Voyance dormante, "sleeping divination",
they call it. In the West Africa diaspora in Paris, you can hire a marabout to
do it for you. He may send up special prayers and look up secret invocations in
a little book to attract the help of angels or jinn. He may lie down on his
right side in the recommended posture of the Prophet.
Liliane Kuczynski gives us a fascinating account of
how this works based on her observation of a Fula dream diviner,
Dia. [1] Born on the east bank of the Senegal river, Dia came from a well-known
family of silangi diviners, believed to have special knowledge
of plants through their friendly relations with the jinn.
Dream incubation is called listikhar (Fula)
or istikhara (Arabic), the placing of a choice in Allah’s
hands. A marabout preparing to do dream divination for a client may perform a
variety of rituals belonging to ilm al-asrar, the "science of
secrets”. The marabout starts with prayer, may prepare an esoteric text -for
example, a diagram including the numerical formula of the client’s name and a
word that summarizes their request – and place this or a twig from the sacred doki tree
under his pillow. He proceeds to seek a dream from the angels to clarify and
resolve his client’s problems. Before sleep, the marabout may say aloud,
"Angels, take care of [the client’s name]" and then add a specific
request. The diviner lies down on his right side. In his dreams, he hopes to
meet invisible guides, see what he asked to see, and maybe bring about unseen
intervention.
The client visits the marabout twice: the first time to
explain their problem and the second to hear the result of the dream
divination.
In traditional Islamic dream interpretation, dreams
are divided into three categories. The “true dream” (al-ruya) is a dream
inspired by God or his Prophet, and an experience of a higher aspect of spirit
or consciousness. The evil or deceptive dream is inspired by Shaytan, the
Devil. Then there is the great profusion of dreams, void of any real
importance, that reflect the confused, desire-driven wanderings of the nafs,
a lower aspect of consciousness.
Beyond this tripartite schema, the marabouts in Paris
invoke help from other sources, to be delivered in dreams. Kuczynski
reports that besides Allah, marabouts invoke "other invisible beings,
mighty enough to provide someone with help, advice and solutions to
anxieties." They are deliberately vague in identifying these allies, often
referring only to "a person" or "someone". Evasive
vocabulary is designed to avoid naming players in a very dangerous world
invisible to ordinary sight. There are many intermediary beings between Allah
and humans. Sometimes they are ranked in hierarchies but by Kuczynski’s
observation "in a marabout mind, terms like ‘angel’, ‘jinn’,
‘spirit’, ‘rahwan’ and ‘maleika’ are quite synonymous. The main
feature of all these beings is that they are dangerous. For this reason,
marabouts must perform many rituals before invoking them, in order to persuade
them to answer their requests." [2]
The jinn, of course, have a mixed reputation. appropriate given
their mixed nature. [3] Some are said to be Muslim, others clearly not. While
made of fire and air, they can take any physical form they choose. Some are
regarded as sources of evil and misfortune, and maladies including madness. The
word jinn and the word junun, madness, have the same root.
[4] The Qur’an organized jinn into six different types: Jinni, the true
Jinn, Aamar, those who live among mankind, Arwaah, those who antagonize the
young, Shaytan, the evil ones who bother humans, Maarid, said to be the most
powerful of all Jinn and worse than a demon, and finally the Ifreet, that cause
a lot of harm to become stronger [5]
Marabouts are able to collaborate with the jinn. They may invoke
Allah, angels like Jibril and Asrafil, and the jinn at the same time. Most
intriguing:
Some diviners are closely related to jinn, which they appeal to in any circumstance and whom they consider their relatives – namely their wives. Marabouts are also believed to act on the partner jinn of the client; this jinn, which everyone has, is often viewed as the double of a person, and to be their most vulnerable aspect. [6] The conclusion that arises is that the dreamer’s inspiration depends upon a very composite world. It mixes Allah with an invisible group of powerful beings that are not clearly defined in Islamic teachings, and who give rise to all sorts of discussions, even from a religious perspective. In some marabout practices, it doesn’t appear obvious whether jinn belong to a transcendent or an immanent world. Nature, as it appears in the forms that jinn may take, is not so distant or distinct a force. [7]
As for the dreams that come, the
marabouts are described as flexible and eclectic in their readings, rarely
inclined to go by the dream books, like the famous one named for Ibn Sirin but
certainly not authored by him [8], that are perennially popular in the Muslim
world. Dia has played dream detective, catching a thief - he claimed - by the
clues he found in a night vision.
Dia's engagement with the jinn appears to have been
demanding. He was often tired and ill, in need of protection from hostile jinn
and sorcerers. His psychic defense involved washing with herbal compounds,
chanting divine names, and appealing to specific jinn and other spirits in a
Fula secret language. Although not really literate, he recorded many of his
secret invocations in different languages, including Arabic, in a little
notebook [9]
Lana Nasser instructs us, in an excellent
essay, that jinn interact with humans mostly through dreams and visions so it
is not surprising that some individuals may make a profession out of
maintaining and focusing this kind of contact. It is commonly believed that the
realms of jinn and humans are separated by an opaque veil that prevents direct
interaction between them. However, there are some who claim to see and
communicate with jinn. They are said to possess bassar (sight)
and the veil is lifted for them. A sheikh (traditional healer) in
Amman, Jordan described it as “a gift and a curse at the same time, a gift
because it is grace from Allah but a curse because you start carrying around
others’ burdens as well as your own.” [10]
References
1. Liliane Kuczynski. “Dreaming in the Practice of African Marabouts in Paris” in Zarcone, Thierry and Angela Hobart. Shamanism and Islam: Sufism, Healing Rituals and Spirits in the Muslim World. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013, pp. 217-230
2, Ibid p.223
3. “The earliest
mention of [jinn] appears in the Koran, where they are described as supra-human
beings composed of fire and flames, not perceivable by man, and capable of
emerging in a variety of forms. Many regard them as the nature spirits of the pre-Islamic
Arabian world, forces that were beyond the control of man and at odds with his
desires. These spirits were gradually brought under the control of Allah, the
majority of them being converted to Islam and serving as his companions. Those
that were not converted formed part of the unbelieving world and were viewed as
opposed to the rule and power of Allah. But Islamic religious literature, and
the official view of the faith, is generally accepting of the djinn. Even the
legal literature of Islam seriously discusses the position of the djinn,
particularly with respect to questions of marriage, death, property, and
inheritance. Opinions on their nature and legality have certainly varied over
the centuries, but the prominence and strength of this aspect of Islam have
never been denied.” Rene A. Bravmann, “Gyinna-Gyinna: Making the Djinn
Manifest”. African Arts Vol. 10, no. 3 (April, 1977), pp.
46-52.
4. Lana Nasser. “The Jinn: Companion in the Realm of
Dreams and Imagination” in Kate Adams, Kelly Bulkeley & Patricia M. Davis
Adams (eds) Dreaming in Christianity and Islam: Culture,
Conflict, and Creativity. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009,
p. 144.
5. Hussein G. Rassool. “Existence and types of
Jinn: Evidence from the Qur’an, Sunnah and scholars.” in Evil Eye, Jinn
Possession, and Mental Health Issues: An Islamic Perspective. London:
Routledge, 2018. p 113
6. This refers to the qarin. See the recent
study by Dunja Rašić,. Bedeviled: Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam and
Akbarian Sufism. Albany NY: SUNY Press, 2024.
7. Kuczynski p. 223
8. See John C. Lamoreaux. The Early Muslim
Tradition of Dream Interpretation. Albany NY: SUNY Press, 2002.
9. Kuczynski p. 226.
10. Nasser, “The Jinn”, p.146.
Illustration: "Voyant marabout" RM + AI
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