What is the authenticity of the jinn entering the human body?

Question:
Is it true what we hear about the jinn—may Allah protect us from them—entering the human body? And what is the meaning of the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): ?

Answer:
The scholars have mentioned that this occurs, that the jinn possesses a person, and that it moves through him as blood moves. The jinn are of various types, levels, and categories. Abu al-Abbas Ibn Taymiyyah, in his book *Iyadh al-Dalalah fi 'Umm al-Risalah*, reported the consensus of the scholars that the jinn enters the human being and speaks through his tongue. He transmitted this from the imams, and Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari reported it from the people of the Sunnah.
Whoever denies this has erred; he is contrary to the consensus of the people of the Sunnah and contrary to reality. People continue to see the jinn speaking through the tongue of a human being in a language other than the human's language, with a voice other than the human's voice, and with words that have no connection to the human being and which the human does not know. All of this is a reality.
When some people said to Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him), "They say that this is not correct," he said, "They are lying. There it is, speaking through his tongue, and we hear its speech."
Some people came to me—I myself heard the speech of the jinn, speech other than the speech of the one it possessed. It had entered a woman and spoken through her tongue. It conversed with me about things the woman did not know, and which had nothing to do with the woman. It mentioned that it was from India, that it was Buddhist in religion, and that it had entered her because of such and such. After some of the brothers advised it, it wanted to speak to me and leave in my presence. It came, informed me of the reality, and left, according to my knowledge and according to the woman's statement, that it had left her completely and did not return to her.
The point is that this is a reality for many people. The scholars see it, it speaks to them, and they speak to it, they make covenants with it, and it makes covenants with them, and then it leaves.
Abu al-Abbas Ibn Taymiyyah experienced many such incidents, as did Ahmad, and others among the scholars.
Sufficient for this is the authentic hadith narrated by the two Shaykhs in *al-Sahihayn* from Anas, from the story of Safiyyah: When some of the Ansar passed by and saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) speaking with Safiyyah in the mosque during the time of i'tikaf, and he had walked with her to turn her around at the door of the mosque, when they saw him they hurried away. He said: . They said: "Glory be to Allah, O Messenger of Allah!" He said: .