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I was reading through owari's answer here and he mentioned somewhere that

The Humans and Elves have intellect by which they.....etc..

and I was quite shocked to know that he referred to Elves as actual beings instead of just being fictional characters.

Are there any Islamic references to the existence of Elves? Can you please describe them a bit more.

Thanks

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    I think he meant Jinn.
    – Abdullah
    Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 17:13
  • you could ask this as comment
    – rowman
    Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 18:36
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    Sorry! I changed "Elf" to "Jinn" in my answer, Jinn comes from the Arabic root Jananah (جَنَنَ) with a meaning related to the words hiding and covering, from the same root are Jannah (the Garden), Jonnah (shield, screen), Janin (embryo) and Majnoon (insane). Jinn is a specific being covered from humans' eyes, but like there are different races for Humans, dogs, cats and etc. it is also commonly believed as there are also some different races between Jinn's. There are perhaps many kinds of Jinns, all being hidden from us, but as I don't know the exact translation of the names let me skip this.
    – owari
    Commented Oct 25, 2012 at 19:19

3 Answers 3

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This is a mistranslation I believe. There is no concept of "Elves" in Islam, but it does have the concept of "jinn" (also spelled djinn). But it is a common error. Arab culture also doesn't have Elves, so when the word Elf (in English) is translated to Arabic it is usually translated as jinn, as they are the closes beings in Arab culture to Elves. So sometimes people think the reverse is true.but the arabic islamic meaning of ELVES or Djinn is closest to demons and devils or any light creature made by Allah so the pictures of elves like in LOTR or the Hobbit doesn't match the islamic meanings or anything mentionned in Koraan

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  • There has been made an edit to your post by anonymous user, which should probably be a comment which reads "but the arabic islamic meaning of ELVES or Djinn is closest to demons and devils or any light creature made by Allah so the pictures of elves like in LOTR or the Hobbit doesn't match the islamic meanings or anything mentionned in Koraan"
    – servant-of-Wiser
    Commented May 9, 2015 at 18:19
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I don't know much about Arab culture, but in Persian culture today we use the term pari ("elves") to refer to female jinn, and we believe that everything mentioned in Qur'an about jinn applies to elves as well.

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LOTOR, is a modern reinterpretation of Elf, just like orcs are linguistically tied to ogres(a derivative of the Etruscan god Ocer), not the dark elves they more closely resemble. In Classical Norse myth elves are often treated as some what equal with most of the gods having their own realm independent from the gods in every way and being worshiped or at least venerated in Midgard like nature spirits. They are magical and spiritual beings very similar to Jinn. They also seam rather close to the Fairy's of Celtic lore.

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  • The question is asking for an Islamic reference; I don't see that this post provides that.
    – goldPseudo
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 18:55

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