right as well as many wrong things because had we been doing everything bright then this could not be the result. So it is time for us to understand the divine will properly and implement it properly and then keep an eye on results, why? Because results will give us feedback whereby if we are doings things right results will improve and if we are doing them wrong we can quickly take steps to correct our errors. If we fail to monitor our progress towards the goal then we will not be able to discover our errors quickly and keep going in the wrong direction and suffer losses for a long while. As I already explained that even though guidance is fine we are humans so not free of trial and error in sense of trying to understand the divine plan and in sense of acting upon it. This is why Allah told us, he does not change state of a nation for the better unless it changes itself. This is telling us to keep monitoring where we are heading and if we sense any errors along the way due to bad results then correct the error and carry on.
Allah did not create people for hell but for paradise but he created them in simple state to develop into higher state of existence and guided them how they can do that. Failing that they can end up in hell of their own making. This is the way Allah has chosen to set up the world and because we were not there to raise objections at his plan at the time, so now it is too late to say anything. It is time for us to get on with things and do whatever we can to help ourselves. It is because if we do not do that then what choice we have other than suffering the consequences of our own laziness and craziness? So if we have better sense for our own benefit then we should follow it rather than fight against things that land us in yet more troubles than we already are.
regards and all the best.