Camp Gagnon - The Boy And The Jinn | Full Story

Episode Date: May 4, 2025

🚨Remember To Rate Us 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟What is the famous Boy and the Jinn Story? Today, we uncover various types of supernatural beings (Jinn’s), their connection to religion and the biblical story of a boy who was faced with a Jinn… WELCOME TO RELIGION CAMP! 🏕️👕🧢 GET YOUR CAMP DRIP HERE: https://campgoods.co/✝️☪️✡️🕉️☦️ Religion Camp Merch: https://religion-camp.com🏕️ Get Today In History Email Here (Free): https://camp.beehiiv.com/🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets Here: https://markgagnonlive.comTIMESTAMP: 0:00 What Is a Jinn?1:31 Jinn’s In The Quran6:19 Types of Jinn12:31 Weakest Jinn + Folklore vs Dogma14:09 Muslim Jinn + The Shayatin15:35 The Fall of Iblis18:52 Food of The Jinn21:02 Bismillah25:02 Whistling at Night27:19 Jinn’s Connection To Children30:02 The Boy and The Jinn35:45 Forest Jinn Story41:01 Bedroom Jinn Story42:39 Would You Say Bloody Mary?46:17 Tell Us Your Jinn Stories Below!

The boy and the gin. Jins aren't just some ancient folklore, campfire story thing. They are explicitly mentioned in Islam's holiest text, the Quran. They're an actual species that exists alongside us on this planet, like a spiritual species, a group of Jinn who overhear the Prophet Muhammad reciting the Quran, and they were so moved by the message of the Quran, that they accepted Islam and returned to their own people as believers. Their beings from a smokeless fire. They prefer locations that here.

humans avoid or rarely visit, but they can and do intersect with the human world regularly. There's the Muslim Jin. They are the Jins that believe in Islam and try to follow the teachings. So I'm going to break down what a Jinn is, how they manifest, where they exist, what Muslims believe about them, and we're going to end with some interesting gin stories. So let's jump to the very beginning. What's up, people, and welcome back to Religion Camp. My name is Mark Gagnon, and welcome to my tent. Every single week we explore the most interesting, controversial, and fascinating stories from every religion from around the world from all the time ever. Today I'm joined in my tent by Christos, working the old ones and twos.

How are you, sir? Doing great. How are you, Mark? I'm doing great, dude. I have an interesting topic for us to jump into. Let's hear it. Me being raised a Catholic. I've obviously been around demons. But I've been around demons.

I don't mean priest. I mean, like, I was just raised around demonically. lore, you know, you hear about demons and stuff. I've never seen one. I don't know where any of them are. I don't, it's not a thing that exists in my life, but to this day, I still have a fear of demons. Okay. And what's interesting is I was talking to a Muslim friend and I was talking about demons and he's like, oh, have you ever heard of a gin? I was like, I've heard the term. I don't really know what it is. He's like, look into a gin. You're going to be, you're going to find it interesting. And oh boy, the lore on gins is absolutely fascinating. So if you've heard of a ghost, you've heard of a demon.

Similar-ish, but a gin is its own thing in Islamic belief and has a ton of folklore and fascinating stories. So today, Christos, I'm going to break down what a gin is, how they manifest, where they exist, what Muslims believe about them, and we're going to end with some interesting gin stories. There's all sorts of famous ones that many of my Muslim friends might know. So let's jump to the very beginning. All right. Jin's aren't just some ancient folklore, you know, campfire story thing. They're explicitly mentioned in Islam's holiest text, the Quran, making them very real in, you know, Islamic theology,

you know, as real as humans or angels or anything else. And they're not like metaphors or symbols. They're an actual species that exists alongside us on this planet, like a spiritual species, but not always spiritual. They can they can manifest in many different ways. The word gin, it's comes from Arabic and its literal meaning is to hide or conceal, which makes a lot of sense, because the fundamental nature of these beings is that they're hidden from human sight or they kind of warp or shape shift. And they exist in our world. According to the Muslim theology, they are present on this dimension, but they also exist in different dimensions. And they witness things that we do if they want to. They've seen you doing all of the dirtiest things that you do

when you're alone. Whatever that is. Also, interesting thing, you've seen Aladdin, priestos? A couple times. Aladdin, obviously, you know the genie that pops out. Robin Williams, shout out to him, RIP. Will Smith in current times.

Also, Will Smith and current times. But the genie from Aladdin is based on the Islamic concept of the gin. Like rubbing a lamp, and then all of a sudden this being comes out and it's able to, like, grant you wishes and, like, you know, help you along your way. Obviously, in Aladdin, the genie is kind of like a good guy. but they're not always good. But they're also not always bad, which makes them different from demons. In Christianity, demons are always kind of like evil doing the bidding of Satan or Lucifer.

Whereas in Islam, there's actually some jinns that could be good, but we'll get to that later. So what is a gin? According to Islamic teaching, their beings from a smokeless fire. Just as humans in Islamic teaching are created from clay, angels from light. These guys are from a smokeless fire, and each was made with a distinct nature. And unlike angels who are, you know, more obedient to Allah, Jinns are like humans where they're given free will. They can choose to believe or disbelieve.

They can choose the good side or the evil side. And because of that, they're held accountable in the afterlife, according to, you know, Muslim teaching, just like human beings. And the Quran is pretty straightforward about the existence of Jinz. In Surah al-Hijir, verse 27, Allah states, and the Jin we created before from scorching fire. And they're mentioned in a bunch of other chapters. There's actually one chapter entirely dedicated to the Jin.

It's the Surah Al-Jin, Chapter 72. This Surah tells us the story of a group of Jin who overhear the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, reciting the Quran, and they were so moved by the message of the Quran that they accepted Islam and returned to their own people, again, other Jin, as believers. Allah revealed their words in Surah al-Jin, saying, O Muhammad, it has been revealed to me that a group of the Jin listened and said, Indeed, we have heard an amazing Quran. It guides to the right course, and we have believed in it,

and we will never associate with our Lord anymore. That's pretty wild. That's an interesting thing. And again, in Catholicism, you don't have that. You have demons that are doing bad stuff. I don't think demons can convert. But Jinns, again, they're not necessarily good or evil. They're just sort of, you know, free-willed spiritual agents that can roam Earth. And again, don't mistake them for ghosts or like people that died and like their spirits or something. They're not former humans. They are their own entities that have societies and their own sort of civilizations and their own sort of social structure.

And most importantly, the Jin possesses free will just like us. is like the wildest part to me. Some choose good, some choose evil, some become Muslims, other reject the faith entirely, and like humans, they are held accountable. This concept sets the Islamic understanding apart from other religious traditions while, you know, belief in supernatural beings exists across a bunch of different cultures. The Muslim conception of Jin as morally responsible and facing, you know, eventual salvation or damnation is very distinct, something I did not know. So in the Islamic understanding, Jin typically inhabit like, you know, abandoned places, graveyards, darkness, ruins, deserted areas, kind of what you would imagine, like where a ghost would be.

They prefer locations that humans avoid or rarely visit, but they can and do intersect with the human world regularly, according to the Muslim tradition. While invisible in their natural state, they can shape shift and appear as animals or even humans when they choose to manifest. They're not bound by, you know, physical laws of nature and reality that we, you know, understand as human beings. They move with supernatural speed and possess, you know, supernatural strength and all different types of things. And depending on the types of, you know, strengths or weaknesses they have, depends on the type of gin that they are. So, like human beings, gin have, you know, a wide variety of, I guess you could say, characteristics. and the Islamic tradition recognizes a bunch of different distinct types.

Some types of gym are not even mentioned in the Quran or the Hadith and are a part of more of like Islamic folklore. So the Marid is one of those. They're not mentioned in the text necessarily, but in folklore it's descriptive for, it's the strongest, I guess you could say. The strongest or the biggest type of gin. And the word Marid literally means giant or rebellious. And they're often seen as proud or difficult to actually control.

They're usually linked to like water or the sea. And in many of the stories, they live far away from humans. People say that they can potentially grant wishes, but only if you trick or force it to somehow grant you the wish. Again, this is like the, you know, Aladdin metaphor. And they're not easy to deal with. They are considered to be one of the most powerful gin in, you know, Muslim folklore. And even though they're not mentioned directly in the Quran or the Hadith, there's many people who, you know, they'll tell you like, oh, my grandma would tell me stories of the, the marid. And then there's also the Ifrit. This is another form. They are the fire region. They're known for being

you know, both smart but also strong. And their name comes from the word that means to burn. And they're described as being made of again, the smokeless fire that we talked about before. They're seen as, you know, troublemakers who live, you know, in ruins. They show up in the Islamic texts like the story where one offers to bring the throne of Queen Sheba to the Prophet Solomon before he could even stand up from his throne. There's also a Hadith where one tries to bother the prophet Muhammad peace people during prayer but he was able to stop it if frets are powerful but they're not unstoppable and then you have ghouls apparently ghouls come from uh muslim folk christos could you look this up actually if the term ghouls is like an arabic word that's really

interesting these are the gin that are said to eat like human flesh and trick people these are these are pretty evil ones and the stories they often show up in deserts or graveyards and they can change their shape to look like, you know, animals or people. Some of the stories they actually pretend to be travelers or even beautiful women to trick their victims. Did you, did you find out where the word comes from? Gould is a term with origins in pre-Islamic Arabian religion. Wow. Describing a demonic entity that feeds on the dead and the living. That's fascinating. So a term we use all time, ghoul, is actually goal. If you're taking the direct Arabic. translation. That's crazy. And yeah, these ghouls, they have a long history. Apparently,

the Prophet Muhammad once said, there is no ghoul, which some scholars take to mean that these stories are exaggerated. Still, ghouls are common in Arab folklore and are usually seen as, you know, dangerous or at the very least creepy. All righty, don't skip forward, guys, because I am on the road, world's fastest ad read coming at you. I'm going to be Atlanta, Strodsberg, Hoboken, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Raleigh, Poughkeepsie, Portland, Oregon, Fort Worth, Texas, Austin, Texas, Stanford, Philly, Levittown, Chandler, Arizona, San Diego. I'm also going to be adding Toronto, Montreal, as well as Washington, D.C., and a bunch of other dates. You can get all that at the mark agon.com. Dates are in the description also in probably the comments of this episode. Go see me on the road. Come hang out. I'll be hanging out with everyone after the show.

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Get that right now, and peace be with you. And then you have the HIN. These are lesser-known types of gin that are considered weaker and, you know, more quiet. And they don't usually bother people, and they're often said to appear as, you know, animals or something. And they show up in more like old stories and folklore than they do in actual official Islamic text. Some even say they're a part of ancient Jin tribes that don't mix with humans. Overall, the hen aren't seen as dangerous so much as they just kind of keep to themselves. It's actually interesting seeing the delineation between what's seen actually in the scholarship

or the sort of arcane texts of a religion, right, like the Quran or the Hadiths, versus things that appear in folklore. And so like in Christianity, there's versions of this, right, where there's things that kind of exist in folklore. I wonder if you could even say like, you know, some of like the, medieval like miracles or something of like the Catholic Church. It's not in the actual, you know, dogma of the faith. It's not in the Bible, but it's still something that like Catholics, you know, read about, they know about. The historicity hasn't necessarily been fully verified, but it still exists kind of in, you know, common culture, or even something like saying bless you when you sneeze, you know, I think that's actually a better version. And some sneezes you say bless you,

and I've heard a bunch of different reasons. But apparently, you know, it's because like in that moment, it's like, you know, a demon can enter you. And so you say bless you as a way to, you know, send a blessing to someone that sneezes. It's not in the Bible, but it's something that a lot of Christians and, you know, non-Christians do, just kind of as like a, you know,

a social sign of respect, I guess. I don't know. I think it's really just to cover up the awkwardness of someone having a loud-ass sneeze on an airplane. It's just basically being like, oh, all right, you okay? Anyway, there's more gins. There's the Muslim gin,

which this might be the most interesting one to me because they are the gins that believe in Islam and try to follow the teachings. So these Jinns are like the ones we talked about in the Quran that overheard the Prophet reciting the Quran and decided to become Muslim. They pray, they worship, they live peacefully, staying away and they don't cause harm or anything like that. And they have some of the same powers as other Jin, like, you know, invisibility and, you know, supernatural things like that. But they use their abilities for good. And then you also have the Sheetain.

The singular is the Shetan. And, you know, they follow the Iblis. This is the Islamic or the Muslim version of Satan. These guys are a little different because, again, not all Shiatine are Jins. It gets confusing, but follow me here. The Shiaeteen is a descriptive word for someone whose main goal is to lead people away from good. So that means humans can also be Shatine. They whisper bad thoughts and they, you know, try to mess with people's emotions to cause anger or pride.

And the Quran talks about them a lot, actually, saying that they, you know, try to eavesdrop on heaven to steal information. but then they got chased away by shooting stars. They also can be involved in, like, magic and work with people who practice black magic. But what make the Cheyatine so sort of unique is that these Jin have chosen to do wrong and are seen as the most harmful. So they're almost the exact opposite.

And Iblis is a fascinating, you know, sort of character, I guess you could say, or force if you're, you know, a believer of Islam. So the Iblis is fascinating. So thousands of years before, Adam was created, the Jin lived on earth. And they had their own societies, families, free will, all that stuff. And they weren't all evil, right? Some are sort of devout. They follow Allah. Others are rebellious, just like humans would be. But here's the interesting thing. The Jin

begin to cause chaos. They start to kill. They're spreading corruption on earth. So according to some Islamic scholars, Allah sent down a group of angels to subdue them. The rebellious Jin were then cast out and scattered, especially into remote places like, you know, ruins and oceans and deserts and all that kind of stuff. And among the Jin was a being named Iblis. Now here's where things get a little crazy. Eblis was not an angel, despite some of the early confusion. And the Quran makes it clear. It says, he was one of the Jin, so he disobeyed the command of his lord. But Iblis was so righteous and devout that Allah allowed him to rise up and live among the angels. He worshipped for thousands of years, thinking of himself as like a prodigy of the gin. He was highly

respected, a powerful and pure da-da-da-da on the outside. But then here's the turning point. Allah creates Adam, the first human. And then Allah says to the angels and Igblis bow to Adam. All the angels obeyed, but Igblis refused. Why? He says, I am better than him. You created me from fire. him from clay. And again, it wasn't about obedience necessarily. It was about pride. Eblis. You know, he couldn't accept that a being of clay would be honored above the being of fire, you know, like this more powerful force, he believed. So what does Allah do? He expelled him from his mercy. Then, this is what he says in the Quran. Then get out of here. For indeed, you are expelled. And indeed upon you is my curse until the day of judgment.

But Iblis wasn't done. He vows revenge. Because you have led me astray, I will surely sit and wait for them on your straight path. So it's very similar to the, you know, the story of the fall of, you know, Lucifer in, you know, Christianity, where you have this angel that's in heaven and God says, okay, you're going to serve and, you know, have respect from humankind, Adam and Eve, these beings, these humans that I've created. And Lucifer refuses and his pride, ultimately. gets him cast out of heaven. It's a very similar story. Interesting. I did not know that that was the understanding of eblis or shaitan. And so iblis gets, you know, cast away and he would now spend his existence leading humans and gin astray becoming the shaitan, right? Satan, the whisperer, the deceiver. And many jin followed iblis in his rebellion. These became who we mentioned earlier, right these uh shayatan the the plural of shaitan the evil gin they spread mischief whisper to humans possess people do all the bad evil stuff that you can imagine an evil spirit would do but not all the gin followed him some gin are still believers like the muslim jinn who overheard the prophet mohammed

reciting the koran so remarkably the jinn have these physical needs similar to humans they eat they drink they marry they have kids there's actually a hadith in which a jinn asked the prophet muhammad peace be upon him for provisions, and he responded by designating bones in animal droppings as their food. True thing. So the prophet says, Every bone over which the name of Allah has been mentioned will be for you more than enough meat, and the dung of camels will be food for your animals. It's pretty wild. That's right in there. That's a, that is a hadith. I did not know that. So for this reason, Muslims are instructed not to use bones or droppings for cliques.

cleaning after relieving themselves. Wow. So they don't use bones. I guess that was the thing that people were using back in the day, a bone, as they're considered provisions for the gin described by the prophet as your brothers.

This is fascinating. I mean, I did not really know any of this. So in pre-Islamic Arabia, the gin were worshipped by many and thought to inspire poets and prophets. And the Quran explicitly forbids this. They say, don't do this. emphasizing that the gin like humans are merely the creations of Allah and you cannot worship the creation when you should worship the creator. This is a foundational tenet of Islam known as Tawid, the worship of the one god alone. Their interactions with humans can range from benign to harmful. While most jins simply exist in their own sort of realm without interfering with human affairs, some particularly those aligned with evil that follow eblis or the shatan, they seek to misleashire. They seek to misleashire.

and harm people. And fundamentally, the Jin serves the same purpose as, you know, humans in creation to worship Allah alone. That is their job. As the Quran states, in Surah, Ad Dachiat, and I did not create the Jin in mankind except to worship me. So despite their, you know, supernatural nature, they face the same spiritual tests that all human beings do. What's up, people? Quick announcement. If you are a fan of Camp Gagnon or Religion Camp, I have great news because we are dropping history camp. That's right. This is the channel we're going to be exploring the most interesting, fascinating, controversial topics from all time throughout all history. Right? You probably know about Benjamin Franklin, uh, I don't know, Thomas Jefferson, Nicola Tesla. Interesting figures from

history. And you probably learned about it in school and they were pretty boring, but not here. No. As you know, uh, I was raised by a conspiracy theory. So I'm going to be diving deep into all of the interesting, strange, occult, and secretive societal relationships that all of these famous influential men from our shared past have. So if you're interested, please go ahead and subscribe to the YouTube channel. It will be pinned in the description as well as the comments. And if you're on Spotify, this doesn't really apply to you, but these episodes will be dropping as well. Just go ahead and give us a high rating because it really helps the show. Now let's get back to it. Now, there's all sorts of interesting implications that occur now in Muslim culture as a result of

this idea of Jins, right, in the way that Christians say bless you, Muslims have their own version of this. So in Muslim communities worldwide, one of the most, I guess, you know, iconic or used phrases is a protective phrase, and it stands above basically all the others. And this is the full phrase here. Bismalah, ah, Rahman, ah, Rahim. So this translates literally to, in the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. And this simple invocation serves as both a shield, but also a signal to the Jin. Most Muslims today are just taught to say, you know, Bismala. And they say this all the time before entering a home, specifically like an abandoned one or anything like that, or really before any type of undertaking or something that they're going to do. So the same applies when entering, you know,

maybe like a bathroom, places traditionally believed to be, you know, frequented by Jins. And it's not just tradition. It's mentioned in the authentic hadiths where the Prophet Muhammad advised reciting specific prayers when entering places like these bathrooms or, you know, other places that jinns might be in order to seek refuge from these entities. And why is this invocation so effective? According to the Islamic understanding, the uttering Bismallah alerts any gin in the vicinity that a believer is present, someone that follows Allah. It serves as like a warning, but also gives a gin like an opportunity to get out of the way

and kind of, you know, leave me alone, basically. It's like, you know, the power of Christ compels you, something you might hear a Christian say. Functions in a very similar way, bismala. And so the name of Allah literally works is like a spiritual barrier. Another interesting thing that, you know, happens sometimes in, you know, I guess you could say more religious Muslim households is that there's a belief that by pouring hot water down a drain without saying bismala in the name of God, it is possible that someone could unknowingly like burn or even like kill a gin that's like in the pipes. And then this can lead to retaliation as the gins are believed to like have families and, like, have families and, you know, you know, communities, they might seek revenge, which is why many Muslims will have a habit to say Bismalah before boiling, you know, pouring out boiling water. You know, it's partially out of superstition,

but it's also this root, this like, you know, old tradition of respecting the unseen or these, you know, supernatural beings, some of which, you know, might be, you know, Muslim or, you know, believers in Allah. And the traditional advice avoids, you know, even urinating in like a hole or something or, you know, near bushes or stagnant water without saying Bismala first, as it might be possible you're disrupting or disturbing gin, which then can retaliate against you. Another interesting thing is the passage of night and how nighttime is seen as a, you know, a playground for the gin to actually cause, you know, problems. So in Islamic culture worldwide, specifically in sort of the Middle East, parents will call their children indoors at McGrib or sunset. And this practice

This is actually rooted in, you know, prophetic guidance. You know, there's been, it's been narrated by a gentleman, Javier Ebin Abd Allah, who reported that the Prophet Muhammad said, when the wings of the night spread, or when evening comes, keep your children in for the devils come out at that time. So again, if this is in your holy book, at nighttime, kids got to come aside. The, you know, streetlights come on, get in there. And the night is considered the domain of the gin,

a time when the barrier of the worlds becomes thinner. I think, you know, even Christians have this, something known as like the witching hour, you know, like Christian lore will have like 3 a.m. It's the time where, you know, the evil world and our world have like, you know, the veil is closer. And so that becomes this sort of like superstition. You could say, hey, don't play outside after dark. And it has a fundamental, you know, basis in religious texts. Another interesting thing that, again, I don't know how prevalent these are.

I don't know if they're widespread or like a lot of most. Muslims practice this or maybe it's something you've heard like your parents say or something. But there's a taboo or perhaps a superstition around whistling specifically at night. Fascinating. Again, I never knew this. So again, on this topic, there's a lot of different, you know, variations or opinions, you know, specifically from Islamic scholars and depending on the region, et cetera. But there's a, you know, there's a superstition or a strong discouragement of whistling in the evening time. Some of these scholars, you know, have said that they consider whistling as a dislike or something that could, you know, come with, you know, I guess invoking a gin.

And some people believe that this whistling sort of superstition has a, you know, pre-Islamic sort of Arabic custom where, you know, various sounds were thought to communicate with the unseen. So, you know, nowadays mainstream Muslim scholarship doesn't, you know, definitively connect whistling with the gin. but there is sort of like this weird cultural avoidance that persists, you know, even to today in some communities. Imagine this. You're 30 feet underground digging through frozen earth with spoons and mess hall plates. Nazi guards patrol overhead. One wrong move, one loose pebble, and it's over.

But on this night in 1944, 76 allied prisoners would attempt the impossible, tunneling their way to freedom in the largest prisoner of war escape of World War II. And centuries earlier, in a cold stone chamber, a teenage girl in armor stood before her accusers, her crime, leading armies speaking to angels, and daring to challenge the most powerful men in Europe. Joan of Arc's trial would become one of history's most infamous moments. These are just two stories from today in history, the newsletter that brings you the most fascinating events from the past delivered fresh to your inbox. From epic wars to religious rebellions, ancient mysteries to modern modern modern. Marvels. Don't miss another piece of history. Scan the QR code now or click the link in the

description to sign up for today in history. In a secret CIA facility, doctors administered mysterious substances to unwitting Americans. Their goal, mind control. The year was 1973, and as agents frantically burned thousands of documents, Project M.K. Ultra's darkest secrets nearly vanished into smoke. Now, step back to Friday the 13th, 1314. The grandmaster of history's most powerful military order kneels before the flames. As the fire rises, Jacques de Mollet, last leader of the Knights Templar, utters a curse so chilling that when both the French king and Pope die within the year, whispers of dark prophecy spread across Europe.

Now, these aren't crazy conspiracy theories or something you read and, you know, some fan fiction. These are real historical events you'll discover in, Today in History, the newsletter that uncovers the strange, shocking, and sublime moments that shape our world. Get your daily dose of mind-bending history, scan the QR code or click the link below to join Today in History. There's also an interesting element to a lot of, like, you know, Arabic or Muslim folklore that has to do with gin and children. So you hear these stories, like the boy in the gin. And there's a specific attention towards, you know, teaching children specifically to, you know, avoid gin or try to stay away from these dark spirits. And there's

a belief that, you know, children have a different relationship with the supernatural. They can perceive and interact with things that adults can't, which is why a lot of parents are advised to say bismala when even dressing their kids, sort of as an invocation to, you know, give divine protection to their children. Again, because these gin, according to, you know, Muslim teaching, They sometimes will pray on children and they're actually go for children because they don't necessarily have the same relationship or, you know, forethought to always be considering Allah. And so, you know, strange and frightening behavior in children, you know, specifically during transitional times like sunset, you know, or, you know, twilight going into nighttime, could be interpreted as a gin interfering with the children. So many parents are advising or advised to teach children, you know, protective prayers and practices from a very early age, creating a habit that will shield them away from jim and. in throughout their life. So again, all of these traditions and customs, some of which are built

sort of in, you know, the folklore of the faith, but also in the holy text themselves. And they're not about fear necessarily. They're not about being, you know, terrified that a gin is going to come out at any moment, but also about respect, acknowledging, you know, the boundaries between the worlds and acknowledging that there is a separate entity that was created by a law that kind of exists, you know, around our world as, you know, human beings. And, you know, the earth isn't only humanity's domain, but there's also a spiritual component that exists on Earth. Now, another interesting component that, you know, Christianity and Islam both share is the idea of possession. So obviously in Christianity, you have all these famous movies and stories about demonic possession.

But in, you know, traditional Islamic sources, there's also stories of gin possessing human beings causing physical and mental harm. And there's, you know, a rare cases of genuine, you know, Muslim possession or the possession of a gin that affect, you know, a person and they can have seizures, speak in unknown languages or even lose control of their speech. However, mainstream Islamic scholars emphasize that actual possession is extremely rare, almost never. And most cases attributed to gin actually have some type of, you know, psychological explanation. You know, likely the case with Christians as well, you know, most of the time you're treating someone for a demon. Really, it might just be epilepsy or something like that. But that does not mean that there

are not very many stories about, you know, interactions and experiences with gin that have been, you know, told, you know, throughout the decades from, you know, all sorts of, you know, Muslim students or specifically like kids that like to share some of these, some of the, you can almost consider them ghost stories, but they're a little higher stakes, you know. As a, like I said, growing up Catholic, going to like Christian school, sometimes as kids, you'd like tell each other demon stories. Be like, dude, my grandma saw a demon. Like, oh, my friend, he was attacked by a demon.

So now I will share with you some of the most interesting gin stories that I found on the internet. So this is one known as the boy in the gin. And again, correct me if any of my pronunciation here is incorrect. But here's how the story goes. Sheikh Hassan Ali and his colleagues found. an old Royal Air Force building that had been abandoned for about 20 years. They decided to convert it into an Islamic school, a madrasa.

The building was enormous, approximately 120 rooms with three different halls, divided east into west wings. And initially, they only used about seven or eight of the rooms in the east wing, planning to gradually expand their use of the building. All the students were explicitly instructed not to go to the west wing. Among the students is a 13-year-old boy from Bangladesh. Sometimes he's referred to as Imran and some of the tellings of the story. He was extremely shy and extremely quiet, and he didn't know any English or Arabic.

He only spoke Bengali. He was working on memorizing the Quran, but had only learned just one chapter at that point. One day, this boy wandered into the forbidden west wing of the building. When he returned, no one immediately noticed anything unusual. But later that evening, during the... the Quran recitation practice, something very strange happened. The normally shy Bengali boy approached his teacher with this weird unusual confidence, and he said, test me, speaking in perfect Arabic, a language that he does not know.

The teacher, thinking that the boy was joking, decided to humor him and asked him to recite the 15th chapter of the Quran, a section that the boy had never studied. To everyone's surprise, the boy recited it flawlessly. the teacher was shocked and tested him with passages from different parts of the Quran, and the boy recited each perfectly without hesitation. Even more surprisingly, he began to speak fluent Arabic and engaged his teacher in complex theological discussion. And initially the teachers were amazed, thinking perhaps he was a divine blessing, maybe a miracle had happened. Allah had spoken to this boy directly and gave him this amazing insight.

But soon, the boy's behavior turned very bizarre. That night, he took hair clippers and shaved half his head, leaving the other half untouched. He was walking down the corridor, and other kids saw him, and the kids began screaming, gin, gin. The teachers heard all of this, and when seeing the boy's hair, they decided that he must shave the other half off. The truly frightening events began that night. The boy shared a dorm room with five other students, and around 2 a.m., these five roommates came running out, screaming and banging on the principal's door.

gin, gin, gin, they all shouted. And the principal investigated he found only this one Bengali boy, Imran, sleeping in his room. The principal calmed to frighten students and sent them back to bed, but shortly thereafter, the same thing happened. They went and they banged on the principal's door. And when questioned, the terrified roommates described hearing a strange noise, fingernails dragging across the walls and an eerie voice calling out the boy's name repeatedly in the darkness, saying Imron. Imran. The school's religious teacher determined that the boy was possessed by a Jin. So they began performing an Islamic exorcism, which involved reciting specific verses from the Quran. Sheikh Hassan Ali personally witnessed what happened next. The boy, rather the entity within him, was a Hafiz al-Coron,

which is a Muslim individual who has memorized the entire Quran. As the teacher recited verses from the Quran, the boy simultaneously recited different verses that would counteract the effects of the exorcism. This was astounding because the boy had only memorized one chapter of the Quran before this incident, but now was reciting verses specifically chosen to nullify the effects of the exorcism. Religious scholars carefully assessed the situation and came to understand what had happened because he himself was able to see some jinns. He said that the boy entered the west wing and had encountered a family of Jin that had temporarily taken residence there, and a young Jin from the family had attached itself to the boy,

explaining his sudden ability to speak Arabic and recite Quranic passages that he had never learned. The scholar determined that these Jin were temporary visitors who would be staying in the building for one month. So rather than continue with traditional exorcism, which wasn't working, he recommended returning the boy to his family home for exactly one month until the Jin family would naturally depart from the building. Sheikh Hassan Ali was part of the group that drove the boy home. He states that when taking him home,

the boy attempted to open the car door while they were traveling 70 miles an hour on the highway, but the teacher stopped him. The boy then remained at home for one month, and when he returned to the school afterwards, he was completely back to normal, the same shy, quiet Bengali boy who knew of only one chapter of the Quran and didn't speak a word of Arabic.

So there you go. That is the story of the boy and the gin. Now, I was curious about this. Again, I'm fascinated by the, you know, strange, supernatural, bizarre. So I went to Reddit and found a couple more stories, more contemporary stories that, you know, random Muslims from around the world shared. And here are a few others. Again, this will be told from the first person point of view. I stay at my grandpa's place most of the time. It's just me, my three aunts, my grandparents. My cousins come there occasionally too. They live in a society that's pretty green. Like, you know, there's lots of trees. There's a really cool park, you know, 10-minute walk from the place, and I usually go there at night. Long story short, one day, me and a friend decided to walk and explore the society at night and take the long way to the park because we deliberately wanted something strange to happen, perhaps paranormal. We were walking on the sidewalk along the main road at night. It was about 1 a.m. and there was a bit

of a fog coming through as well. My friend said, not to walk underneath the trees, but me being you know, dumb, thought it would be just one of those made-up myths that your aunt tells you. We eventually reached this pretty old tree. Remember, side note, these gins sometimes, according to folklore, exist in bushes and stuff like that. We eventually reached the pretty old tree. It was dead and dry in the middle of nowhere. I didn't know why I did this, but I joked my friend saying a particular gin's name. I then added, blank, you know, the name that it didn't include it here. You live here, right? I want your place now. And I kid you not, at that exact moment, the most horrific growl came from right above the tree,

right over our heads. And that growl is still etched in my ears. It was like this, it sounded like a bear just to give you like an idea. It was so loud and my ears started to ring. And we started running instantly and we started, you know, reciting Ayatul Kirsti and just kept running as fast as we could until we reached my friend's place. We ended up at his place since it was closer. His mom was asleep on the upper floor. We entered and slowly as we were walking to the room, we heard heavy breathing coming from a room about 10 feet away, as if someone huge was breathing really loudly. So we sprinted to his room, we locked it. Then I heard someone calling his name from outside. There was no one else in the house at all except his mom who was sleeping. And if it was her, she would have just opened the door

herself. We literally heard someone moving things outside the room and walking, but there was nobody there. In the morning, I went back to my own place and my friend told me that when he slept, he woke up feeling that there was someone sitting on his chest and he couldn't move or breathe. He then said he began reciting Ayas from the surah, and that feeling of someone being on his chest went away. Thankfully, it didn't happen to me, but now I read so many suras before going to sleep every night. So never walk under trees at night and do not challenge the gins because they are as real as the day. That's story number two from Reddit. That one, that one's pretty spooky. You know, I could, I could see myself, like, if you're like a teenage, you know, like Muslim kid, you're like sharing

stories of these gins. Like, Christians did this all the time, at least the ones I knew. Like, we would go on, like, camping trips and they'd be like, dude, I saw a demon one time. You know, this demon was crazy. He pulled it to my house. He was in my car. and they tell the whole story. It's wild. I mean, I'm actually curious, Christos, you growing up, did anyone ever tell, like, ghost stories or demon stories? Like, do you ever get that?

Like, in New York? I don't even know if that happens. Ghost stories per se was usually, like, a camp thing. Yeah. Just to freak everybody out while you're in a very vulnerable place. Yeah, of course. But never any, like, demon stories. Like, I wonder if, like, you didn't grow up that religious.

I did up until, like, I was 10. Did you talk about these kind of stories in like Greek Orthodox church? There's not a lot of demon-related stuff in Eastern Orthodox. Interesting, right? That's how it is in Catholicism, too. There's not like a ton of demon stuff. It's more like when I went to Presbyterian, like evangelical school, the people talked about demons all the time.

Like Catholicism, it wasn't really that big. I imagine it's the same thing with in Islam. Because I talked to some of my Muslim friends. I was like, did you talk about gins and stuff growing up? And they're like, nah, not really. Like sometimes it comes up. And I wonder if like the different sex or like whether you're like suing. or Shia, or, like, depending on how, like, fundamental your family was, if that changes

how much. I'm actually curious. If you're a Muslim listening to this, like, tell me, what, did your parents teach you about Jins? Was it something that they talked about? Was it just something that you just kind of read every now and again, like, in the Quran and then just kept it moving? I'd be curious to know.

It's also interesting that they're not specifically not dead people. They're their own thing, whereas our ghost stories are usually dead people. Yeah. I mean, like, in American society, ghost stories, so that way. But in Catholicism, you never hear about dead people stories, like in Christianity. Any ghost ever is a dead person. Yeah, but like, I feel like Christians don't really believe in ghosts. Like, my mom doesn't believe in ghosts.

She believes in demons. She doesn't believe in ghosts. Hmm. I don't even know if ghosts have a place. Like, what is it ghost? A soul that didn't go to heaven or hell? Yeah, like a pagan? Is that what the?

I don't know. Anyway, we got one more gin story, okay? Again, this was pulled from Reddit, so credit to whoever wrote this. At some point, in my early teenage years when I was about 13, I'd wake up in the middle of the night and see this black figure standing at the foot of my bed. Somehow I knew it was a woman, even though I'd never seen her face. She would appear about once every couple of months. And the first time I was petrified, I'd sit up in the night staring at her.

And eventually I just sort of got used to her. Depending on how tired I was, I'd either go back to bed, tell her to go away, or even try to speak to her, but she would never respond. Occasionally, she would appear standing over me in bed, and this was the most scary. Later, a friend of mine who was a qualified psychologist, told me that there are various stress-related illnesses that can manifest themselves like this. My childhood was very stressful for, you know, different reasons, so I assume that was it.

The last two times I saw her, I was about 25 years old, and again, seven years later, on my honeymoon, when my wife woke me up petrified that there was a woman in black standing at the foot of our bed. I stared at the woman in black, then at my wife. I was shocked my wife could see her. I got up to turn the light on, and then she was gone. I didn't want to scare my wife, so I just told her that I didn't see anything. I've never told my wife this story because it would just probably scare her, and I don't think I ever will. I do ask her from time to time if she ever saw her again, and she hasn't. She told me that, you know, this is one of her gin stories, and I just sit there and I listen with a smile on my face, but deep down, I hope that the woman in black never comes back

again. Well, all right. So yeah, I mean, it's kind of similar. I mean, I've heard stories like this in Christianity where like my friends will be like, dude, I was sleeping. I felt this thing on my chest. Like there's actually a long history of like sleep paralysis that I think occurs across cultures that, you know, sometimes it's attributed to this. But maybe that's what sleep paralysis is. Maybe it is a demon. I don't know. But like the hag is like this famous thing, like this idea of a thing on your chest and you can't move and sometimes you can't see it, but you just feel like a weight on you. I don't know what to make of it all. As like a, again, as a someone that grew up Catholic, I've never seen something like this. I've never seen the supernatural. I've never seen a demon,

never seen a gin. I don't really want to. I'm not interested. If it's out there, it's good out there. I don't need it to be in my house. But it's just not something I've ever really experienced with, so it's difficult for me to be like, oh, this is definitely supernatural. But, of course, if you follow this religious tradition, then it would be for you. So in that regard, make sense. So the main takeaway from this, don't mess with them. Look, I don't care what religion you are.

Don't mess with it. I have friends, though, like, you know, don't believe in anything. They're like, oh, yeah, I'll do a Ouija board. I'll do a seance. I'll try to talk to a demon. Don't, don't do that. Why risk it, dude, right?

Like, even that old thing when you were a kid, like, oh, say Bloody Mary in the mirror. Like, you know this whole thing? Like, say Bloody Mary and see what happens. would you do that now? Like, are you brave enough to be like, yeah, I'll go to do it? Absolutely no. It's so weird, right?

Because, like, do you actually think that something would happen if you said Bloody Mary in the mirror three times? Like, if a gun to your head, like, if I gave you $1,000, would you go do it? Not enough. Really? It's not enough. Are you being dead serious right now? $1,000 is it not enough?

You're being fully serious. Oh, yeah. Because, like, you've never seen a demon. have you? I'm pretty sure I've seen a few ghosts. All right, tell me. Is there a short version of this? No, they're just all related to previously past people

and then seeing them in real life. Oh, you told me one of them one time. Oh. But it's always related to a human that existed. Well, once on a ski trip, I was driving back in the middle of the night, and I'm pretty sure I saw a ghost floating over the middle barrier. and then I looked back and then it was gone.

Weird. Yeah, I've never seen anything like that. Nothing like that's ever ever. No? Huh. As someone that's like so interested in like the supernatural and like, you know, sort of bizarre stuff like that, I've never seen anything like that. Again, I have no interest.

Consider yourself lucky. I am lucky. But like even with that, like, again, if I win the bathroom, said Bloody Mary, da-da-da, do I think anything would happen? No. Would I try it? No way. I don't know what you call that.

I don't know what, like, it's kind of like, you seem to think that $1,000 was a lot to do that. Oh, like, I feel like if you just ask someone, like, that's not super religious or, like, believes in the supernatural, like, hey, would you do this for $20? I feel like, sure. I feel like most of my friends would do it for $20. I'm surprised that you wouldn't do it for $1,000, to be honest.

Not this friend, if you consider me that. You are a friend, Chrysos. You're my friend too, Mark. Thank you. But if you want to be my best friend, you have to go in the bathroom. Say Bloody Mary three times. It's okay. David could say your best friend. I bet you he would do it. That's psycho. He'd probably be done. But yeah, I don't know. So regardless, just don't mess with it.

What's the point? What do you get? I don't know. If you're Muslim and you watch this episode, I'd love to know what do you think. If you have a story, please drop it in the comments. Let me know what you think. Have you ever seen a gin? Is this a real thing? What's going on? if you're not Muslim, if you have experience with demons, what do you think? Do you feel like gins are just demons? Demons, Jins? I would love to know your thoughts. Please drop them in the comments below. I read all of them, even the mean ones. So just trying to be nice to me. Okay, I'm doing my best out here. But anyway, this has been another episode of Religion Camp. We do these every Sunday, potentially dropping more. And yeah, this is just a way for me to explore people, culture, and trying to get a better grasp on what everyone believes on this big blue planet, you know? I truly think that there's no better way. to understand a person than to understand the God that they worship across the board,

across any religion. It's crazy that you can be like, oh, yeah, I like people, you know, I'm interested in the world, but not know how a billion people orient their lives. For most people, the religion is like their most important thing in their life. And you know, how are you, to me it's like, how can you understand someone that grew up Hindu or is a practicing Hindu? That doesn't, if you don't know, you know, their God or same with Muslim and Christianity and all that stuff.

So this is a way for me just to kind of do that and maybe share it with you people and see what you think. Anyway, this has been another episode of Religion Camp. I appreciate y'all. Peace, be with you. If you've made it to the end of this episode, you are clearly someone who understands that beneath every historical event

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