Journal of Muslims in Europe 12 (2023) 194–211

brill.com/jome

How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns

are Exorcised in Contemporary Sweden

Michael Marlow | ORCID: 0000-0002-3516-0763

Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology, Åbo Akademi University,
Åbo, Finland
michael@marlow.se

Abstract

This article investigates the practice of ruqya (Islamic exorcism) in Europe. First, the
basic presuppositions of ruqya – the clientele, the jinns, and why they might possess
humans – are explained. This is followed by an in-depth example of how ruqya is cur-
rently conducted in Sweden and a general model outlining nine stages is suggested for
analysing ruqya. Finally, the article considers whether the practice of ruqya in Europe
differs from the way it is practised in Muslim countries. Ruqya in Europe seems to
include less physical violence, and it is implicitly used to counter Muslim assimilation
and uphold orthodox Islamic values.

Keywords

demon possession – jinn – exorcism – Islamic healing – Muslim mental health – ruqya

Published with license by Koninklijke Brill NV | doi:10.1163/22117954-bja10052

© Michael Marlow, 2022 | ISSN: 2211-792X (print) 2211-7954 (online)
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How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns are Exorcised 195

1 Introduction1

Didan,2 a full-time raqi (one who performs ruqya) and my main informant
in this study,3 classifies the afflictions of humans as physical, psychological,
those caused by jinns, or those caused by sihr (sorcery).4 He explains that
ruqya means recitations – in this case of the Qur’an, extracts from certain had-
iths (the recorded sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad and his
Companions) and du‘a (supplication). This follows the Islamic belief in the
healing power of the divine word (Q:10.57, 17.82). In this article, ruqya will be
used as an overall term to refer to the orthodox Sunni Islamic art of casting out
jinns according to the Qur’an and Sunna (the Islamic ideal of correct human
behaviour), resembling the Christian concept of exorcism.
Despite the significant increase in the Muslim population in Europe over
recent decades, only a few academic studies have been published on ruqya
in Europe, examining how it competes with the secular therapies offi-
cially endorsed by European health institutions.5 These studies have mostly
approached the subject from a general mental health perspective or have
focused on how the increase in the practice of ruqya is connected to the

1 I am aware that several of our immigrant Muslim patients have experience of, or are rec-
ommended to undergo, the exorcism of jinns before they visit us. Especially among Somali
refugees, I often recognise the words ‘jinn’ followed by ‘imam’ when the translators talk to my
patients. However, those words get lost in the Swedish translation of them … For instance,
when a female patient mentioned that a jinn was talking to her, the translator described it to
me as ‘an inner voice’ […] “The majority of our [Muslim] patients diagnosed with psychosis
have an academic degree. Perhaps this [their academic education] is a reason why they come
to a Western psychiatric clinic [instead of visiting an Islamic exorcist]”. (Interview with the
head of a psychiatric clinic in Stockholm).
2 To protect the informants from legal claims related to the practices they disclosed, they are
here called Didan and Abdul.
3 The use of Arabic terms in this article reflects how my informants translated them for me
in Swedish during the interviews. For instance, the words jinn (s.) and jinns (pl.) were used
following the Swedish pronunciation of these terms, instead of the Arabic jinni (s.), jinn (pl.).
However, mala’ika (angels), shayatin (devils), sihr (sorcery), Iblis (Satan), etc., were in most
cases not translated into Swedish at all.
4 In my informants’ opinion, sihr means sorcery or black magic. From the jinn’s perspective,
they are forced by a human sorcerer to harm or possess a person.
5 Studies on ruqya in Europe have been published regarding Bangladeshi Muslims in
east London (Dein, Alexander and Napier, 2008; Eneborg, 2012); on Muslims in France
(Khedimellah, 2007); on Muslims in the Netherlands (Hoffer, 1992); on Central Asian Muslims
in Russia (Oparin, 2020); on Somali Muslims in Finland (Mölsä, Hjelde and Tiilikainen, 2010);
and on Somali Muslims in Sweden (Johnsdotter et al., 2011). Details of how ruqya is performed
(the subject of this article) are only superficially described in these works. Unpublished stud-
ies on ruqya include Bououne (2005) and Cherak (2007).

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196 Marlow

so-called Salafi movement. With the exception of Khedimellah (2007), Eneborg

(2012) and Oparin (2020), no detailed academic descriptions of the actual per-
formance of ruqya in Europe have previously been published.
Compared with my previous studies of various Christian traditions of exor-
cism, one thing I find lacking in the existing literature is technical descriptions
of the actual practice of ruqya, which would make possible a comparative
analysis of exorcism as a practice from a general therapeutical perspective. In
the following, I aim to fill this gap and thus open the way for future studies on
both ruqya and exorcism as forms of general therapy.
The aim of this article is to describe step by step an example of how a
Stockholm-based orthodox Sunni raqi performs and theologically explains his
version of ruqya when driving out jinns that voluntarily possess human beings
because of love or a desire for revenge (the third class of afflictions according
to Didan).6
The study is based upon three interviews with Didan, taking an average of
two hours each, and two separate interviews of similar duration with Abdul,7
my gatekeeper to the North African Islamic community in Stockholm. All
interviews were carried out in Swedish, and Abdul, who speaks almost impec-
cable Swedish, translated from Arabic to Swedish when I interviewed Didan.
Didan feels more comfortable answering in Arabic but understands Swedish
quite well, so he is aware of how Abdul translates his statements. Before start-
ing each interview, I informed them which preset topics I wanted them to
explain to me, e.g., the characteristics of the jinn. The interviews were based
upon open-ended questions, and I let the informants to speak without inter-
ruption unless I did not understand something they were explaining. At the
end of each interview session, I followed up with additional questions when I
wanted them to elaborate upon parts of their earlier explanations.8

6 Possession may be either voluntary or involuntary on the part of the jinn. From the human
perspective, it is involuntary, and this is the perspective taken in this article. ‘Possession’
implies that an external agent invades and takes control of the body, mind and will of a
human being. In another article, I shall follow up with an analysis of ruqya cases I have
observed when I later interviewed both the raqi and the clients about what they experienced.
7 Abdul had been a friend of mine for more than five years before he introduced me to Didan.
8 The interviews were conducted in small cafés in downtown Stockholm between April 2010
and June 2014.

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How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns are Exorcised 197

2 The North African Informants, Here Named Didan and Abdul

Didan is in his early forties and has lived in Sweden for over ten years. He
supports himself by working as a full-time raqi. His interest in ruqya began
when his sister was suffering as a victim of sihr and he wanted to learn how
to practise ruqya to help her and his family. First, he studied Sharia (Islamic
law) at a university in North Africa and then later he dedicated five years to
being trained in ruqya by several Islamic scholars. During the last years of his
studies, he assisted his principal teacher in order to gain practical experience.
After completing his studies, he worked for one year in North Africa by himself
before he moved to Sweden.
Abdul is in his early fifties and has been living in Sweden for almost thirty
years. He also grew up in North Africa. After moving to Sweden, his interest in
Islam increased, and he became stricter in his religious practice. Abdul is well
known in the North African Islamic circles in Stockholm. He regularly hosts
visiting foreign raqis and often assists when they perform ruqya.
Didan and Abdul belong to the orthodox Sunni Islamic tradition, ahl al-
sunna wa-al-jama‘a. They emphasise that, in this tradition, ‘being born a
Muslim’ is not the same as ‘being a Muslim’. When they label someone as a
‘Muslim’, it implies that he or she is a practising orthodox Sunni Muslim who
follows the guidance of the Qur’an and the Sunna. They both consider that,
among the hadiths, only those found in the collections of al-Bukhari and
Muslim are always reliable.
They also stress that neither charisma nor the social standing of the
raqi is essential for the success of the treatment; only the Qur’an can bring
about a complete cure.9 This is contrary to competing Islamic treatments,
such as those of either Sufi healers (with their mystical status) or shurafa
(blood descendants of the Prophet Muhammad), where the divine healing
powers (baraka) are stored within and chanelled by the individual healers
(Marlow, 2013).

9 As a comparison, the mullah in the Moscow study states, ‘You mustn’t say I heal you. It is
Allah who heals’ (Oparin, 2020: 738).

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198 Marlow

3 The Market for ruqya as an Alternative Therapy in Europe:

The Case of Stockholm

It is estimated that at least 400,000 Muslims reside in metropolitan Stockholm.10

However, this figure does not imply that a majority of the Swedish Muslims are
potential clients for ruqya. For ruqya to be anything more than a marginal phe-
nomenon, clients have to agree to pay for the service (so that the entrepreneur-
ial raqi can support himself through his services) and there has to be a large
enough market (i.e., interested clients), plus a potential for the market to grow.
Didan did not want to disclose how much he earns per month for perform-
ing ruqya but confirmed that he can make a decent living in Sweden from his
profession. An average session can last from one to seven hours depending
upon whether or not the possessed individual loses consciousness. If possible,
Didan prefers to take a break after three days of full-time ruqya. He told me
that his regular working week consists of four to five days, and he takes week-
ends off.
The fee structure for ruqya varies from one raqi to another. If the fam-
ily of the possessed individual is poor, it is a religious duty to perform it for
a symbolic fee or sometimes no fee at all. However, if the family is wealthy,
one usually receives a rather high fee when successful. For Didan, the fee for a
completed treatment lies between SEK 1,500 and 4,000 (€150–400), depending
upon how long the ruqya lasted as well as the client’s financial situation.11 As
a comparison, if Didan conducts on average only two treatments of ruqya per
week,12 his net income, after taxes, would still correspond to the top 25% of
Swedish government employees (Statistics Sweden 2020).
The psychiatrist and researcher Ihsan Al-Issa claims that, with the excep-
tion of the first year after their arrival, Muslim immigrants in Europe have a
lower rate of mental illness than the general population. He suggests that this
might be due to natural selection (i.e., it is the strongest individuals who emi-
grate) and their ability to acquire a work permit (Al-Issa, 2000a: 262; compare
Mölsä, Hjelde and Tiilikainen, 2010: 278 for a similar situation in Finland for
immigrants in general).

10 Larsson (2007: 5) estimated the Muslim population of Sweden in 2007 at between 250,000
and 400,000, with about 50% of them residing in Stockholm. Given that this report is
fourteen years old, I have used the PEW Research Center’s 2017 estimate for the number
of Muslims living in Sweden (nearly 800,000) and assumed that the ratio for those living
in Stockholm (50%) is constant.
11 A regular fee in London for a short session seems to be £200 (€233) (Dein, Alexander and
Napier, 2008: 39, 41).
12 A successful raqi in London treats, on average, eight patients per week (Eneborg, 2012: 9).

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How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns are Exorcised 199

Two alternative explanations – analogous to my earlier fieldwork with West

African marabouts13 in Stockholm (Marlow, 2013) – may be that those who
suffer from mental illness treat it either within their own community or when
they visit their home countries (i.e., in both cases with ruqya). The first of these
alternatives is the most important strategy among Swedish Somalis. However,
according to a well-integrated Swedish Somali: ‘[if] the person is violent
towards himself or others…, when there is no other option left, people turn
to the hospital’ (Johnsdotter et al., 2011: 745). This is also the common solution
in the Muslim world (Al-Issa, 2000b: 344).
If the market for ruqya were to depend solely upon first-generation Muslim
immigrants, the practice would soon become obsolete. However, a study
(Eneborg, 2012) of Bangladeshi Muslims in east London indicates that ruqya is
in fact becoming an increasingly common alternative form of therapy among
younger and more highly educated second- and third- generation immigrants.14
This is caused by the appeal of the traditionalist-focused Islamic movements
(to which I consider my informants belong).15
An important factor in the choice of treatment when afflicted by an
illness – next to availability and affordability of Western medical care – is
how the victim and their loved ones perceive the problem. Al-Issa (2000b:
318–19) surmises that the collectivistic social structure of traditional Islamic
society (like most non-Western cultures) means that a Western-style form of
psychotherapy aimed at strengthening the individual’s independence and self-
assertion does not correspond to the Muslim clients’ needs. On the contrary,
according to Al-Issa, the cultural norms favour the individual’s repression of
their own desires in order to facilitate harmonious relationships. Rather, the
problems of a single individual will sympathetically involve the entire fam-
ily in their treatment. Interdependence (individual independence functioning
within the limitations of the group) is his alternative suggestion for the success
of the form of psychotherapy used.
According to C.B.M. Hoffer (1992: 47), the three main reasons given by
Dutch clients for visiting Islamic healers are dissatisfaction with the treatment
provided by the regular health and social services, word of mouth, and curi-
osity. This indicates that not only traditionalist Muslims but also secularised
Muslims and non-Muslims seek treatment through ruqya.

13 West African marabouts are diviners and healers who combine Sufi and pre-Islamic
African practices.
14 This is contrary to an earlier study (Dein, Alexander and Napier, 2008). However, it seems
that their findings refer more to the charismatic Sufi practices of jinn exorcism involving
amulets or blowing than the non-charismatic ‘orthodox’ practice of ruqya.
15 When asked about his affiliation, Abdul responded: ‘There is only one [true] Islam.’

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200 Marlow

The current Western emic view of illness as something that originates

from within the individual’s body – that it is mainly caused by patients mis-
treating their physical bodies by their eating habits, hygiene routines, abuse
of recreational drugs, lack of exercise and sleep, etc. – seems to be favoured
by people who also have economic control of their own lives (Helman, 2007:
135). In contrast, many immigrants who have not yet fully adapted to their new
home country might sense that they are socially and economically powerless.
Such feelings may strengthen the view that illness is caused by external forces
beyond the control and responsibility of the victim (ibid.: 135, 146; Maarouf,
2007: 111, 125, 247). This group – which also includes non-Muslim Europeans
who subscribe to other views on mental illness than that endorsed by official
Western European health-care institutions16 – constitutes a growing market
for alternative healers such as Didan. The quotation in footnote 1 further illus-
trates this dichotomy in views of illness.

4 Who Are the Jinns and the shayatin?

First, God created the jinns, who inhabited the Earth long before Adam.
However, they fought each other and behaved improperly. God regret-
ted that he had created them, so he sent an army of mala’ika (angels) to
exterminate them. All the jinns except Iblis (Satan), who at that time was
an infant, were killed. God ordered the mala’ika to spare Iblis and let him
live and be educated among them. Because of this, some Muslims believe
that Iblis was originally an angel. God was aware that Iblis would later
rebel but wanted to use him to test for the humans he would later create.
This is the reason that the ancestor of all jinns is Iblis and why they are all
born as shayatin (satanic jinns, i.e., jinns who do not follow a recognised
religion). Later, they may convert to Islam or other religions, thus ceasing
to be shayatin. Unfortunately, the jinns basically still behave and react
the same way as the shayatin, except that the religious ones try to avoid
behaviour that goes against Islamic norms. (Interview with Abdul)

The main sources upon which my informants base their understanding of how
the jinns behave are, first and foremost, the Qur’an and Hadith. Other sources

16 Several of the symptoms of possession by a jinn would be classified within Western psy-
chiatry (American Psychiatric Association DSM-5) as ‘psychosis, hysteria, mania, Tourette
syndrome, epilepsy, schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder’ (Dein and Illaiee,
2013: 291).

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How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns are Exorcised 201

include legends, their own and loved ones’ memories of encounters with jinns,
and books by Islamic scholars on ruqya, specifically those written by the clas-
sical theological authority Ibn Taymiyya and the present-day Bilal Philips, who
mainly disseminates his messages on the Internet.17
The Qur’an states that God created the jinns before humankind from
smokeless flames of fire (Q 15:26–7; 55:14). Although the jinns are invisible
to the human eye, they can see us (Q 7:26). The purpose of both jinns and
humankind is to worship God (Q 51:56). In broad terms, jinns resemble human
beings – they eat, build families, have fixed dwellings, procreate and die, just
like humankind (Henninger, 2004: 10–17).
Djinns should not be confused with ghosts. According to the Qur’an, contact
between the afterlife and the world of the living is not possible (Q 23:101–2;
35:22). Therefore, according to the normative theological Islamic tradition,
ghosts do not exist and departed human souls cannot possess the living.
Abdul explains that all jinns are born with exactly the same attributes as the
shayatin, according to the legend referred to above. Humans cannot see jinns
in their real form. Usually, if they show themselves, they take on the form of an
animal – often a dog or a snake – or a human being. Unlike jinns who follow a
religion, the shayatin, if they are living among humans, prefer to live in impure
places – like toilets, showers or sinks.
According to Didan, if humans, either consciously or unconsciously, violate
codes of conduct between the world of humans and the world of jinns, the lat-
ter may later take revenge, e.g., if one scalds a jinn when throwing out hot water
without first giving a warning. They may also kidnap humans and bring them
to the court of the jinns to be judged for their transgressions. Didan stated
that this once happened to one of his friends, who later was declared innocent
by the court and released. He added that, fortunately, such inter-world trials
involving human beings are very rare.
Didan says that it is quite common for jinns to fall in love with humans
and this is usually caused by the jinn seeing the human naked in their home.
As long as the relationship is harmonious, it is not harmful for the human.
Humans who voluntarily marry jinns can envision them when they wake up
in the form of a beautiful person. Jinns are in reality very ugly, which is why
they prefer beautiful people. The jinn will often dupe the human into think-
ing that they are legally married by repeating the lie. This will sometimes fool
the human, even though neither party has an official marriage certificate and

17 After the first two interviews, I noticed that both informants often quoted Ibn Taymiyya.
They also seemed to share a lot of Philips’s views and, when asked, they both confirmed
this.

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202 Marlow

Islam does not allow marriage between jinns and humans. It also frequently
happens that jinns have sexual intercourse with their human lovers, usually
when they are asleep. When this occurs, the human counterparts will feel it
and sometimes they will even have an orgasm. However, if they later reject
them, it is extremely difficult to make the jinns leave.

5 Why Jinns Sometimes Possess Humans

According to Didan, jinns possess human beings for reasons related to love,
revenge or sihr (sorcery).18 In order to be closer to an attractive human, the jinn
enters the body of the object of their desire. The reason that women become
possessed more frequently than men is that they are easier targets for the jinns.
Abdul claims that women in general have a lesser degree of religious protec-
tion than men and are easier to flatter and seduce.
Abdul states that jinns are also sentient beings, like animals and people.
Sometimes humans hurt invisible jinns unintentionally by, for example, throw-
ing stones in water. Jinns can also become jealous if one reveals one’s naked
body to their (invisible) spouses. If this happens, jinns can take revenge by
hurting or possessing the unwitting transgressors. One of Abdul’s friends, for
example, received two lashes, as one might receive from a whip, when he was
alone in a room and bore visible marks afterwards. Abdul expressed the view
that this exemplifies how jinns punish humans for transgressions. To protect
oneself from these situations, he recommends that one should always recite
the Basmallah (in the name of God) before tipping hot water on the ground,
throwing stones, undressing, etc.
The final reason for possession is sihr. The sorcerer (sahir) – much like
Doctor Faustus – has made a pact with a lord of one of the tribes of shayatin. In
exchange for pledging his full loyalty to Iblis, he acquires, according to Didan,
satanic helpers who obey his orders to harm others.

6 The Nine Stages of a Regular ruqya

On the basis of Didan’s account, I have for the purposes of this article divided
the process of ruqya into nine stages. Before Didan enters the room of the pos-
sessed person, (1) he spiritually purifies himself. If he has time, he raises his level

18 Another reason, not mentioned by my informants, may be the malice of the jinns (Ibn
Taymiyya, [2007]: 44).

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How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns are Exorcised 203

of iman (faith) by performing additional du‘a and dhikr (devotional prayers)

above and beyond what is considered mandatory. He also avoids exposing
himself to worldly matters, such as thinking about money or watching non-
religious programs on television. Further, he has to make sure that he has per-
formed proper wudu’ (cleansing with water after a breach of purity caused by
such activities as going to the bathroom) before starting a ruqya session.
The next step is when Didan enters the place where the ruqya is to take
place. First, (2) he scans the room to detect and then remove all non-Islamic arti-
facts. He removes, for example, all depictions of creatures with a soul, such as
paintings or statues of humans or animals. Shayatin are attracted to images, so
it is necessary to remove them before the ruqya starts.
Another matter to be considered, if a female victim is involved, is the pro-
priety of the relation between the raqi and the possessed individual. This is
usually solved by making sure that a mahram (a close male relative) is present
and supervising the ruqya. Nevertheless, Didan has had several experiences
in Stockholm involving possessed non-Muslim females who live alone and do
not have a mahram nearby. In these cases, Didan calls in local Muslims of high
moral standing, such as Abdul, to accompany him and later testify that nothing
improper has occurred.
Another problem with non-Muslim female clients may arise if they do not
understand how to dress appropriately in accordance with Didan’s religious
conventions. Didan explained to me that this is often the case among Russian
(and sometimes Polish) non-Muslim women. He sees them as the most trying
of his regular clientele in Sweden, both because of the way they often dress and
because they do not usually have a mahram nearby. As a way of remedying this
problem, he brings with him traditional Arab female clothing for them to use.19
When the room is cleared, (3) he interviews those present to find out if there
are any well-known symptoms of possession. The type of symptoms will indi-
cate whether they are caused by jinn possession or any of the various kinds of
sihr, or perhaps not caused by jinn at all but are instead signs of a mental or
a physical illness. Typical symptoms of jinn possession include characteristic
nightmares (e.g., being chased by wild animals, being bitten by dogs or snakes,
or falling from great heights), being easily depressed, uncontrollable weeping,

19 West African marabouts who perform ruqya in Stockholm also mention that Russian
and Eastern European women account for one of the largest segments of their clientele
(Marlow, 2013). Hoffer (1992: 47) states that Islamic healers in the Netherlands ‘have cli-
ents of diverse national and religious backgrounds’.

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204 Marlow

or other unusual mood shifts. Symptoms of sihr are sudden, inexplicable pains
or outbursts of anger, and unnatural changes in the body.20
Another salient issue is how religious the possessed individual is. For
instance, do they avoid sinful conduct and perform prayers regularly? This fac-
tor also indicates the probability of either sihr or jinn possession, by indicating
how much divine protection the possessed person has, based upon their reli-
gious conduct. The greater the degree of divine protection, the more probable
it is that sihr is involved if someone is still struck by jinns. Nonetheless, now
and then a person whose religious conduct is impeccable will still be possessed
by jinns, and this is interpreted as a trial from God. If one overcomes this trial
and manages to keep one’s level of faith during it, one will later be rewarded by
a higher position in paradise.21
If the symptoms indicate jinn possession or sihr, Didan’s analysis of them
will also reveal which verses from the Qur’an will be the most effective for use
in the coming ruqya. Before beginning the actual ruqya, Didan will first ask the
jinn to leave voluntarily. If it refuses, (4) he tests some of these Qur’anic verses to
see how the jinn reacts. Usually, he can see a reaction in the possessed person’s
limbs; often they lift them, and occasionally they bend unnaturally against the
joints. If the reaction is not immediate, it tells him that it will be a strenuous
process. In difficult cases, the possessing jinn sometimes becomes violent and
may even physically attack the raqi. Then, he needs to bring in assistants to
restrain the body of the possessed victim, either by gripping them or, in severe
cases, by restraining their limbs.22
Then, the ruqya itself begins. First, Didan prays to God for help. He affirms
that he is, and wishes to be, nothing other than God’s tool in the coming ruqya.
Thereafter, he recites the Qur’anic verses that he has tested in the earlier stages.
Quotations not only from the Qur’an, but also ones from other Islamic texts
and prayers may be used. Didan explained that jinns also react when they hear
the adhan (the call to prayer), for instance. (5) He narrows down the range of
the most effective quotations and repeats them continuously. The only Qur’anic

20 As a comparison, ‘[t]ypical syndromes of [Turkish] guest workers [in Mannheim,

Germany] are hypochondriacal depressive syndromes, paranoid reactions, psychoso-
matic conditions such as those related to the gastrointestinal tract, sexual dysfunctions,
and sleep disorders’ (al-Issa, 2000a: 262).
21 Afflictions suffered by believers are not regarded as being punishments (Q 48:17).
22 Abdul told me in a separate interview about a case when it took seven people to restrain
a possessed man. The man was a Thai-boxing instructor living in Spain. Although all of
them tried to pin him down, the jinn was too strong. Even worse, the aggressive jinn also
knew Thai boxing and used it against Abdul and his assistants. Eventually, they had to tie
all of the Spaniard’s limbs to a bed.

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How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns are Exorcised 205

verses that Didan uses on every occasion are Q 113: 1–2, in which one seeks ref-
uge in God from everything evil, followed by a Basmalah.23
While Didan reads from the Qur’an, (6) he also uses blessed liquids in a gar-
den sprayer to attack the jinn. If the problems are not caused by sihr, he sprays
water sanctified with Qur’anic quotations on the possessed person’s hands,
feet and face. As with the part of the ruqya that is recited, the situation dictates
which verses will be used to sanctify the water. Often, he recites them while
holding the water near his lips, simultaneously reading to the person, and then
spraying it on the part of the body where the jinn is located. To make the water
more potent, Didan always dissolves the juice of seven crushed leaves from a
lote tree (sidr). Traditionally, this juice, when dissolved in blessed water, is used
to cure impotence caused by sihr, but Didan’s teacher taught him to use it for
all kinds of ruqya.
Next, (7) forced by the recitation of the Qur’anic verses, the jinn will appear
and often talk to the raqi. This means that the Qur’anic verses used have had
the intended effect and threaten the jinn’s occupation of the possessed victim’s
body. Initially, jinns often use lies. For example, the jinn who possessed Didan’s
sister first claimed that he was a Jew but later admitted that he was a (non-
practising) Muslim. Didan uses ‘logical inference’ to find out when the jinn is
lying or speaking the truth, based on the symptoms and how the jinn reacts to,
for instance, the blessed water and the various recited texts.
Didan gives as an example of sihr, where a cursed and poisoned substance
is usually mixed into the food to enter the victim’s body unnoticed. If the
afflicted individual has severe stomach pains and a regular physician cannot
find any reason for these pains, it is an indication of sihr. If Didan then sprays
blessed water on the belly, and the client overreacts and screams as if it was
burning oil, it is also an indication of digestion of sihr. Finally, if the jinn then
admits that it has gained entrance into the body via food poisoned by a sor-
cerer, Didan knows that it is telling the truth. However, if the jinn pretends that
it is there out of love, he knows that it is still lying.

23 When asked why they recited Q 113:1–2 before the Basmalah, they explained that they
also did this during Salat (regular prayer) as a general cleansing. As a comparison, in a
separate interview, Abdul disclosed that, from his experience, the Qur’anic verses most
often used for ruqya are from the first sura (Al-Fatiha) and the second (Al-Baqara). From
the examples given by my informants, I have noticed that the quotations from the Qur’an
and Hadith that are commonly used for ruqya are those that refer to the situation at hand.
For instance, Sura 113 (Al-Falaq) explicitly gives protection against shayatin, sorcery and
the evil eye. Another commonly used text is Sura 114 (An-Nas), which protects against evil
whispers (waswasa) from jinns.

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206 Marlow

What the jinn says and how it reacts is dependent upon its strength. The
strongest category of jinns (which Didan names ma’arid) do not care about
being hurt during the ruqya and are even willing to die for Iblis. They try to
provoke the raqi into losing his temper and sometimes even make him stop
reading from the Qur’an and instead start arguing with them. One can recog-
nise them early in the ruqya process from their habit of using profanities and
proclaiming that Iblis is greater than God.
Finally, although it might take several days, eventually (8) the jinn will either
die or leave the body. It is of the utmost importance that jinns should not leave
through the eyes of their victims, for then they can become blind. The safest
places for jinns to exit are through the thumbs or the big toes. Usually, mul-
tiple possession only occurs when sihr is involved. For possessions caused by
love, it is always only one jinn who is the intruder. If the possession is a form
of revenge, in most cases the angry jinn is alone when possessing the human
offender’s body. In order to make sure that the jinn has left, Didan will read a
shorter version of the ruqya and watch for the person’s reaction.
The symptoms noted in the interview before the ruqya also indicate how
and why the jinn has entered the possessed person and (9) how to close the
opening after the jinn has been driven out. Here, Didan will advise the previously
possessed person on how to improve their divine protection through specific
religious practices – prayers, dhikr, reading the Qur’an, etc. Didan also leaves
enough of the blessed water for them to use to drink and wash themselves for
at least one week. In rare circumstances, it must be used for up to a month
if the case of possession has been extremely severe. If the sanctified water is
almost used up before the end of the prescribed period, it can be diluted with
clean water. As long as some of the original blessed water is left, the solution
will keep its spiritual strength. An alternative is that someone else, an indi-
vidual who is in a good religious and mental state, reads the same Qur’anic
verses over fresh water. According to Didan, one does not have to be a raqi to
bless the water.

7 Beating the Jinns Out of the Body

I also asked Didan about a method I have seen on YouTube but for which I have
never found an explanation in any academic work: how a raqi beats the jinns
out of the possessed person’s body with a stick. He confirmed that he some-
times uses this method himself, depending upon the situation. Nevertheless,
he expressed the feeling that it was wrong to use a large stick and strike the
jinns with full force. He stressed that he never hits the possessed individual very
hard and that he only strikes them with a small siwak (a wooden dental stick

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How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns are Exorcised 207

that, based upon recommendations in the Sunna, is used to maintain oral

hygiene after meals). The point of departure for this method rests upon the
notion that the jinns involved in the possession are sentient beings that either
join their body to their victim’s entire body or reside in a part of their victim’s
body. Didan can detect from experience where the jinns are hiding, how they
try to escape the beating by moving from limb to limb, and how hard he must
strike them.
One first has to identify the category to which the jinn belongs, discover
why it has possessed the victim, and then test its reaction before the beating
starts. Didan tests the reaction by watching the possessed victim’s body when
he has decided which Qur’anic verses to use. For example, it may reveal itself
in the eyes of the possessed (it is in the head), the victim might suddenly gasp
for air (it is in the lungs), or a hand or leg might start shaking when he is per-
forming the ruqya. He then hits the part of the body where the jinn reacts with
his siwak. During the interview, Didan demonstrated with his index finger on
my arm how hard he hits. He tapped me lightly but continuously on the same
spot at a rate of three to four strikes per second. Didan then explained that,
even if he is hitting the body part very lightly, the jinn will cry out in pain.
When the jinn is hiding inside the lungs, he presses on the chest, which also
hurts the jinn.
If the jinn is very experienced, it may try to fool the raqi. It will scream when
the raqi is hitting a limb other than the affected one. A tactic to counter this is
to feign striking one limb before hitting another. Another tactic is to have assis-
tants to aid in narrowing down the possibilities for the jinn to escape. Each
assistant presses one joint of a limb (e.g., shoulder, elbow, or wrist), thereby
slowly squeezing the jinn into the most peripheral joint. When Didan then hits
that joint lightly, they will, based upon the jinn’s reaction, know if they have
succeeded in trapping it. If he initially does not know where it is hiding, he just
hits with a barrage of strikes all over the victim’s body until he gets a reaction.
Didan says that an inexperienced raqi may get frustrated if he cannot detect
where the jinn is hiding. He might then strike too hard at random, which will
result in hurting the possessed person’s body more than that of the jinn. The
only occasions upon which Didan has used hard blows occurred in connection
with a need for him to defend himself, e.g., when strong jinns have violently
attacked him during the ruqya. When he told me of these instances, he quoted
Ibn Taymiyya, who claimed that, if he had hit a human with blows as hard as
those he used on jinns, the human would have died.24 Didan also stated that,
when he asks the victims afterwards, none of them recall having been beaten.

24 The source of this quote is found in Ibn Taymiyya ([2007]: 94). In fact, it is not Ibn
Taymiyya but rather those present at the ruqya who make this statement.

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208 Marlow

Ibn Taymiyya ([2007]: 89–90) quotes hadiths collected by Abu Dawood at-
Tayalasi and Ahmad in his Essay on the Jinn to defend the practice of beat-
ing jinns. It relates that the Prophet Muhammad successfully cured an insane
boy by beating his back very hard and commanding, ‘Get out enemy of Allah!
Enemy of Allah get out!’, followed by a prayer.
In his manual of ruqya, Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips (2007: 165–6, 199) dis-
cusses interviews he conducted with 16 raqis (from Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain, Pakistan, India and Trinidad). His survey indicates that the practice
of beating jinns is more common in Arab countries than in India or Pakistan.

8 Discussion

Have any of the regular elements of the ruqya process changed when taken from
the Muslim world to be practised in the diaspora? Yusuf Muslim Eneborg (2012)
describes how the orthodox Sunni raqis in east London use ‘hybridisation’ to try
to connect Islamic ruqya to the positivistic (and agnostic) discourse of modern
Western biomedicine and science. Dimitriy Oparin (2020:741) makes similar
observations concerning Moscow. However, the features described (the raqi’s
‘uniform’ hints at a white lab coat, issuing personalised medical prescriptions,
and the establishment of physical clinics) are also found in Muslim countries.
Instead of being a mainly European feature, I suspect that these are examples of
‘hybridisation’ that belongs to the category of adaptions to modernity in general
(here, responding to the competition posed by Western medicine).
Here, I would like to analyse the question of whether Didan’s ruqya practice
(as described in this article) as a specific case deviates from the way it is usu-
ally performed in Muslim countries. Are any important features added, altered
or left out? While the study of only one informant’s practices is not enough to
draw any sure conclusions, I would still like to highlight where further studies
might be interesting.
Didan deviates between the third and fourth stages of the ruqya procedure
described by Philips (2007: 135–138). According to Didan, the raqi first has to
inform the jinn of God’s ruling in the matter and then request it to leave volun-
tarily. If the jinn still refuses to leave, the raqi may invoke God’s curse upon it.
Only then will the raqi continue with the actual recitation. However, I am not
convinced that this deviation is an adaption to European conditions. It may
simply reflect how Didan was trained in North Africa.
Another clear difference is that Didan uses much less physical violence
when performing ruqya than is often used in, for instance, Saudi Arabia. If he
beats the jinn, he uses a small siwak instead of a big stick. He also refrains from

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How Possessing, Lovesick and Avenging Jinns are Exorcised 209

using the common method of indirectly strangling the jinn by grasping the cli-
ent’s throat (Al-Sabaie and Alhamad, 2000: 213). Mohammad Maarouf (2007:
177) explains that the beating of jinns was more severe in the past, but is still
practised in present-day Morocco. The lesser degree of violence is probably
due to an adjustment to modernity and European norms and laws.
However, I suspect that the most salient adaptation to Europe is that Didan
does not focus upon the jinns’ religions and try to persuade them to convert
during the ruqya. In most descriptions of ruqya from Muslim countries (e.g.,
Philips, 2007; Maarouf, 2007; Al-Subaie and Alhamad, 2000), the jinn first
confirms that it is of another faith, usually Christian or Jewish. To prove its
‘Otherness’, it behaves like a naïve caricature of an adherent of one of these
faiths by making use of a few simplistic utterances. Then, the raqi informs it
that Islam is the superior religion. He converts the jinn to Islam and it finally
leaves the victim after its requests (which are usually related to the needs of the
client) have been fulfilled. I find it significant that the practice of converting
non-Muslim jinns is not mentioned in either of the European-based studies
mentioned (note 3). It may still occur in Europe, but this element of stereotyp-
ing non-Muslim religions has likely lost much of its credibility when Muslims
are living in ‘the Other’s’ countries. I would like to suggest that the prosely-
tising element in ruqya is still there but in an implicit form that is adapted
to the diaspora.
Several studies have indicated that the Christian practice of exorcism is
often directed not only towards the evil forces but also towards the Christian
community in order to reinforce their choice of religion. For instance, Stephen
Hunt (1998) demonstrates how exorcism among neo-Pentecostals is used
to maintain boundaries and keep the individuals within the congregation.
Furthermore, members of the Roman Catholic Church used public exorcisms
in Germany during the Counter-Reformation to cure ill Protestants (heresy
made their bodies sick) using Roman Catholic symbols (e.g., the Virgin Mary)
to prove its divine supremacy (Roper, 2001).
Similarly, the structure of Didan’s ruqya implies that a return to Islam (not
assimilation in the diaspora) is the solution for issues regarding one’s health
and safety. Turning to Islam and the Qur’an is the cure, and adhering to Islamic
practices in the diaspora is the vaccine to prevent future health problems. As
demonstrated, the ruqya does not end with driving out the possessing jinn but
with the closing (raising the divine protection) of the opening where the jinn
once entered. To summarise, in Europe the internal missionising element of
the ruqya is still in place but, instead of polemicising against the Other (i.e., the
preferred religions of the jinns), proselytising is directed towards the threat of
secularisation and assimilation of Muslims in the diaspora.

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210 Marlow

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