their being seen impossible, for the Prophet ﷺ explicitly reported that he saw one of them and even thought of tying him so that everyone could look at him and the children of Madinah could play with him. The Qadi adds: It has been said that seeing the jinn in their created essence and original forms is impossible, according to the outward sense of the verse, except for the prophets—peace be upon them all—and for those to whom extraordinary phenomena are granted; human beings see them only in forms other than their own, as the reports indicate. I (al-Nawawi) reply: This is a mere allegation; unless it rests on sound evidence, it must be rejected. End of al-Nawawi’s words. This hadith is among the many texts on the basis of which the Qadiani sect is deemed unbelieving, for they do not acknowledge the world of the jinn affirmed in the Quran and the Sunnah. Their procedure for dismissing texts is well known: if the text is from the Quran, they distort its meaning—such as in the verse, “Say: it has been revealed to me that a group of the jinn listened” (72:1), which they claim means “a group of humans,” treating the word jinn as synonymous with “human beings”! In so doing they depart from both language and revelation. If the text is from the Sunnah, they either twist it with false interpretation when possible, or else summarily declare it invalid—even if all the hadith masters, and the entire ummah following them, have agreed on its soundness, indeed even if it is mutawatir. May Allah guide them. (1) Related by al-Daraqutni (no. 140), Ahmad (5/104–105), and al-Tabarani in al-Kabir through several chains from Simak ibn Harb, who heard Jabir ibn Samurah say: “We performed a prescribed prayer with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ …”—the wording is al-Daraqutni’s. Its chain is authentic according to Muslim’s criteria. The additional wording is reported by Ahmad with a good isnad from Abu Sa id al-Khudri. Further reports from a number of Companions will be mentioned at the place just indicated above.