Dunja Rasic: Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam and Akbarian Sufism

Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society Online Presentation

March 18th, 2023, 16:00 GMT

"Ghouls, ifrits and a panoply of other jinn have long haunted Muslim cultures and societies. These also include demonic doubles (qarīn, pl. quranāʾ): the little-studied and much-feared denizens of the hearts and blood of humans. Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240) wrote on jinn in substantial detail, uncovering the physiognomy, culture and behaviour of this unseen species. Akbarians believed that the good God assigned each human with an evil double. Ibn ʿArabī’s reasoning as to why this was the case mirrors his attempts to expound the problem of evil in Islamic religious philosophy. No other Sufi, Ibn ʿArabī claimed, has ever managed to get to the heart of this matter before him. As well as offering the reader knowledge and safety from evil, Ibn ʿArabī’s writings on jinnealogy tackle the even larger issues of spiritual ascension, predestination and the human relationship to the Divine."

Dunja Rašić earned her Ph.D in Islamic Studies at the Free University Berlin. Her primary research field is medieval intellectual history, with a focus on Akbarian cosmology, philosophical Sufism and the Islamic philosophy of language.

Video design and editing: Tim Ray