Re: Evil Eye
So Jinns Cause Fever and Psychosis? In the middle ages, the pir/fakeer and mullahs used to declare that people with a fever are actually possessed by a jinn since the body feels like it is on fire. You can see this superstitious belief still prevelent in romote areas of Afghanistan, Somalia and other developing countries where mullahs are called in to recite the Quran for people who have fever. It is belived that the person has been possessed by a jinn and reading the Quran will compell the jinn to leave the body, which of course has nothing to do with the root cause of the fever, an infection caused by germs. If it is suggested however, that germs are hidden to the five human senses in terms of direct perception, hence jinn, then that is an acceptable implication as one of the usages for the term.
Another case is that of psychosis and schizophrenia, where people suffering from such symptoms were (and are) dubbed possessed by jinns/demons and were (and are) tortured until they are compelled to say "I am Leaving"...
If we examine the implication of the word jinn from contemporary Arabic perspective, we get nothing but superstitious conjuncture. However, if we were to look at the word in the classical Arabic sense, then jinn implies something hidden to perception. Jinn in this case could be taken as an unknown/unseen cause for the abnormal physiological or psychological condition. Considering the meaning of the word jinn in classical Arabic, we immediately realize that such people need medical and psyciatric help, not an exorcism! It could very well be the case that early physicians or hukama used this term to label undeterminable causes for medical conditions, and this was later adopted by the pir/fakeer and witch-doctors to propagate superstitions for their selfish gains. !
No knowledgeable muslim believes that people are possessed by jinn or they can be possedded by jinn.
'peer faqir' usually in Asia do weird things like beating the 'the possessed person' etc....again it has nothing to do with Islam or Jinn.