Written by: Sa'ir al-Qassab
I thought I understood the world. That what we see and touch is all there is. I spoke of logic with the confidence of a scientist who has the answer to everything. But there is a moment in every person's life when that certainty collapses. A moment when they discover that the world is wider, deeper, and darker than they thought.
The signs begin silently, with a small idea that floats in and out of your mind, with a vague feeling that something is watching you when you are alone. At that point, logic no longer applies, because what is happening does not follow your rules. You talk to yourself to reassure yourself, but the darkness does not listen.
I saw with my own eyes how people cling to words they believe will protect them — "ward off," "fortify," "verse" — without realising that danger does not always come from outside, but from that door they left ajar inside themselves. How many have I seen chanting all night long, yet their hearts wide open to something they do not know, something that feeds on their fear and smiles when they think they are safe.
And here you realise the bitter truth: not everything that is sacred is pure, and not everything that is pure is innocent. There are grey areas, overlapping, where light and shadow intertwine and insight is lost. When you get there, your voice begins to tremble, because you finally see that what you considered logic was nothing more than an elegant myth dressed up as science.
When the barriers fall away and you walk in the middle of that grey area, where wisdom mixes with illusion and faith with danger, only then does your mind think honestly for the first time: what if my shield is nothing but an illusion? What if I am the one who opens the door... every time?
My name is Ibrahim, and my story took place when I was nineteen years old. I had two friends, Jiad and Rahim, who were a little younger than me.
We would always meet with men older than us, some of whom were elderly, and talk with them about the unseen, jinn, and their stories.
One day, I heard a story about a man who went to the desert and was possessed by a jinn, who spoke through him and told him about ancient treasures and buried riches. The idea took hold of me, and I began to wish for my own jinn! But young people who wish for such things do not know how dangerous they can be, especially if the jinn is a cunning disbeliever, one of those who corrupt faith and gradually destroy its owner until he dies in disbelief and misguidance.
I started researching and talking to my friends more, trying to understand why some people get possessed or haunted. We discovered that most of them enter abandoned places, cemeteries or deserts without mentioning the name of God, and so they are harmed by the jinn.
So, me, Jiad, and Rahim decided to go to the desert ourselves to see what would happen. We went at night, around nine or ten o'clock, and nothing happened except for a sudden cold breeze, even though the air was completely still, which made our bodies shiver.
Then we heard a strange sound from afar, incomprehensible words, so we left the place, not because we were afraid, but because we found nothing clear.
After a while, we decided to visit an old abandoned cemetery. It was far away in the desert, so I borrowed my friend Rahim's car and set off with Jiad in the afternoon, promising my mother that I would be back before nine.
We drove until we reached a sandy road about five kilometres from the main road, where we found the cemetery exactly as it had been described to us.
The cemetery was desolate, the graves were high and some of them were dilapidated, as if they were built rooms, and the footprints and cars indicated that someone had visited it before. I noticed that broken asphalt surrounded the place, and the cemetery had a single iron gate, old and rusty.
We entered laughing, without reciting prayers or supplications. The sun was setting and darkness was slowly creeping in. When I approached one of the large graves, I saw a narrow opening at its door. I stretched my head to look inside and saw a stone staircase leading down... And that is where the real story began.
We continued walking inside the cemetery, feeling hesitant and fearful, but not saying anything. I stretched my head inside the opening again and felt a strange coldness enveloping the place. I looked at Jiad and Rahim, who were staring inside like me, with only two small lamps to light our way.
I turned one of them on and saw a stone staircase leading down. I said to them:
– What do you think? Shall we go down?
We disagreed. One said, "You go down first," and the other said, "No, let's all go down together."
While we were arguing, I stretched my head out again and saw a face peering at me from the darkness!
I recoiled in terror, and my friends said to me:
"Maybe you're imagining things. Perhaps you saw something, because jinn can take shape, but there's no need to be afraid."
I approached the door and touched the iron with my hand, and it felt like an electric current had shot through my body! I screamed unconsciously, and Jiad and Rahim rushed to me, asking me what had happened.
I told them, trembling:
– I don't know... I felt a strong shock in my hand!
They said to me:
– You seem scared.
But it wasn't fear... it was something strange, as if the door itself was alive!
A few moments later, we heard a muffled sound from inside, then the door slowly opened and a strange-looking man came out, his face and clothes covered in dust, even his eyebrows looked like they were made of dust. He said to us in a hoarse voice: "Do not be afraid, I am human, the graveyard keeper. I clean and take care of the graves."
But the sight was terrifying. The cemetery was destroyed, showing no sign of care, and half of the graves were broken. The man spoke to us briefly, laughing strangely, and said: "Do you know that if you enter such places at night, the jinn will touch you?"
We exchanged glances, and I felt his features begin to change. His clothes suddenly became cleaner, and his face looked different, as if he were someone else. I froze in fear, and saw the dust return to cover his face again, and he shouted: "What's wrong with you? Why are you standing there? Move!"
He led us to a small room inside the cemetery and said:
– This is my room, where I sit when I work here.
We sat hesitantly, then the man left for a moment and returned with a small candle.
He said to us:
– Keep it close to you, there is no electricity here.
We lit the candle, and its light danced on the crumbling walls, making the place even more gloomy. I said to my companions: "We should leave soon. This man is not normal."
Suddenly... the light from the lamp reflected off the door, revealing a huge black dog behind it, staring at us with red eyes! We recoiled in terror, but Rahim said: "Maybe you're imagining things, Ibrahim. There's nothing there."
At that moment, we heard footsteps approaching, and the sound of a black cat jumping into the room and then disappearing. Then the door began to creak annoyingly, opened violently, and the candle went out at the same moment! The place was plunged into total darkness, and the lights were unable to illuminate anything, as if the light had been swallowed up.
In a matter of seconds, I saw a huge face looming out of the darkness, and a scream pierced the silence of the night.
Jiad fell on his back, Rahim collapsed on his face, and I lost my balance and fell to the ground unconscious.
I woke up in the morning to the sound of a man shouting at me:
– Who are you? What are you doing here?
I opened my eyes and saw that it was the same man we had seen at night, but he looked completely different!
His clothes were clean, his features calm and human, and there was no trace of dirt on his face.
He said anxiously:
– Your car outside is wrecked. What happened?
We told him everything that had happened, and he said:
– I do indeed work here. I come every month to clean the graves. Perhaps you saw a genie formed in my image.
Then he recited verses from the Qur'an and swore by God that he was human. My heart calmed down a little, and we left the place, but we found the car wrecked and the windows broken on all sides. The man said to us: "Go to a sheikh who will read over you, it seems that you have been touched."
Indeed, I returned home frightened. When my father saw me in the garden, his face paled at the sight of the car and my pale yellow complexion. He shouted, "What happened? Where have you been?"
I told him everything that had happened, and he immediately took me to a sheikh who recited the Qur'an to all of us. We did not show any obvious symptoms, but since that night I began to have nightmares. I would see faces made of dust approaching me in the dark, and hear whispers from the cemetery calling my name. The dreams continued for seven consecutive days, until I became afraid to sleep.
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