Ghosts can harm (if the Almighty will it to be so), they too are beings which do exist .
http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa/belief/jinn.html
Genie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie#Jinn_in_Islam
Genie is the English term for the Arabic جني (jinnie). In pre-Islamic Arabian mythology and in Islam, a jinni (also “djinni” or “djini”) is a member of the jinn (or “djinn”), a race of supernatural creatures. The word “jinn” literally means anything which has the connotation of concealment, invisibility, seclusion, and remoteness.
Etymology and definitions
Genie is the usual English translation of the Arabic term jinni, but it is not an Anglicized form of the Arabic word, as is commonly thought. The English word comes from French génie, which meant a spirit of any kind, which in turn came from Latin genius, which meant a sort of tutelary or guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. The Latin word predates the Arabic word jinni, and the two terms have not been shown to be related. The first recorded use of the word in English was in 1655 as geny, with the Latin meaning. The French translators of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights later used the word génie as a translation of jinni because it was similar to the Arabic word both in sound and in meaning; this meaning was also picked up in English and has since become dominant. The plural, according to Sir Richard Francis Burton, is Jan.
----
from the same article
Jinn in Islam
The jinn are said to be creatures with free will, made from 'smokeless fire' by God (the literal translation being “subtle fire”, i.e., a fire which does not give itself away through smoke), much in the same way humans were made of earth. According to the Recitation, jinn have free choice, and Iblis used this freedom in front of God by refusing to bow to Adam when God told Iblis to do so. By refusing to obey God’s order he was thrown out of the Paradise and called “Shaitan” (See Shaitan). In the Qur'an, jinn are frequently mentioned and Sura 72 of the Qur'an named Al-Jinn is entirely about them. Another Sura (Al-Naas) mentions the Jinn in the last verse. In fact, it is mentioned in the Qur'an that Muhammad was sent as a prophet to both “humanity and the jinn”.
The jinn have communities much like human societies: they eat, marry, die, etc. They live in tribes and have boundaries. They follow the same religions as humans do, and follow the same ranks in armies as humans do. Jinns can settle in a vast area to a tiny hole, as they are massless and can be fit into any space they find sufficient for them. They are invisible to humans, but they can see humans. Sometimes they accidentally or deliberately come into view or into contact with humans. Jinn are believed to live much longer than humans: some of whom are said to be still alive have seen Mohammad (who lived during the 7th century), which would affirm their long life. Much like humans, djinn have learned to assimilate into the human world when they desire to do so. In many cases they live unnoticed among people marked only by the rather unusual or somewhat secretive practises they keep. They cannot breed with humans. One power that all of their descendants seem to keep despite dilution of their bloodline is invisibility.
Jinn can transform themselves into humans and can be summoned by humans. In Islam, humans attempting to perform black magic on humans call Jinn specializing in dirty deeds to perform the magic; such black magic on humans can only be undertaken by dark Jinn - “Ifrit” or “Marid”. In many Islamic countries there are people who perform or supposedly perform black magic (usually for cursing other people, or using jinns to influence a marriage to end in divorce, etc) in exchange for money. Thus, a person often pays a magician, who then calls upon a dark djinn, who then performs the magic, at least supposedly.
Linear Mode
