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• The Jinn – The Culprit of the Arabic World

  107-122

  Kinga Németh

  Views:

  154

  The article attempts to ponder on the prevalent religious beliefs, urban (vernacular) legends, everyday customs and traditions related to the figure of the jinn and its origins. The study will discuss the mentioned from the point of view of official Sunni Islam, in order to better unweave the disposition Islam towards superstitions and vernacular beliefs.  The aim of study is to provide the generic Islamic concept about the jinn and to place it into a context within the framework of individual interpretations of the interview subjects who reside in Kuwait, are Sunni Muslims, men, and women, between the age of 18-65. The applied resources were the Holy Quran, websites marked authentic for Quran interpretations, and contemporary and past literature written on the subject. Further, several interviews with the local Arabic community, blogs, articles of urban legends, and Ruqyah are the backbones of the present paper.

• Psychotherapeutic Journeys into the Spiritual World of Healing on the Wings of Gnawa Music: An Anthropological Study

  63-70

  Meryem Madili

  Views:

  101

  From the sufferings their art was born, from the torture they lived in during their life as slaves their music was created. From the torturing tools used on them they created their own musical instruments. From their screams as slaves, they composed a new music with unique rhythms. Gnawa become a cultural phenomenon in Morocco. A sufi confrerie imploring God, the prophet and the saints to release them from slavery, torture and the sufferings they encountered. Their music is considered spiritual because it calls souls to join its magic. Gnawa plays a psychotherapeutic role in healing people from various diseases through the practices of syncretic rituals and the trance state they put the participants into. All of these elements music, dances and rituals converge and synthesize into an event called lila a rich ceremony in which the sick tormented by spirits could get healed. This paper examines the practices and impact of the lila ceremony on the community from a psychological point of view revealing each step of the collective healing process and methods as used in the rituals.