bringing spirits or jinn to serve another's purposes while they still act by their own nature
In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works
Risālat al-Manāmāt wa-l-Nubuwwāt
subjugation of spirits — explanation
In al-Manāmāt, subjugations of spirits ascribed to the planets are listed among the extraordinary effects whose inward cause is known, alongside effects whose cause is not known and effects that arise by nature.
Limits of this account
It does not establish the efficacy of every claimed practice or a general definition of spirit.
al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān
what subjugation is
Al-Mīzān defines taskhīr as making a thing compliant such that its own activity serves the purposes of the one who subjugates it. It expressly distinguishes this from compulsion, coercion and force: the subjugated thing continues to act according to its own nature, as fire burns for someone who uses it or a hired worker performs the work for which they were engaged. Alongside that general account it identifies an occult discipline, the art of subjugations, which claims to reach higher spirits and jinn.
Limits of this account
The general account defines taskhīr; it does not by itself establish the narrower compound taskhīr al-arwāḥ. The report of the discipline says what it claims to do; it endorses neither its efficacy nor any general theory of spirits.
Read in context
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