Re: Details of interpreting verses from the Qur’an and obvious blunders
Dear psyah, as for talking about miracles and jinns, it is not for me to substantiate anything in this regard but for people who lay claims of this nature. It is not my claim that these things happen but of others. I just oppose these ideas because there is no sense in them as I see things. Of course if anyone can prove these things true then because I follow evidence I will accept that. Just because the quran uses certain words and people take them to mean certain things does not mean people have understood them correctly. However the point I will highlight is, since the quran is word of God it ought to contain point of view of God on things as well as of people because God narrates their stories so when we attribute anything to the quran we need to take the appropriate point of view in to account respectively. We should not impose our human points of views on God.
Let us take word jinn, it is from root JEEM, NOON and NOON. The first question is the origin of this root? Is there any proof that humans invented this word for such beings that they could never even think about never mind come across them? If we cannot interact with jinns how did they come to know so many things about them in order to label them with this word? This proves that word jinn was originally invented for something that was a concrete reality not something out of make belief.
The concrete root meanings of this word is cover. All the rest of meanings of this word are derived root meanings and there are plenty of them. Again one has to remember the rule that derived meanings are derived through explanations as concepts attributed to this root. For example, night covers up things due to darkness thereby hides them. Word jannah=garden=blissful place it is derived from root JNN. Likewise word MAJNOON=mad person is derived from the same root. The question is, how this one root can have so many meanings? The answer is because all other meanings have something to do with cover. The garden is called garden because thickness of vegetation hides things from view or that garden is such a pleasant place that while one is in there one enjoys its beauty so other things therefore remain hidden from his attention ie remain covered up. Similarly word majnoon is derived from the same root because when one goes mad his normal sense becomes covered up or hidden by it. It is like when one is angry one loses his sense of proper judgement ie rage dominates calm state of mind. Likewise people who are influential are called jinns because they over shadow others as if they cover up everyone else from the view. In other words when a bigger personality is around the other smaller personalities become over shadowed by it ie it carries sense of dominance.
An expert or skilled person is also called a jinn because he cover the certain field of knowledge by his mastery over it. Likewise possession by jinn is simply put an influence of a person on another person or thing. People do get influenced by each other or things, some less others more. People fall in love with things or other people. People hate each other or things because they cannot stand certain things or people. Thus word cover is used for hiding things or to protect things or to expose them by removal of cover. Strangers are also called jinns because they are not familiar or that they do not mix with others so they keep their distance from others for their own reasons.
The root JNN has many meanings eg demon, giant, expert, insane, isolation, strange/r, foreign/er, outsider, high profile, dominant, prominent, privileged, important person, mischievous, clever, nomad, leader, noble, someone powerful, a person with means or influence, chief, garden, serpent, snake, pregnancy, someone who rules over a domain or is master of his field of knowledge, something that over shadows something or covers it or hides it etc etc.
This being the case how do we come to know that word jinn in the quran is used only and only for the creatures that we have in our own imagination?
In my view unless we can answer question like the ones I am asking honestly for ourselves from the quran itself in light of realities of real word it is not right to make it an issue or belief that has no basis. otherwise by attaching senseless meanings to word we turn the quran into a book that makes no sense which means when educated people throw their questions at us about things that we attribute to the quran then we cannot answer them. The best approach therefore is to only put that much quran across as much we can understand clearly and about the rest invite all experts to try coming up with sensible explanations. It is because we have the actual text of the quran, we also have the meanings of its words fully preserved all we need to do is find out how the quranic text makes best sense in light of its own text, within the meanings the words have in light of the realities that the quran is talking about within its wider context and purpose. So any meanings that fit with the quranic agenda, purpose and context are fine and it matters not who has succeeded in discovering that meanings of the text or when because the quran is book of wisdom and wisdom takes time and effort for people to become wise enough to understand the wisdom in the quran ie people are not born experts on the quranic wisdom they need to learn it.
These like points give people right to have a go on the quran and see what they make of the quran and then discuss their individual finding with each other to see which of them is best explanation and adopt that for unity rather than trying to unite people on basis of make beliefs.
If we must discuss word jinn as used in the quran then it is important that we discuss other words as well that seem to be related eg words like MALAAIKAH, NAAS, SHAYATEEN, AADAM, IBLEES etc. It is because there is a definite purpose to use of all these words for people. Only if people try to explore the quran that they will discover the right meanings of word otherwise merely reiterating what has already been discredited is no way to gaining new insight into things. The same is true if people limit themselves by make beliefs and try to prove them instead of following the lead wherever it leads as guidance. A guidance is useless if I am going to bend it around my ideas that make no sense and have no basis. Likewise I cannot explore or research anything properly if I have concluded the outcome already through make beliefs.
Coming to miracles, it is very hard to define miracles and yet more difficult if not altogether impossible to prove them.
regards and all the best.