by Young
My teacher commented, “When I was a psychology student I had the opportunity to explore the Hadmadsha’s history and practices. According to this confraternity; many moons ago Aisha Qandisha fell in love with Ahmed Dhughi, one of the patron saints (Sadi) of this religious brotherhood. Women were bewitched by the trance-like music of Sadi Ahmed’s flute and drums.
“There were accounts of Zawiya males who were drowning in sexual and romantic problems, but when they heard the Hamadsha’s musical performances, they were successfully cured of Qandisha’s possessional spells.”
Joshua asked, “Who are the Zawiya males?”
“J (Joshua), Zawiya is an all-male Islamic monastery school. In Arabic, the word زاوية zāwiyah means an assembly or a group or circle of like-minded compatriots,” Barry, the boy’s Valet answered.
The Señor jested, “Very good, Barry! Your years in harem services have served you well.”
Driss remarked, “In my culture, the idea of love-possession is viewed differently than in the west. It’s less poetic than the romantic-love I experienced in Paris. In Morocco, men infected by the love bug are described as possessed by a jnun.”
“What is a jnun?” Emily enquired. “Is it the same as jinn or jinniya?”
“They are les diables or les invisibles,” the model explained in French/English.
Before any of us could question the meaning of les diables or les invisibles, Professor Triqueros explicated, “You are partially correct, Emily, in your supposition. To put it in simple terms; jnun are people who are from below the ground or those who are from below the river. They are invisible beings with whom humans share the earth, and the only female that falls in this category is jinniya Aisha Qandisha.”
Our guide added, “In Morocco, they are known as the pervasive creatures who can take on human form. Usually, men are the victims of Lalla (Lady) Aisha. She dwells near wells and waterways and can transform herself into a seductively attractive woman or as a hideous hag. If the victim is unaware of her cow or goat feet before she plunges an iron knife into the ground; his soul will be struck, and his spirit will then belong to her until he is released from her bondage. He’ll eventually become impotent and lose interest in mortal females. He’ll also suffer a variety of physical or psychological dis-ease until his soul is reclaimed through the intervention of a healing group; like the Hamadsha.”
Andy queried, “Where can the infected locate the Hamadsha?”
“Members of the Hamadsha are found in most northern Morocco neighborhoods. At one time or another, many of their members were possessed by Qandisha or other jnun before they joined the group. They alleviate the victim’s possessional effects through notable trance-inducing musical performances and via a series of sacrificial rituals,” the Moroccan commented.
He continued, “The majority of hearsayers report that the victims of Lalla Aisha are those who had previously experienced failed love affairs, or estrangement from a spouse, or from the traumatic death of a close family member.”
Jennifer, Emily’s Big-Sister, remarked, “This sounds like a Moroccan ethnopsychiatric support group.”
“In many ways, it is,” our professor stipulated. “It’s a Moroccan ethnic and cultural aspect of mental illness. The Aisha legend has an underlying Freudian theme - the conflictual relationship between love, sex, beauty before danger, madness, and chaos sets in. Aicha Qandisha represents something so irresistible that men are driven insane in the pursuit to possess her. She ignites an all-consuming love that is literally – possessive. Her enchanting stature expresses the irresistible temptation of beauty, which is often accompanied by the paralyzing fear that its power may wholly consume the beloved.”
I chirped excitedly, “In other words, she is the Demon Lover.”
“Clever evaluation,” my teacher praised.
Before I could savor the professor’s compliment, Driss announced, “I want to share with you, my friend’s story.”
Tajj: A Story of Love-Obsession
He began, “When I lived in Marrakech, my then twenty-four-year-old pal, Jaul, suffered a mild form of unrequited love which he attributed to magical influences.
“At the time, he was a teaching assistant at the Islamic school I attended. He first met Nora in a Marrakech suburb; after a day of Ramadan fasting when locals enjoyed night walks after breaking fast. The two were engaged soon after. A few years later, they decided to terminate their engagement, but Jaul was worried about repaying her dowry. He believed that her family had installed magic (suhur) in his food during the breaking fast meals that caused him to be obsessed (tajj) with Nora. Around the same period, he also experienced impotence and found himself handing over a significant amount of money to Nora’s family. To forget her, he spent whatever money he had left on booze, while the girl’s family continued to pressure him to turn over his entire salary to them.
“When Jaul mentioned his dilemma to his father, he took him to a fgi – a Quranic and practical Islamic religious expert. The fgi examined Jaul’s hand (muhalla) before he wrote down the boy’s predicament and his future onto his client’s palm. The religious expert confirmed that Jaul was indeed under a magical spell. He then performed some ritualistic counterspells to dissipate the conjuration.
“Jaul had not resolved his problem when I left Marrakech for Paris. That was four years ago.”
After the model finished the story, Victor analyzed, “There are many accounts regarding infatuation where pathological feelings of love are overwhelming, and the implications of supernatural governance come into play. In my field of psychology study, I have come across cases where the male’s inability to deal with his infatuation is often blamed on his beloved - the female and her family.
“Despite Jaul’s obsession with Nora, his inability to reconcile himself to marriage, is an extreme form of a male love/infatuation dilemma. The male is sexually and emotionally drawn to a beautiful young woman but obstacles; in the form of family opposition or the lack of economic resources, gradually induced the man to suspicion and hostility towards the woman. This is when antipathetic emotions and physical symptoms manifest. In many cases, the male attributes his experience to magical disposition. Concepts of magical influences and poisonings permeate within many popular cultures. Out of fear these eldritch circumstances are often treated with prudence by the concerned parties. Like Jaul’s father’s intervention by the fgi’s white magick to counter Nora’s family’s black magick.”
Driss finalized, “When I was growing up in Marrakech, many were afraid to mention Quandisa’s name. Nowadays she is the butt of Moroccan jokes and songs.”
I questioned pensively, “How does Mariam fit the role of Aisha Quandisa?”
The group laughed at my disparate inquiry.
“Young, have patience. Time will reveal the answer to us,” the Señor opined.
True to my teacher’s words, the denouement was slated to us in less time than was expected.
Could It Be Magick? (Chapter Thirty-Three)
“Magick is in your heart.”
Andy Finckenstein
Second Week of August 1968
Chinatown, London, England
My time with my mother and her entourage flew by quickly. Traveling through ten European countries and twelve cities within a two weeks period was a dull experience. No lasting memories except for some minor highlights that lingered within my psychic.
Upon our return to London, Uncle James treated us to a traditional Chinese banquet in honor of my mother and her entourage. In truth, it was my surrogate father’s scheme to introduce my lover to Mrs. Foong in a favorable environment. After all, who could resist a delicious feast, especially my mother and her relatives.
No sooner were we seated in the Chinese restaurant, Mother remarked in Mandarin to James, “安迪很帅 (Andy is very handsome).”
The Englishman chuckled before he translated Mrs. Foong’s observation to my chaperone, who looked away coyly. My Big-Brother had not anticipated such a
n unexpected pronouncement, coming from an elegant Chinese lady who happens to be his boyfriend’s mother. That was one of the times I witnessed his modesty during our time together. He gave me an irksome glance. I burst out in hilarity at his diffident expression. The females at our table stared at me as if I had gone bonkers while Uncle James shushed me to be quiet.
Mother said to me,
“我可以看到你为什么这么好看的年轻人如此迷恋 (I can see why you are so enamored by this good-looking young man).”
My relatives giggled at the matriarch’s declaration. Andy’s embarrassment was ominous.
Suddenly, my lover responded in broken Mandarin, “谢谢冯太太 (Thank you, Mrs. Foong).”
I stared at my Valet, astonished by his ability to utter the Chinese syllables and wondered how he knew to vocalize the words. When my surrogate dad gave me a devious wink, I knew that he had secretly given my chaperone a crash course in Mandarin. He had prepared Andy for his first meeting with my mother and her entourage.
My gallant Big-Brother had worked his magic within his heart, and in the process, he had also installed an excellent impression upon the cultivated Mrs. Foong and her entourage. At the end of our ten-course meal, the females had taken up Andy’s offer; to accompany them on their shopping spree the following day.
By the end of my mother’s London visit, she had accepted her son’s boyfriend. Dearest Mommy had fallen head-over-heels with my lover’s hypnotic charm. My anxiety finally dissipated when Mother presented Andy with a gold pendant to thank him for looking after moi and invited him to visit Kuala Lumpur. Although I did not voice my concerns to Mrs. Foong about my father’s objection to our homosexuality, I knew she would find a way to convince her husband to be civil if my lover got to meet my old man. I was merely glad to be reprieved from not having to see my father for another year.
Mid-September 2014
David’s Email to Me and Andy (Part Two)
A bizarre incident occurred when I was stationed at the جراند بافيليو (Grand Pavilion), my second Arabian Household in Riyadh. Shabana, my patriarch - Mustafa bin Sultan Ali’s second wife had problems conceiving after a year into their marriage. She desperately wanted a male child to succeed her husband’s fortune. Unfortunately, after months of devotional prayers, Allah had not been kind to her. She secretly sought the help of Amira, a Moroccan thaumaturgist. Without Mustafa or any of his wives’ suspicion, Amira operated undercover as Shabana’s handmaiden.
The nights when Shabana was in attendance to her husband, she would secretly release his seed from her vagina into a bottle before she gave to Amira to cast a fertility spell. The magic content would then be smeared onto one of the E.R.O.S. recruit’s penis when he copulated with Shabana in secret.
When the thaumaturgist was later tried by the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice for Shabana’s murder, she confessed that her grandmother had trained her to be a witch. By performing the smearing act, she had convinced Shabana that Mustafa’s potencies would magically be transmitted into her womb via another man’s deposit; whereby she will bear a male heir in her husband’s image.
The sorceress had Shabana consume a daily magic potion of various bestial productive organs. This concoction made her mistress ill that resulted in her death. Amira claimed that Shabana’s illness was a positive sign that her mistress’ viscera was changing to accommodate a revised productive system and that her charm had worked. That was before the woman’s demise. Not only did her magick land her in prison; she was sentenced and beheaded by the Saudi authorities after a prolonged trial.
She was convicted of practicing witchcraft based on such evidence as books on witchcraft, vials, and bottles full of “unknown” liquids used primarily for sorcery. Most western news reports implied that Amira was a victim of persecution by the Saudi government. One of Amnesty International directors declared: “The charge of sorcery has often been used in Saudi Arabia to punish people, generally after unfair trials for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion.”
No Western reporters had considered that the victim was practicing witchcraft, or the reason witchcraft is regarded by the desert kingdom a crime punishable by death. In the West, there is a societal need to place this seemingly inexplicable incident in a right context such as the violation of human rights rather than examining this Islamic tradition that includes the belief, practice, and prohibition of magick.
The practice of Islamic magick is prevalent throughout the Muslim world. It is manifested in the theological concept of jinns inhabiting the sphere of the Muslim occult. Furthermore, magical beliefs can constitute an existential and political threat to Islamic religious leaders, thereby provoking severe punishments and strict prohibitions of any practice that are not sanctioned by the Saudi authorities. Conversely, I believe that political leaders, such as Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and the Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari have employed magical beliefs to advance their political agendas.
Witch Hunt
You see, guys, throughout the Muslim world the belief in witchcraft, sorcery, magic, ghosts, and demons are widespread and pervasive. Magical beliefs are expressed in the wearing of amulets, the consultations of spiritual healers and fortune tellers, shrine worship, exorcisms, animal sacrifices, and numerous local Islamic customs and rituals that provide protection from the evil eye, the demons, and the jinns. Fears associated with these paranormal entities are widespread. They range from hauntings and curses to illnesses, poverty, and everyday misfortunes.
On the other hand, magical practices that are intended to bring good fortune, health, increased status, honor, and power also abound. To my knowledge, these mystical beliefs are not relegated to rural or poverty-stricken areas. They are observable in every segment of society regardless of socioeconomic status.
A popular Saudi Arabian custom is fortune telling. This practice differs vastly from its Western cousin; that is generally relegated to the status of a carnival act to explicitly predict the future. In the Arab world fortune telling focuses mainly on spirit protection and family counseling, rather than prediction and prophecy. Apart from cards, dice, palms, and coffee grounds readings, other activities include selling amulets to ward off evil spirits and to provide advice for marital problems.
These fortune tellers operate from shop fronts or outside of mosques and shrines. They are rarely consulted to prophesize the future. Their clients are females or the elderly who seek guidance to deal with family issues.
Although Muslim clerics denounced all magical practices as un-Islamic, the punishment for fortune-telling is not as severe as witchcraft and sorcery. While sorcery is viewed as the intentional practice of malevolent black magick; fortune telling is perceived as the use of magick to acquire unseen knowledge.
Quranic Occult
To fully comprehend contemporary witch hunts and the prevalence of magical beliefs within the Muslim world, it is necessary to understand the concept of jinn. Jinn is viewed as the Islamic explanations for evil, illnesses, health, wealth, and position in their society; together with all the mundane and inexplicable phenomena in between. The word jinn, also known as jinnee, djinn, djinni, genii or genie is derived from the Arabic root j-n-n which means to hide or be hidden; like the Latin word occult which means hidden.
In many western cases, occult practices are marginalized and relegated to pagan traditions or the mystical aspects of religious traditions. But, in Islam, jinns are an integral part of Islamic theology. According to the Qur’an: God created humans from clay, angels from light, and jinns from smokeless fire. Although the belief in jinns isn’t one of the five pillars of Islam - a person is not considered a Muslim if he or she does not believe in their existence. As recorded in the Quranic missive, both humans and jinns are the only two intelligent earthly species. While jinns are often described as angels and demons, they are complex intermediary beings who, like humans, possess free will and
can embrace goodness or evil. They are required to worship God, and their deeds will be decreed on Judgement Day.
Shayatin (devils) are evil jinns and Iblis (Satan) is their chief. They can shapeshift into humans or animals. In the Islamic tradition: dogs, urine, feces, and blood are intrinsically impure, and jinns are known to mutate to become dogs and dwell in bathrooms, graveyards, and other unclean places. Muslims also believe that evil jinns are phantom entities that can possess humans and utilize their paranormal influences over them. Many Islamic countries adjudged women to be weaker in their faith and are impure during menstruation; hence they are more susceptible to the power of jinns.
Although jinns are relegated as fantasy characters to many believing Muslims in the West, they continue to believe in their existence. Witches, sorcerers, and fortune tellers are deemed to be under the control of jinns and are referred to as “jinn catchers.”
Jinns are intrinsically intertwined with the practice of both licit and illicit black magick (sihir). Quranic black magick is utilized by those who have learned to summon the evil jinns to serve their human purposes; while licit Quranic magick adduces Allah’s guidance to exorcize the Shayatin. Spiritual healers who do not employ Quranic healing methods are designated as witches and sorcerers.
In Riyadh, the qualified exorcists were natives designated by the religious authorities to heal the infected. Although there are contemporary hospitals with psychiatric departments; abusive and quasi-medical practices have been committed in the name of Quranic magick.
A common practice I witnessed was the chaining of a mentally ill patient to a religious shrine for forty days to exorcize the jinn that had possessed the man. The possessed was only fed bread and black pepper. He wasn’t allowed to change clothing and was forced to sleep on the ground until his release. This man did not survive the harsh treatments. After death, he was buried in an earthen mound near the shrine where he was chained.