سورة الجن

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Zurarah said: I asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) about the saying of Allah the Mighty and Majestic: وَ أَنَّهُ کانَ رِجالٌ مِنَ الْإِنْسِ یَعُوذُونَ بِرِجالٍ مِنَ الْجِنِّ فَزادُوهُمْ رَهَقاً [And that persons from among men used to seek refuge with persons from among jinn, so they increased them in wrongdoing]. He said: 'A man would go to a soothsayer to whom Satan gave revelation, and would say: Tell your such-and-such satan that so-and-so has sought refuge with you.'

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): وَ أَنَّهُ کانَ رِجالٌ مِنَ الْإِنْسِ یَعُوذُونَ بِرِجالٍ مِنَ الْجِنِّ فَزادُوهُمْ رَهَقاً [And that persons from among men used to seek refuge with persons from among jinn, so they increased them in wrongdoing]; the jinn would come down to a group of people and report to them the news they had heard in the sky, before the birth of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), and people would foretell things based on the jinn's reports. The meaning of فَزادُوهُمْ رَهَقاً is that they increased their loss; bakhs means diminution and rahaq means punishment. And His saying: کُنَّا طَرائِقَ قِدَداً [We were of different ways] means we had different creeds.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): When fear afflicts any of you, or you alight in a land of jinn, say: أَعُوذُ بِکَلِمَاتِ اللهِ التَّامَّاتِ الَّتِی لَا یُجَاوِزُهُنَّ بَرٌّ وَ لَا فَاجِرٌ مِنْ شَرِّ ما یَلِجُ فِی الْأَرْضِ وَ ما یَخْرُجُ مِنْها وَ ما یَنْزِلُ مِنَ السَّماءِ وَ ما یَعْرُجُ فِیها وَ مِنْ فِتَنِ اللَّیْلِ وَ مِنْ طَوَارِقِ النَّهَارِ إِلَّا طَارِقاً یَطْرُقُ بِخَیْرٍ [I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah, which neither the righteous nor the wicked can transgress, from the evil of what enters the earth and what comes out of it, and what descends from the sky and what ascends into it, and from the trials of the night and from the visitations of the day, except a visitor who comes with good]. And Allah revealed concerning this: وَ أَنَّهُ کانَ رِجالٌ مِنَ الْإِنْسِ یَعُوذُونَ بِرِجالٍ مِنَ الْجِنِّ فَزادُوهُمْ رَهَقاً [And that persons from among men used to seek refuge with persons from among jinn, so they increased them in wrongdoing].

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him), regarding this very verse: وَ أَنَّهُ کانَ رِجالٌ مِنَ الْإِنْسِ یَعُوذُونَ بِرِجالٍ مِنَ الْجِنِّ [And that persons from among men used to seek refuge with persons from among jinn], says: "In the Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic era of ignorance), when some people would spend the night in a valley, they would say: 'I seek refuge with the mighty one of this valley!' — and this only increased them in hardship and misguidance."

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): فَزادُوهُمْ رَهَقاً [so they increased them in wrongdoing] means the jinn and men added a sin to their sins, upon the disobediences and disbelief they were already in.