By Mawlana Bilal Ali
It is a matter of consensus amongst the scholars of Sunni Islam that disbelieving jinn, like their human counterparts, can and will be punished with fire in the Hereafter. This consensus is built upon a multitude of Quranic verses, amongst them verse 13 of Sūrat al-Sajdah:
Thus the word from Me has come to pass: Indeed, I shall, most surely, fill Hell with the jinn and the people [who are ungodly] – all [of them] together. (Q 32:13)
The objection to this stance on the premise that jinn are composed of fire themselves is built upon two main misconceptions. The first misconception is that the jinn are composed entirely of fire and nothing else. Although the the Quran declares that jinn are created from fire, it also declares that man is created from turāb (clay, dirt). As it is universally acknowledged that man, although made of turāb, cannot be called simply “turāb” because he is composed of many other substances, jinn also cannot be imagined to be purely fire because they are composed, among other things, of fire. Therefore, it is incorrect to assume that jinn are creatures made entirely of fire.
The second misconception is the assumption that because a creature is composed of a substance that it cannot be harmed by it. It should be noted that simply being created from a substance does not necessitate that the same substance cannot cause it damage. Man, for example, is composed of clay but can also easily be harmed by clay. Should someone manufacture an arrow, bullet, or dagger out of clay and then choose to inflict harm upon a human with it, it would be foolish to presume him safe on the premise that he is created of the same material. Similarly, it is perfectly conceivable that jinn, despite being created from fire, can be caused pain and punished by it, not to speak of the severe fire that will make up the eternal Hellfire. And Allah knows best.
[The above article was written as a short response to an inquiry about the jinn and the possibility of their punishment in the Hereafter through fire. The article has been edited slightly to conform to an article format.]
References
Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn. Laqṭ al-marjān fī aḥkām al-jānn, pg. 30-34.
al-Haytamī, Ibn Ḥajar. Al-Fatāwā al-ḥadīthiyyah, pg. 68-69.
Bilal Ali is a teacher of Islamic studies by profession and a researcher in the Islamic sciences. He currently serves as a full-time instructor of the Arabic language, Islamic law, Hadith, and Islamic Doctrine at the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, IL and teaches Islamic law and history part-time for Darul Hikmah. His fields of specialization include Islamic law, hadith, and education.
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