Jinn, shaitan. How to expel him?

The problem associated with jinn and shaitans is one of the diseases that affects a lot of people today.

The disease caused by the jinn and shaitan occurs for two reasons:

1) when the genies themselves cause problems for people, disturb their peace, health, and harm them;

2) when genies enter people’s bodies not of their own free will, but by a conspiracy, a sorcerer’s spell, they are in the human body by force and often cannot leave the body until they are freed from witchcraft. Therefore, speaking about jinn , we must touch on two topics: talk about the world of jinn in order to have reliable information about it, and talk about the essence of witchcraft.

And we must immediately remind you: a Muslim must be treated for jinn only by permissible Sharia methods; it is unacceptable to turn to magicians, sorcerers, fortune-tellers, psychics or followers of any pagan cults.

Location of the genies

Jinns are found in abandoned places, in ruins, in deserts, and especially at night in stagnant waters. Therefore, when you approach standing waters at night, you must definitely say: “A’uҙu billahi mina-sh-shaitani-r-rajim ,” in order for the jinn to leave this place. They are found in places where there is uncleanness (najasa), in baths, in toilets and where garbage is thrown, in cemeteries of unbelievers, in markets, as well as in those places and houses where the Almighty is not remembered and the Koran is not read. And in those houses in which Allah is not remembered, which are considered destroyed, devastated, jinn .

Smokeless fire and a new iPhone

According to Muslim beliefs, jinn are indeed constantly near people. Historian-ethnographer Akhmet Yarlykapov explains: “The genies have their own world, this is a kind of civilization. They are not more powerful than humans, but they have different physics.” If a person does not believe in jinn, it means that he does not recognize the Koran as truth, adds journalist and writer Vladimir Sevrinovsky.

“Muslims believe that jinn live in a world parallel to ours. One day I heard such an amazing thing: “The genies are so advanced that we only have the iPhone 11, and they already have the iPhone 15,” says Sevrinovsky.

Jinns are material, but created from smokeless fire - plasma. In their usual form, they are invisible to the human eye, but there are folk legends that tell about the reincarnation of genies into people.

Polina Zherebtsova, a writer and human rights activist who grew up in Grozny, said in Chechen Diaries: “Once upon a time something like this happened. The man walked through the forest at night. He sees a fire. All the villagers rejoice, it’s a holiday. Feast on the mountain! He began to dance around the fire. And then I remembered that he had a pistol, and as usual, let’s shoot in the air. And it became dark and dark. He looked around, but there was no one! It was the spirits of the forest who were playing a joke on him. Jinns."

Illustration: Alina Kugush for TD

Like people, jinn are endowed with freedom of choice. It is believed that some of them are God-fearing and faithful to Allah, and some are evil (they are called shaitans). Sevrinovsky says: “The genies help or, conversely, cause mischief in a wide variety of ways. If one of them gets offended or falls in love, it can possess a person. I have heard stories about how male genies fell in love with girls, possessed them and drove away all potential suitors from their lovers.”

Akhmet Yarlykapov adds that, according to beliefs, evil genies will try to confuse and influence people until the last Judgment Day. This is what Iblis, the leader of the entire family of genies, ordered them to do. Since jinn are a reality for any Muslim believer, Islamic exorcism is a common practice.

Anthropologist and professor at the Center for Social Anthropology of the Russian State University for the Humanities Olga Khristoforova in the episode “Obsession in the Russian Village” of the podcast “Also Russia” noted: the concept of human possession by “some kind of supernatural agent” is found in almost every culture. From the point of view of modern secular medicine, possession or demonic possession can be explained by “very different conditions.” For example, the feeling of being possessed by a certain demon or spirit appears in healthy people with “banal monosuperstitiousness,” says Khristoforova. Also, those who suffer from hysterical or neurotic personality disorders or psychosis may seem “possessed”.

For example, one of the manifestations of obsession in some Russian villages, in particular in the Arkhangelsk region, is considered to be hiccups - a mythological character who inhabits women and forces them to behave in ways that are unusual for the female gender: swearing or expressing “male” thoughts and ideas .

“Among modern psychiatrists there is such a thing as “hiccup obsession syndrome,” which occurs in neuroses, psychoses and very different somatic conditions. As a rule, this is not necessarily associated with mental illness or non-illness, but is associated with somatic disorders: when a person has a sick stomach, for example, he reduces his painful symptoms to this condition [hiccups],” explains Khristoforova.

When does a genie manage to enter a person's body?

a genie to enter a person’s body when a person visits sorcerers, fortune-tellers and uses their services. And it should be noted that when a person goes to a sorcerer, he gradually loses his will and after that is not able to take a single independent step. If the first time he went to the sorcerer for a serious reason, then subsequently he is forced to turn to him for every trifle. Communication with sorcerers, in addition to taking away faith and dooming one to death in the future, already in this world makes a person dependent on these people.

A genie can enter a person to take revenge on him, if a person, for example, unwittingly damaged the genie’s or, by throwing a stone, injured one of the genies , and they, angry, enter the person and create health and mental problems for him. The genie easily enters when a person is in great sadness, anger, or laughs a lot (laughs). We know that excessive laughter kills the heart and it is not approved in Islam. Our beloved Messenger of Allah ﷺ mostly smiled.

Signs of illness. How to recognize that a person has been possessed by a genie?

There are a number of signs that indicate the presence of gin. The first sign is the aversion that a person feels towards worship on a physical level, not feeling the desire to pray, listen to the Koran and perform ablution, and not only does he not want to, but as if something is pushing him away from such actions. He cannot reach the mosque: some force is stopping him.

The presence of a genie can also be indicated by inappropriate behavior in familiar life situations: such a person may suddenly start shouting something, swearing, and after that he does not remember anything about his behavior.

Also signs may be a constant change in mood, when laughter is replaced by anger, a sudden deterioration in well-being, which can manifest itself both at the level of headaches and manifest itself in the form of paralysis of the limbs. People who are obsessed with gin are drawn to liquor and alcohol, may get into fights and refuse to start a family or have normal relationships.

Another indicator of the presence of genie is that people have terrible dreams all the time.

Among the diseases that can appear in a person as a result of exposure to gins is insanity, which can also be caused by medical reasons, but if doctors cannot make a diagnosis and indicate the cause of insanity, then the disease may be caused by gin.

Djinn can cause illnesses that have all the symptoms of depression: in such cases, a person withdraws into himself, is constantly sad, strives for solitude, and prefers to be in the dark or twilight.

For a person whose insanity is caused by the actions of the gin, there may be excessive nervous tension, he feels a constant loss of strength, worries about little things and is constantly worried. His memory deteriorates, he cannot think clearly, constant fears appear, and he begins to panic about loneliness. Such a person may also experience hallucinations and hear voices in his head, and those close to him periodically appear in animal form, he may experience physical pain, and it is impossible to establish a diagnosis, since the pain is constantly different. Women may experience signs and symptoms of infertility - uterine bleeding or inflammation, and the menstrual cycle is disrupted.

It is possible to prove that gin is the cause of the disease by reading the Koran.

Mechanism of witchcraft

The mechanism of witchcraft is as follows. There is a sorcerer and there is a person against whom witchcraft is done, a spell is read, certain rituals are performed, and there is a genie who will “serve” this witchcraft. That is, the genie is forcibly driven into the human body. And the enchanted genie will harm him depending on what he is entrusted with. There is also a genie who “serves” witchcraft from the information side. That is, when a person is sick or something happened, this genie brings the sorcerer information about how the patient’s day went, how he feels.

Witchcraft is one of the destructive sins. Whoever does not want to destroy his soul should not resort to the services of a sorcerer. A hadith narrated from Bukhari and Muslim says: “ Avoid the seven destructive sins .” The Prophet ﷺ was asked: “Which ones, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” He replied: " Shirk, witchcraft, murder, usury, eating the property of an orphan, fleeing during an attack, slandering innocent Muslims ." After shirk, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ named witchcraft: avoid it, he says. Another hadith says: “ Whoever came to the fortuneteller and believed what he said, he renounced what was revealed by the Almighty to Muhammad ﷺ, and the one who came to the fortuneteller without believing in him will not have prayer for 40 days. ” .

Sorcerers, when a certain person comes to them and begins to tell them, often say: “Don’t say anything, I know everything. Your father and mother are sick,” or they talk about other problems of the visitor. And this person thinks: “How did he know all this? He has a gift from Allah!” But in fact, this sorcerer receives information from those genies who know the history of this person. You need to beware of such people.

Another danger is that if a person undergoes treatment from a Muslim specialist and the treatment for some reason does not work, then this person begins to look for other ways, that is, he goes to sorcerers and psychics. He adds pagan rituals to Muslim treatment, forgetting that in fact it is not a Muslim specialist or a sorcerer who heals, but Allah Almighty. Therefore, it is necessary to use permitted methods of treatment and ask for healing from the Creator - only in this way will we find health, happiness and His contentment. We have our own methods of treatment, and they are in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah. We must use them because we know that only Allah heals, and if He pleases the treatment, then, inshaAllah, it will help.

What is witchcraft? Witchcraft and magic as a means of controlling genies

In order to understand how witchcraft can control genies and what banishment or treatment from genies should be, one must understand what witchcraft is and how it occurs.

Through witchcraft, sorcerers and magicians interact with genies, using spells and rituals. They do this with the aim of harming a person’s health or his property - after such witchcraft, people begin to get sick, they may even die from such diseases, and no treatment helps them, they may become enemies with other people, they may even break off relationships and leave their families, abandon those they love. As a result of such separations, children with living parents may become orphans. Witchcraft also prevents the birth of children, making a husband or wife temporarily infertile.

Witchcraft is aimed at the heart of people, that is, it affects the faith of a Muslim, his iman. As a result of witchcraft, bad feelings can arise in a person’s heart - hostility and irritation, anger and hatred, and also opposite feelings - love and attraction.

Witchcraft can affect a person’s mental state, contributing to diseases that cannot be treated: as a result of witchcraft, the nervous system and psyche can suffer. But even after expelling the genie or treatment, this does not solve his problems, since people remain from this witchcraft with consequences that worsen the patient’s condition so much that he may require drug treatment and constant assistance from doctors.

Qualities that one who cures jinn should have

1. Ikhlas – sincerity. Helping people is necessary only for the sake of Allah, because this is part of our faith, part of worship, and worship needs the right intention. The hadith says: “ Whoever has learned the knowledge that must be acquired for the sake of Allah’s pleasure in order to achieve a worldly goal will not even feel the smell of Paradise on the Day of Judgment ” (Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah). That is, if a certain person was specially trained to read the Koran in order to get worldly profit, then he will not even feel the smell of Paradise.

2. The reciter of the Koran needs deep knowledge of religion, especially in matters of aqida. Jinn come from different faiths and, when they enter into dialogue, they try to debate, but in doing so they can easily mislead a person - in the sense that a Muslim himself can fall into shirk.

For example, the genie might say, “Okay, I will leave this person for you.” And the doctor must answer him: “Go out for the sake of Allah, and not for the sake of me.”

3. Fear of God, compliance with Sharia. The reader of the Qur'an must fulfill his duties before the Almighty.

4. The ability to keep secrets, since people sometimes trust us with secret things that they cannot tell even to their closest ones, and the healer should not spread them.

5. It is necessary to have an understanding of psychology or psychotherapy in order to recognize: before us is a person who suffers from witchcraft, or is simply mentally ill.

How to protect yourself from witchcraft and the influence of genies?

If a Muslim wants to protect himself from the spells of sorcerers, then he should turn to the Almighty with a prayer that Allah will protect him from the devils and everything bad. It is said in a hadith narrated by Aisha that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that “ Precautionary measures do not save from predestination, but prayer helps from what has happened and from what will happen. Verily, misfortune comes down and meets dua, they meet in heaven and fight until the Day of Judgment .”

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ ordered to read the Koran, and if a Muslim cannot read it himself, then he should listen to others read it. A believer must read various duas in order to protect himself from jinn.

A Muslim must observe sunnat prayers and sunnat fasts, which strengthen iman, and must study his religion. He should not say bad things, try to be in ritual purity all the time, stay in the mosque as much as possible and turn his gaze away from the forbidden.

It is also recommended to read morning and evening adhkars, protection at night before going to bed, make dua before leaving the house and to cleanse the house from evil spirits, make dua for protection from shaitans and jinn in other situations that came from the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, for example, when taking off clothes, when having sex with your spouse, or when you eat, so that the shaitan does not eat with you. The above methods are an excellent means of preventing and treating gins.

Genie. How to expel him?

The problem associated with jinn and shaitans is one of the diseases that affects a lot of people today.

The disease caused by the jinn and shaitan occurs for two reasons:

1) when the genies themselves cause problems for people, disturb their peace, health, and harm them;

The world of the genies

In Russia, genies are called differently: demons, demons, brownies, etc. No matter what anyone says, we know that this world exists, and, trying to talk about this invisible world, we also find ourselves in some kind of difficulty. After all, this world is invisible, and we cannot fully explore its inhabitants. But we, Muslims, must know that belief in jinn is from a sacred faith. That is, just as we believe in angels, although we do not see them, in the same way we are obliged to believe in genies . Because whoever denies the existence of jinn contradicts the Quran and Sunnah, since in the Quran jinn are mentioned in 10 suras, approximately 40 verses, and there is also a separate sura called “Jinns”.

A hadith narrated from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) states that the Prophet ﷺ said: “The barrier between the son of Adam and the jinn is the words of a Muslim when he takes off his clothes if he says: “ Bismillahi lazi la ilaha illa huwa rrahmanu rrahim. ” (Tirmidhi). Another hadith says: “Whoever, leaving home, says: “Bismillah, wa tawakkaltu ala Allah wa la hawla wala quwwata illa billahil aliyil azim,” will be on the right path, the Almighty will protect him from the jinn, and the shaitan will distance himself from him. "(Abu Daoud, Tirmidhi, an-Nasai).

The Qur'an and Sunnah say that jinn were created before humans. We also know that they eat, drink, marry, multiply; they see us, but we don't see them. We can see them only when they materialize in some kind of physical body. And when they want us to see them, they take the form of some animals or people. They are intelligent beings, and, like people, they are also obliged to worship the Almighty, and on the Day of Judgment they will answer for their actions. Jinns are similar to people in that among them there are Muslims and non-Muslims, there are jinn of different faiths, and there are atheists. Some people think that there are no believers among them, but the Koran says that there are believers and unbelievers the jinn They enter the bodies of people and animals.

We also know that they differ from people and from angels in their qualities, since the Almighty created angels from nur, jinn from fire, and people from clay.

The Almighty gave the jinn such strength that they can turn into any creature, be it an animal, an insect, etc. The Almighty also gave the jinn speed, and they move faster than the wind; they are not held back by any barriers, such as houses, fortresses, closed doors, windows, etc., but at the same time they cannot enter that house where the door is locked with the remembrance of Allah Almighty, the dishes are covered with the remembrance of Allah, etc. n. No matter how powerful they are, they cannot enter such a house and harm the people there. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Truly the Shaitan , the jinn cannot open the door that is locked with the name of Allah, and you close your bags with the remembrance of Allah, saying: “Bismillahi Rrahmani Rrahim” , cover your dishes, also remembering Allah, and when you go to bed, turn it off light".

What is witchcraft?

Witchcraft is the arbitrary interaction of a sorcerer with genies , when spells or pagan rituals are used, resulting in damage, harm to a person’s health, his property, and his relationship with other people. Sorcerers cause enormous damage to society: as a result of their activities, people get sick and often die from disease; neighbors, friends, relatives become enemies, families break up; people who love each other are doomed to suffer, separated. Children with living parents become orphans. Healthy people cannot have offspring, pregnant women cannot preserve the fetus. The danger of witchcraft also lies in the fact that it affects the heart. The heart is the place where our faith, iman, is located. And witchcraft directly affects the heart, causing various feelings in it, such as love, hatred, anger, irritation, hostility.

Mental illness due to witchcraft

When a person is sick due to witchcraft, his psyche and nervous system are disturbed, and physiological changes often occur in the human body, including pathologies.

But we must understand that witchcraft is only one part of the problem. After we have expelled the genie and destroyed witchcraft, the consequences of this witchcraft still remain in a person, and here medical assistance is often required.

Location of the genies

Jinns are found in abandoned places, in ruins, in deserts, and especially at night in stagnant waters. Therefore, when you approach standing waters at night, you must definitely say: “Auzu billahi mina shshaitani rajim ,” so that the genies leave this place. They are found in places where there is uncleanness (najasa), in baths, in toilets and where garbage is thrown, in cemeteries of unbelievers, in markets, as well as in those places and houses where the Almighty is not remembered and the Koran is not read. And in those houses in which Allah is not remembered, which are considered destroyed, devastated, jinn .

When does a genie manage to enter a person's body?

What diseases does the genie cause?

The genie can cause insanity. It can also be caused by medical reasons. But, as we know, in the case when it is from the jinn , doctors cannot make a diagnosis. As if everything is fine, but the person complains, and it is noticeable that he is not in his right mind. The genie creates a state of sadness in a person, the person withdraws into himself, constantly seeks solitude, loves darkness or twilight, lingers in the toilet for a long time, and stops taking care of himself.

The genie creates excessive nervous tension, exhaustion, anxiety, constant worry, and loss of strength. People feel like someone is taking away their energy. Some kind of instigation, wandering thoughts that are not characteristic of this person, lack of clarity, freshness, peace in the head, memory deterioration. Sometimes a person thinks that this happens in everyone's head, but in fact it is a disease. The genie causes strong fears and horror, and can cause fear of loneliness and darkness. A person begins to hear voices or conversations inside himself, and hallucinations begin. The patient may see his loved ones in a disgusting form, for example, a husband sees his wife or a wife sees her husband in some kind of animal guise or as if a person has horns growing. In this case, if a person sees a person in a similar form, then the problem is not with that person, but with the one who sees him - so he is the patient in whom the genie .

The genie makes a person become overly irritable, touchy, begins to argue with everyone, and something elusive appears in him that repels people. There may be some pain in the body, wandering pain. That is, today your kidneys hurt, tomorrow your legs hurt, and you can’t figure out what’s hurting you, and doctors also can’t make a correct diagnosis. Or a person’s stomach begins to move - the person sits, does not make any effort or movement, but feels how his stomach moves. Possible pain in the stomach or back. In women the genie contributes to infertility, there are uterine bleeding, cycle disruption, all kinds of inflammation of the female organs, and back pain. Men also experience infertility, impotence, and may experience premature ejaculation.

By reading the Koran, you can burn the genie , so the genie is afraid to enter a person who prays, reads the Koran, who has a connection with the Almighty. Therefore, basically the jinn are among those who are far from Allah, far from fulfilling the requirements of Sharia.

Mechanism of witchcraft

Qualities that one who cures jinn should have

For example, the genie might say, “Okay, I will leave this person for you.” And the doctor must answer him: “Go out for the sake of Allah, and not for the sake of me.”

3. Fear of God, compliance with Sharia. The reader of the Qur'an must fulfill his duties before the Almighty.

4. The ability to keep secrets, since people sometimes trust us with secret things that they cannot tell even to their closest ones, and the healer should not spread them.

5. It is necessary to have an understanding of psychology or psychotherapy in order to recognize: before us is a person who suffers from witchcraft, or is simply mentally ill.

Signs pointing to a genie

One of the signs of jinn is aversion to worship: the person physically feels an aversion to worship. He does not want to pray, perform ablution, cannot listen to the Koran, something repels him from these actions. Let's say a person wants to go to the mosque, gets to the mosque - and some force stops him, he cannot go inside and returns back. Another sign of jinn or witchcraft can be inappropriate behavior: it happens that a person is sitting and suddenly shouts something from his seat or swears. And when he comes to his senses, you ask him why he did this - he doesn’t understand anything, doesn’t remember anything.

Paralysis of the body or some organ may occur. Signs of obsession may include quick anger followed by laughter, frequent headaches without a medical reason that are not helped by painkillers. A person talks to himself, he has strange behavior, he is drawn to alcohol, smoking, fighting, he can hit someone and says: “That’s not me.” Such people have unpleasant, swollen faces, some voices or music in their heads, and reluctance of young people to get married. That is, it happens that a girl doesn’t seem to mind getting married, but when it comes to matchmaking, she has horrors, fear, and if yesterday she saw the groom as a nice person, then by the time of matchmaking she already begins to hate him, or vice versa...

Sometimes a person sees terrible, terrible dreams. But this, like everything else that we listed above, is not yet evidence that the cause of these phenomena is a genie. Reading the Koran can confirm our diagnosis; only after reading it can we say whether there is a genie inside a person or not.

A person who has been diagnosed with a genie must be patient and carry out treatment, and must also be content with the decision of the Almighty. Because the 6th pillar of iman (faith) is that everything good and bad happens by the will of Allah, this is our test, and the Almighty gives tests to everyone.

The Almighty says in the Quran (meaning): “ Do you not know that Allah knows what is in the heavens and on the earth? Verily this is in the Scripture, verily it is easy for Allah ” (Sura “Hajj”, verse 70).

Tips for readers on how to save themselves from genies and witchcraft

It is necessary to sincerely ask the Almighty to protect us from jinn , shaitans and everything bad. Prayer must come from the heart. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “At the time of the end of the world there will be such great turmoil that people will die in it, and only the one who asks as fervently as a drowning person calls will be saved . In the hadith narrated by Aisha (may Allah be pleased with him), it is said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Precautions do not save from predestination, but prayer helps from what has happened and from what will happen. Truly misfortune descends and meets dua, they meet in heaven and fight until the Day of Judgment .

Read the dua: “ Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun ”, “ La hawla wala quwwata illa billah ”, “ Hasbunallahu wa nimal vakil ”, “ Ayatul Kursi ”, suras: “ al-Ikhlas ”, “ Falak ”, “ an-Nas ” . Read the Qur'an more, and if you cannot read it yourself, then listen to the reading. Because the mercy of the Almighty is sent down to the place where the Koran is read, and the place where there is the Rahmat of Allah is not a place for shaitans, jinn . It is also advisable to read different duas: duas that are read when entering and leaving the toilet, before eating and after eating; remember the Almighty by doing dhikr and asking Him for forgiveness. Read istiaza ( "auzubillahi mina shshaitani rajim" ) in places where garbage is thrown, in ruined houses, when you approach standing waters.

You need to try to fast, keep sunnat fasts, sunnat prayers, strengthen your iman, study religion. You need to try to constantly be in ablution, eat and drink in the name of Allah, keep your eyes away from the forbidden, not speak bad, protect your tongue from gossip, stay in mosques more, because mosques are the houses of Allah on earth, and angels and good people gather there , the adhan sounds. And we know from the reliable hadiths of the Prophet ﷺ that when the muezzin shouts the adhan, the shaitan runs away to such a distance where the adhan cannot be heard. It is necessary to be with good, God-fearing people, ulama. The Koran says (meaning): “ Fear Allah and be with righteous people ” (Sura Tawbah, verse 119). That is, if we make friends with people who have only Allah in their hearts and on their tongues, then because of their grace, the shaitan and the jinn will also move away from us. Beware of gatherings where there is alcohol, gambling, etc., because this is where the jinn . Under no circumstances should you pour hot water on the ground, especially in baths and toilets, without saying: “ Auzubillahi mina shshaitani rajim.” Bismillahi rrahmani rrahim ,” because, as we have already said, it is in these places that jinn and shaitans are found. Try to be consistent in jamaat prayers. When you hear the barking of dogs and the cry of donkeys, read “Auza”, because they scream when they see the shaitan .

We must beware of cursing Muslims, do not humiliate them, do not accuse them of unbelief, and protect your tongue from gossip and false witness. It is necessary to get rid of those photographs where the awrat is visible; you should cover your mouth when you yawn; Do not eat food with your left hand.

If a person takes 7 Azhwa dates every day on an empty stomach, they will help against witchcraft and poison. Some scholars say that if Azhwa dates are not available, then Medina dates also help.

May Allah Almighty save us all from the evil of jinn and witchcraft, send peace and tranquility to our homes and strengthen iman in our hearts! Amen, I am Mujeeb!

Source

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“It’s a storm, you can’t see anything, and we’re singing on the minaret.”

The tradition of expelling evil spirits and treating the possessed was not interrupted during Soviet times. “This part of the beliefs in Islam, especially in “folk” Islam, has always existed. In Soviet times, people in the Caucasus believed almost without exception - and it didn’t matter whether they were communists or not,” says Yarlykapov.

Since the official religion was therefore in limited conditions, folk forms of religion began to gain strength. Many went to the mullahs for amulets to protect them from the jinn.

“In my area [of Dagestan], this was widespread,” says Yarlykapov. — A lot of people believed that the jinn caused them harm, for example, provoked some kind of disease. Mullahs began to practice openly sometime after the 1960s. In Stalin's time this was, of course, impossible. In the 1970s and 80s, party members also visited the mullahs. Officially, the party tried to fight the growing influence of Islam, but it was impossible to contain it.”

Ilham recalls that in his native Nizhny Novgorod region there were many Muslims and they really tried to fight them. “During communism, minarets were cut, the Tatars themselves were forced to do this - Islam was banned. Mosques were turned into grain warehouses and maternity hospitals. Muslims prayed secretly, hiding in cemeteries to do this,” he says.

Everything changed for Ilham's family in June 1988. On June 4, an explosion occurred in neighboring Arzamas: a carriage loaded with explosives exploded near the local railway station. All buildings within a radius of two kilometers were damaged. Some houses collapsed. According to official data, 91 people were killed and another 744 were injured. In fact, there were even more victims of the explosion: some families were left homeless.

“After the explosion, Muslims in our village chipped in and took money to the victims. After this they were given permission to build a mosque. They said that even the local priests were surprised: “But they didn’t give us permission [to open the church]!” - Ilham recalls. — The locals erected a minaret and began to openly read a sermon to the people. Two hundred people came to prayer. Three district party representatives were also present. But what could they do against the people?

Then the Tatar believers came to Ilham’s grandfather. They asked him to become a mullah. Then the man worked as a builder and welder, he knew only a couple of suras. There were other mullahs, of course, explains Ilham, but by that time they were already old and were gradually dying.

“So the locals started asking my grandfather: “Learn, become a mullah, there is no one who could even bury our dead correctly,” Ilham recalls. - And grandfather began to study. I think it helped him that he knew how to talk to people. The experience of working with people is the most important. Even if you study at a madrasah, the experience of working with people is still invaluable. Different people come to mullahs and imams: the sick, the poor, and the rich, you need to find an approach. So that a person leaves you with a smile.”

The grandfather gladly took his grandson to the mosque. Ilham remembers how his grandfather carried him in his arms and showed him everything in the mosque.

“I remember during Ramadan, he and I walked through the snowdrifts to the mosque: before there was a lot of snow. They went up to the minaret to sing religious songs, in order to at least somehow inspire the people. It’s a snowstorm, you can’t see anything, but grandpa and I are singing.”

After a pause, Ilham adds: “I still have warm memories of those times.”