Academic Editors: Lenart Škof and Alberto Parisi Received: 23 June 2025 Revised: 20 August 2025 Accepted: 29 August 2025 Published: 31 August 2025 Citation: Malik, Shoaib Ahmed. 2025. Fakhr al-D¯ın al-R ¯ az¯ı on the Existence and Nature of the Jinn. Religions 16: 1141. https:// doi.org/10.3390/rel16091141 Copyright: © 2025 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/). Article Fakhr al-D¯ın al-R ¯ az¯ı on the Existence and Nature of the Jinn Shoaib Ahmed Malik School of Divinity, New College, Mound Pl., Edinburgh EH1 2LX, UK; shoaib.malik@ed.ac.uk Abstract This article reconstructs Fakhr al-D¯ın al-R ¯ az¯ı’s (d. 1210) systematic treatment of the jinn in his Great Exegesis (al-Tafs¯ır al-Kab¯ır) and his summa The Sublime Objectives in Metaphysics (al- Mat . ¯ alib al- , ¯ Aliya min al- , Ilm al-Il ¯ ah¯ı). In these works, al-R ¯ az¯ı treats the jinn not as a marginal curiosity but as a test case for probing core metaphysical categories such as substance, embodiment, and divine action. His analysis unfolds through a sequence of guiding questions. Do the jinn exist at all? If not, we arrive at (1) the Denialist View. If they do exist, they must be either immaterial or material. The first yields (2) the Immaterialist View. The second raises the further question of whether bodies differ in essence or share a single essence. If they differ, we arrive at (3) the Non-Essentialist Corporealist View. Notably, these first three views are associated, in different ways, with various figures in the falsafa tradition. If they share a single essence, this produces the Essentialist Corporealist position, which then divides according to whether bodily structure is metaphysically necessary for life and agency. If not necessary, this produces (4) the Essentialist Corporealist—Structural Independence View, associated with the Ash , ar¯ıs. If necessary, it leads to (5) the Essentialist Corporealist—Structural Dependence View, associated with the Mu , tazil¯ıs. Al-R ¯ az¯ı rejects (1) and (5), but he leaves (2), (3), and (4) as live possibilities. While he shows greater sympathy for (4), his broader purpose is not to settle the matter but to map the full range of theological and philosophical options. Al-R ¯ az¯ı’s comprehensive exposition reflects the wider dialectic between falsafa, Ash , ar¯ı theology, and Mu , tazil¯ı theology, showcasing a sophisticated willingness to engage and entertain multiple metaphysical possibilities side by side. The result is an exercise in systematic metaphysics, where the question of the jinn, as liminal beings, becomes a means for interrogating broader ontological commitments in Islamic theology and philosophy. Keywords: Fakhr al-D¯ın al-R ¯ az¯ı; jinn; kal ¯ am; Ash , ar¯ı theology; Mu , tazil¯ı theology; falsafa; Ibn S¯ın¯ a; Neoplatonism Introduction Islamic cosmology, as derived from the Qur - ¯ an, traditionally envisions a multilayered creation in which three principal categories of sentient beings coexist under divine gover- nance: humans (ins), jinn, and angels (mal ¯ a - ika). Each occupies a distinct ontological station, yet all share in some degree of moral responsibility, agency, and interaction with the divine will (MacDonald 1965; Inati 1998; Kassim 2007; Burge 2024). Humans, originally fashioned from clay, serve as terrestrial agents endowed with choice and trial. 1 Angels, formed of pure light, are obedient spiritual beings who execute divine commands without deviation. 2 Between these two poles stands the category of the jinn, created from smokeless fire (m¯ arij min n ¯ ar), existing in unseen realms, and endowed with both moral responsibility and freedom of will. 3 The jinn thus occupy a unique ontological middle ground: like humans, Religions 2025, 16, 1141 https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091141