scholarly principles and from the angle indicated by verses of the Qur’an. In the seventh, we shall offer a brief interpretation of your dream.
Just as an important element of Sura Yusuf is Yusuf’s dream, so the Qur’an indicates with many of its verses, such as:
that dreams and sleep may hold important, though veiled, truths.
Verifiers of reality do not favour trusting in the interpretation of dreams and taking of omens through the Qur’an. For the All-Wise Qur’an strikes at the unbelievers frequently and severely, and if such severity is shown towards the person who takes omens, it causes him to despair and confuses his heart. Dreams also, because although they are good they are thought to be evil and sometimes appear to be opposed to reality, may cause a person to fall into despair, destroy his morale, and make him think badly of things. There are many dreams the meanings and interpretations of which are very good although the form they take is terrifying, injurious, or unclean. Not everyone can discover the relation between the form a dream takes and its true meaning, so they become unnecessarily anxious, despairing, and unhappy. It was only because of this aspect of dreams that, like Imam-i Rabbani and the verifiers of reality, I said at the beginning: “I am neither the night nor a lover of the night.”
An authentic Hadith states that one of the forty parts of prophethood was made manifest in the form of true dreams during sleep,1 which means that true dreams are both valid and have a connection with the functions of prophethood. This Third Point is both important, and lengthy and profound, and related to prophethood, so I am postponing it to another time and not opening this door for now.
Dreams are of three sorts.2 Two of them, in the words of the Qur’an, are “A confused medley of dreams”(12:44) and not worth interpreting. If they have any meaning, it is of no importance. Either due to some ailment, the
Bukhari, Ta’bir, 2, 4, 10, 26; Muslim, Ru’ya, 6-9; Abu Da’ud, Adab, 88; Tirmidhi, Ru’ya, 1, 2, 6, 10; Ibn Maja, Ru’ya, 1, 3, 6, 9; Darimi, Ru’ya, 2; Muwatta’, Ru’ya, 1, 3; Musnad, ii, 18, 50, 219; iv, 10-13; v, 316, 319.
Muslim, Ru’ya&, 6; Abu Da’ud, Adab, 88; Tirmidhi, Ru’ya, 6; Musnad, ii, 269.