Preface - DREAMS IN ISLAM

PREFACE

This book on the subject, ‘Dreams in Islam’, is published in the Ansari Memorial Series in honor of my teacher and Shaikh of blessed memory, Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari Al-Qaderi (1914-1974).  Had we not acquired the authentic Sufi epistemology from that great teacher at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Karachi, Pakistan, we could not have written this book. Let me at the very outset hasten to make an important distinction, which Iqbal also made, between authentic Sufism and the many forms of pseudo-Sufism that have lately emerged.  In all our references in this book to Sufism we identify with the Sufism of men like Ghous al-‘Azam, Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (who was Iqbal’s mentor), Shaikh al-Akbar, Muhiuddin Ibn ‘Arabi, Imam al Ghazzali, Imam Ibn Taimiyyah and others.

‘Dreams in Islam’ is a subject whose supreme importance for the believer continues to increase as the world becomes increasingly godless and as the historical process draws to a close. The Prophet sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam  said:

“When the time (of the end of the world) draws close, the dreams of a believer will hardly fail to come true, and a dream of a believer is one of the forty-six parts of prophethood.”

(Bukhari)

We pray that Allah (st) may make it possible for a Muslim psychologist of the caliber and competence of my dear friend, Dr. Malik Badri, to write a comprehensive work on the subject in the English language at some time in the future Insha Allah.  (Cf. his masterly work entitled, ‘The Dilemma of the Muslim Psychologist’).  If a comprehensive work on Dreams in Islam were to be written now it would, I believe, be the first work on the subject ever to be written in the English language. 

One of the signs of the last age, i.e., before the end of the world, is the absence of knowledge (of Truth and, therefore of Islam).  Our widespread ignorance of the subject of ‘Dreams’ and the important place which ‘Dreams’ occupy in Islam, (as well as the widespread ignorance of the subject of the Prohibition of Riba in Islam), is yet another indication that the last age has arrived!  I was myself largely ignorant of the subject and, as a consequence, Satan attacked me through dreams for ten long miserable years.  I did not have the basic knowledge of the subject that the reader can now easily obtain by reading this booklet, and which could have protected me from those dangerous attacks and from the grievous damage that they inflicted on me and my family.

Dreams are sometimes classified as of three kinds, ‘good and true’ dreams - which come from Allah (st), ‘evil’ dreams or ‘nightmares’ - which come from Satan, and dreams that emanate from our own ‘self’. The minimum knowledge of the subject which every believer should have is the knowledge with which to be able to classify his or her own dreams and thus to be able to recognize a dream which has come from Satan.  That is indispensable since protective action from such a dream must be taken immediately after one wakes from sleep.

When the same dream has been repeated at different places in the text it is because the dream has a multidimensional application.

There are many who will read this booklet and who can add to its importance by allowing us to include in a future edition some of the important dreams that they have had. There may even be a reader or two who has been blessed by Allah (st) with the capacity to interpret dreams.  Some thirty years ago I dreamt Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi lifting me in his arms and taking me up into the sky.  It was surely a good dream. And it may be that someone who reads this book may be able to interpret that dream for me.

This book was written at great speed because of time constraints.  I did not have the time to devote to the study and analysis of the dreams that the Prophet sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam  and his companions saw.  And that was such a great pity.  Basit Bilal Koshul was the only one close to me to whom I could turn for a critical review of the MS, and he kindly put aside his doctoral research work to respond to my call. The brothers, Shaheed and Husman Bacchus, also assisted in proof-reading. May Allah bless them.  Ameen.

I pray to Allah (st) to bless this humble effort in the cause of Truth and forgive me my sins.  And I pray that this booklet may be of benefit to the reader and may make such a positive contribution to his/`her inner purification and growth that he/she may be blessed with a nur (light) with which to see and recognize the godless world which is today all around us, and the ‘dregs’ of humanity which today control it. 

Ameen!

 INH

Masjid Darul Qur’an,Long Island, New York. USA.

Muharram 1418May 1997

PS

At the funeral of my beloved friend and brother, Shaikh Alphahim  Job, which took place on Saturday May 31, 1997 in New York, two extraordinary dreams were related to me.  I interrupted the printing of this book so that they could also be included.  Those dreams are to be found on pages ..........

End. Notes - Bibliography

• 1. Muhammad Iqbal: ‘Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam’.  Lahore. Institute of Islamic Culture. 1986.  p. 6.
• 2.  Iqbal. Op.cit. p. 148-9.
• 3. Ansari: The Quranic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society.  World Federation of Islamic Missions. Karachi.  Vol. 1. p. 152 fn
• 4.  Iqbal. Op. Cit. p.4.
• 5.  Iqbal. Op. Cit. p.v
• 6.  Iqbal.  Op. Cit. p. 2   
• 7. Ibn Ishaq: Sirat Rasool Allah translated into English  by A. Guillaume as  ‘The Life of Muhammad’.  Oxford Univ. Press. Karachi. 1967.   pp 45,  62-4.  
• 8.         Ibn Ishaq, Op. Cit.; p. 9 and Ibn Sa’ad: Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir. Translated into English by S. Moinul Haq.  Kitab Bhawan. New Delhi. No  date.  p. 106
• 9.   Ibn Ishaq. Op. Cit.; p. 69
• 10.   Ibn Ishaq. Op. Cit.; pp. 79-80
• 11.   Safwat al-Tafaseer, Vol. 1, p. 589              
• 12.    Imam Malick: Muwatta.  Kitab al-Jaami. Ch. 553
• 13. Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’an. Dar al-Andalus. Gibraltar.  1980. Fn. 9 to Ch. 12 verse 5 of his translation and commentary of the  Qur’an.
• 14. See section: ‘How to respond if anyone says that he has seen a Dream’.
• 15. Asad. Op. Cit.; Note 49 to Ch. 8 verse 44.
• 16.   Martin Lings: ‘Muhammad - his life based on earliest sources’. George  Allen and Unwin. 1983.  p. 247
• 17. Ibn Ishaq. Op. Cit.;  p.500
• 18.   Cf. the writer’s ‘Diplomacy in Islam - an Analysis of the Treaty of  Hudaibiyah’.
• 19. Ibn Sa’ad, Op. Cit.;  p. 224
• 20.   Ibn Ishaq. Op. Cit.; pp. 235-6
• 21. Akili, ‘Ibn Seerin’s Dictionary of Dreams’. Pearl Publishing House.   Philadelphia. 1992.  p.xix     
• 22. Iqbal: Op. Cit. p. 7.
• 23. Iqbal.  Op. Cit. pp. 12-3  
• 24. Ansari. Op. Cit. Vol. 1. p. 93.   
• 25.  Iqbal: Op. Cit. p. 5.
• 26. Ansari. Op. Cit. P. 153-4....
• 27.      Nabulisi, Ta’teer al-Anaam fi tafseer al-Ahlaam. Muqaddama. p. 3
• 28. Akili, Op. Cit.;  p.xix
• 29.  Akili. Op. Cit.; p. xxv
• 30.  Akili. Op. Cit.;  p. xxix
• 31. Akili. Op. Cit.;  p. xx
• 32. Akili. Op. Cit.;  p. xxiv

Source: Dreams in Islam by Imran Hosein
To be continued ....