Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’ān; Translated and Explained by Muhammad Asad (1980)

Apart from this, it is quite probable that in many instances where the Qurʾān refers to jinn in terms usually applied to organisms endowed with reason, this expression either implies a symbolic “personification” of man’s relationship with “satanic forces” (shayaṭīn) – an implication evident, e.g., in 6:112, 7:38, 11:119, 32:13 – or, alternatively, is a metonym for a person’s preoccupation with what is loosely described as “occult powers”, whether real or illusory, as well as for the resulting practices as such, like sorcery, necromancy, astrology, soothsaying, etc.: endeavours to which the Qurʾān invariably refers in condemnatory terms (cf. 2:102 and the corresponding note 84; also 6:128 and 130, or 72:5-6).

In a few instances (e.g., in 46:29-32 and 72:1-15) the term jinn may conceivably denote beings not invisible in and by themselves but, rather, “hitherto unseen beings” (see note 1 on 72:1).

Finally, references to jinn are sometimes meant to recall certain legends deeply embedded in the consciousness of the people to whom the Qurʾān was addressed in the first instance (e.g., in 34:12-14, which should be read in conjunction with note 77 on 21:82) – the purpose being, in every instance, not the legend as such but the illustration of a moral or spiritual truth.

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Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’ān; Translated and Explained by Muhammad Asad, Dar Al-Andalus Limited, 3 Library Ramp, Gibraltar, Consulted online at “Quran Archive - Texts and Studies on the Quran” on 29 Mar. 2024: http://quran-archive.org/explorer/muhammad-asad/1980?page=1013