and their meaning, whatever the category involved. Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was sent to humankind and the jinn.

The great majority of nations acknowledge the jinn and have had encounters with them that would take too long to describe. Only a small handful of ignorant philosophizers, physicians, and the like have denied the jinn. As for their leading figures, they are either reported to have acknowledged them, or are not known to have expressed any view on the matter.

Hippocrates is known to have said concerning certain waters:

“They are beneficial for epilepsy. I do not mean the kind treated by temple practitioners, but rather the epilepsy treated by physicians.”

He is also reported to have said:

“Our medicine, compared with that of temple practitioners, is like the medicine of old women compared with ours.”

Those who deny this have no evidence on which to base their denial. All they have is a lack of knowledge, since their discipline contains nothing that would establish it. A physician, for example, examines the body in terms of its health and the illnesses related to its constitution. This does not address what arises from the soul or from the jinn, even if he has learned outside his medical discipline that the soul has a tremendous influence on the body—greater than that of medical causes. The jinn likewise influence the body, as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said in an authentic hadith:

“Indeed, Satan courses through the son of Adam as blood does.”

He courses through the blood, which is the vapor that physicians call the vital spirit, emanating from the heart and circulating through the body, by which the body lives, as