Demons and Jinn Between Islam and Christianity

Islam and Christianity have a lot in common, in values, religious traditions and theology. Obviously, as Islam is part of the same Abrahamic tradition; the core message of both religions originates from The only One God or Allah, in Arabic.

Both religions believe in concepts such as Satan, angels, demons. But theologically, do they mean the same thing? Are angels in Christianity the same angels in Islam? Who are the fallen angels and demons? And who are the jinns?

In this article, I am going to compare the Christian concept of demons to the Islamic concept of jinns. We will take a look at their linguistic meaning, origin, their nature and characteristics, and their relation to humans.

Demon and Jinn: Definitions


The English term “demon” Christians commonly use today for “evil spirits” is derived from the Greek word “daimōn”. It means a “supernatural being” or “spirit” which influence people’s character.

Although people associate the term with maleficence, its original meaning doesn’t imply evil. (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Looking at Christian scriptures, in the Old Testament, the word demon occurs rarely. In fact, terms that are translated into English as “demon” actually refer to rejected idols and false gods, not evil spirits. (Bratcher, 2016)

Demons appear more frequently as evil creatures in the New Testament which is the main Christian source for understanding the concept of demons.

In the New Testament, “demons are described as evil spirits, unclean spirits, lying spirits, and angels of Satan.” (Gotquestions.org, n.d.a.) There’s no mention of jinns in Christian texts.

Islamic Parallel


In Islam, jinns can be put in parallel to Christianity’s demonic creatures.

The term “jinn” refers to creatures that are simply hidden from the eyes of humans (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp. 5.) as the word originates from the verb “to hide, to veil.” Jinns, however, can be good or evil. (Quran, 72:11)

So, linguistically, both demon and jinn are neutral words for spiritual creatures that are unseen to humans. However, some religious scriptures indicate that they are evil creatures.

Who are Satan, the Fallen Angels, and the Jinns?


There are many theories about the origin of demons based on Biblical verses.

Demons and Jinn Between Islam and Christianity - About Islam


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Some Christian hold the view that they are spirits of evil dead people. Others view them as children from the union of angels and women or pre-Adamic spirits. However, the strongest opinion is that demons are created beings also called “fallen angels”. (Towns, n.d.)

In Christianity, angels were created before humans as initially good creatures but with a free will like humans. Thus, they are capable to choose between obeying or disobeying God. (ReligionFacts.com, 2017)

Satan


According to the Bible, the first angel who chose to rebel against God was Satan. (Isaiah 14:13) Satan desired to become God. He was arrogant and wanted to overthrow God and sit in His throne. Thus, in Christianity, he is considered to be the father of all evil. (Wellman, 2015)

Due to Satan’s rebellion, God expelled him from heaven and, thus, he became the ultimate enemy of God and the believers of God/Jesus. However, he didn’t leave the heavens alone.

One-third of the angels who witnessed his rebellion chose to follow him. (Rev. 12:4) Thus, Satan himself and those angels who followed him are called the fallen angels, or demons in other words. (Hampton, 2004)

Demons and Jinn


In Islam, we distinguish between humans, angels, and jinns. These creatures are different in nature but were created to worship Allah alone. (Qur’an, 51:56) Angels are creatures of light and have no free will; they only obey Allah’s commands. Humans and jinns, however, have free will, thus, the choice to submit to Allah or disobey him. (Qur’an, 72: 11)

So, Islam doesn’t have the Christian concept of “fallen angels” as angels cannot fall into disobedience. Jinns and humans can.

Fire and Mud


We also know that jinns were created from fire while humans from mud. (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp. 6.) This is essential information because  Islam also teaches about Satan’s arrogance and rebellion against God. However, clearly states that he was a jinn and he rebelled because he couldn’t stand that Allah ordered him to bow down to Adam. (Qur’an, 7:12)

Demons and Jinn Between Islam and Christianity - About Islam


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Although according to the Quranic verse, Satan was with angels at the time Allah ordered the angels and Satan to bow down to Adam, Surat al-Kahf (18), verse 20 clarifies that he was actually from among the jinns.

There is no evidence either that Satan would have taken followers at the time he was expelled as Christianity teaches. However, Satan does have his own “demons” – evil humans as well as jinns – who help him misguide the believers. (Qur’an, 26: 91-95)

So, demons in Christianity are angels who willingly disobeyed God and followed the rebellious angel, Satan.

In Islam, jinns are completely different creatures from angels. Some are good, but many of them are bad and work with the Satan.

In regards to demons’ current place, Christian scriptures indicate that there are two groups of fallen angels. One consisting of those who “have some freedom to carry out Satan’s plans, and the other who are confined. the Jinn’s characteristics will be explained below.

Some are temporarily so, while others are permanently in Tartarus – a place of punishment lower than hades. Those temporarily confined are in the abyss.” (Hampton, 2004)

According to Islam, jinns live on this Earth among the humans invisibly.

Most of them live in places of impurity. They live in bathrooms or among the ruins. (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp.24.) However, they can fly from place to place, even to the lower heavens. (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp. 30.)

About their place in the hereafter, Christianity and Islam hold the same belief; although demons and evil jinns believe in God, (James 2:19), due to their arrogance and evil deeds, they are cursed to be thrown into Hellfire eternally. (Matthew 25:41; Quran, 72: 14-15).

Christianity actually holds the view that hell was first and foremost created for fallen angels and not for humans. (Towns, n.d.)

On the other hand, righteous Jinn, according to Islam, will be saved from hell (Quran 46:32)

Jinn Characteristics


Both religion teach that Satan has the mission to make the people go astray from the straight path of Allah. He uses the same ways and has fallen angels (in Christianity) or evil jinns according to Islam (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp. 90.) They help him “guide people to immorality, encourage idolatry, and work in opposition to angels.” (ReligionFacts.com, 2017)

In Christianity, Satan and his demons are described as creatures of lying and sinning, murderer, and thief. (Hampton, 2004) Islam further teaches that besides Satan, every human has a personal jinn (qareen) who encourages the individual to do evil deeds against Allah. (Al-Munajjid, 2002)

Abilities


In both religions, demons and jinns are described as powerful creatures with certain abilities greater than that of humans. However, they are not omnipotent. (Hampton, 2004)

Characteristics of Jinn and Demons - Between Islam and Christianity - About Islam


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The abilities described by both religions include great speed and movement (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp. 29.), great knowledge (Hampton, 2004) – which, according to Islam, is obtained mainly by stealing information from the heavens and mixing it up with falsehood (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp.31.).

Part of the ability of demons and jinns is that they can appear in human form according to various stories in the New Testament (Hampton, 2004) as well as in the Quran and among the ahadeeth. (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp.34.)

They can also appear as animals like a serpent that seduced Eve to eat from the forbidden tree (Hampton, 2004) or as black dogs and snakes according to Islam. (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp.34.)

Life


Regarding their life, Christianity denies that angels – including demons – would be able to marry, procreate, or die as they are spiritual beings without physicality. (Hampton, 2004) Islamic scholars, however, are on the view that jinns live like humans; they eat, drink, have intercourse, marry, and die as well. (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp. 20-21).

Relation with Humans


Both religion teaches that connection between these creatures and humans might exist not only on a spiritual level but on a physical one as well. Both religions also prohibit communication with demons/jinns through magic, astrology, and witchcraft and deem it a grave sin. (Towns, n.d.; Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp. 164).

According to the Bible, demons can cause humans to have physical illness, mental impairment, and they can even temporarily possess an individual – believer or disbeliever – (Towns, n.d.) as well as animals. (Matt. 8:32) The Gospels contain various occasions when Jesus and others practiced exorcism. However, there are no specific instructions as to how to command demons to leave the possessed person. The means of protection Christianity prescribes against possession is the belief in Jesus. (Gotquestions.org, n.d.b.)

The majority of Muslim scholars accept that evil jinns might possess individuals. However, Islam offers a wide range of duas and methods such as ruqya for the believers to protect believers from their evils. (Al-Ashqar, 1998. pp. 207).

In summary


The Christian concept of demons or fallen angels are very similar to the Islamic concept of jinns in regards to their roles, characteristics. These abilities include being evil, working with Satan to misguide people, having greater powers than humans, being able to take forms and even communication with humans.

However, the two concepts differ in their nature; demons are fallen angels who chose to disobey God/Jesus while jinns are a completely separate groups of creatures who have no any connection with angels. Fallen angels are ultimately bad while jinns can be either good or bad.

Bibliography


Al-Ashqar, U. S., (1998). The world of jinn and devils. Denver, CO: Al-Basheer Publications & Translations


Al-Munajjid, M. S. (2002). Every person has a constant companion from among the jinn. Retrieved from https://islamqa.info/en/26226


Bratcher, D. (2016). Demons in the Old Testament. Retrieved from http://www.crivoice.org/demonsot.html


Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.) Angel and demon. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/angel-religion


Gotquestions.org, (n.d.a.). What does the Bible say about demons? Retrieved from https://www.gotquestions.org/citation.html


Gotquestions.org, (n.d.b.). Can a Christian today perform an exorcism? Retrieved from https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-exorcism.html


Hampton, J. K. (2004). Angelology: The doctrine of angels. Retrieved from https://bible.org/article/angelology-doctrine-angels


ReligionFacts.com, (2017). Demons in Christianity. Retrieved from http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/demons


Towns, E. (n.d.). Demons in the bible – different types and how they attack.  Retrieved from https://www.biblesprout.com/articles/hell/demons/


Wellman, J. (2015).  Was Lucifer a fallen angel? a bible study. Retrieved from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2015/07/22/was-lucifer-a-fallen-angel-a-bible-study/