51

Dreams from Allah

Elizabeth Sirriyeh

Dreams in the Qur'an and Hadlth

i ROM THE BEGINNINGS OF ISLAM DREAMS were to be accorded a high
F status, being closely linked to prophecy as one of its forty-six parts.
The Qur'an testifies to the importance of dreams and visions in
communicating messages from Allah through the prophets from
Abraham to the Prophet Muhammad. In Sura 12 Prophet Joseph is
noted as a recipient of true dreams: 'When Joseph said to his father: My
father! I saw in a dream eleven planets, the sun and moon, I saw them
prostrating before me' (12:4). His father then responds by assuring
him: 'So will your Lord choose you and teach you to interpret dreams
• . .' (12:6). He is also the skilled interpreter of the dreams of others, of
his prison companions (12:36) and of Pharaoh's dream of the seven fat
and seven lean cattle, seven green and seven dry ears of corn, the years
of plenty followed by famine (12:43). Joseph's ability to understand as
well as to receive the divine truths contained in dreams is viewed as
nothing short of a miraculous gift from Allah that gives evidence of his
prophethood. According to Islamic tradition, the revelation of this sura
to Prophet Muhammad at a time of persecution by his enemies in
Mecca brought reassurance that Allah supported His prophets and their
followers despite their tribulations. The dreams in the sura had a central
function in conveying knowledge of the divine will that is seen to be
fulfilled, so that the righteous are ultimately successful.
In the body of hadith literature - which recounts many sayings and
acts of the Prophet Muhammad - sections are assigned specifically to
dreams. These normally endorse the view that there is benefit to be
derived from good dreams and that the Prophet himself approved of
them and wished the Islamic community to take them seriously as a
source of guidance• According to one widely cited tradition, the
Prophet declared that prophecy had ended with him and that there
would be no later messenger from God. The people were then in
despair, until he told them that they would still receive good tidings
through the Muslim's dream] This led to the popular belief that the
pious believer would be the one expected to have access to true dreams
from Allah, although the dreams of all Muslims were worthy of careful
sifting and analysis•
52 DREAMS FROM ALLAH

The Islamic science of dream interpretation

After the time of the Prophet, the figure who is popularly held to be the
father of the islamic science of dream interpretation is Ibn Sirin
(d. 728). a Noted as one of the most pious among the second generation
of Muslims, he was highly respected in his lifetime as a transmitter of
hadiths and known also as a friend of the famous ascetic Hasan of
Basra, who died in the same year. It was not until the middle of the
ninth century that he came to be especially regarded as a skilled
interpreter of dreams. A few instances of his interpretation are recorded
in The book of animals by al-Jahiz (d. 869), as in the following
example: 'The dog seen in a dream is an obscene man; if it is black, the
man is an Arab; if it is black and white, the man is a non-Arab' .3 This is
a relatively straightforward disclosure of the symbolic significance of
the dog, associated with impurity and pollution, the black dog
becoming representative for the mystics of the baseness of the human
self to be overcome by constant spiritual struggle. On another occasion
Ibn Sirin is said to have predicted Hasan of Basra's death by his
analysis of a dream in which a bird in flight fell down suddenly like a
stone. The equation of a bird with the human soul was also to be an
enduring symbol in medieval Islamic society; some of the best-known
symbolism occurs in the long allegorical poem The conference of the
birds by the twelfth-century Persian poet 'Attar, who writes of the
journey of the birds to find their king, a paradigm of the soul's journey
towards God.
By the tenth century Arabic treatises on dreams were being falsely
attributed to Ibn Sirin with the goal of claiming an esteemed authority
to give these works credence. The process continued into the fifteenth
century, works in Persian, Turkish and even Latin and Greek also being
ascribed to him.
While Islamic dream books drew on an ancient Near Eastern heri-
tage, they were also strongly indebted to the Greek theorists. In par-
ticular, they owed much to an Arabic translation of the Oneirocritica of
Artemidorus of Ephesus. This translation was undertaken in Baghdad
on the orders of Caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813-33), kilown for encouraging
the pursuit of Greek learning through an active translation movement.
The oldest original extant treatise that drew directly on the
Oneirocritica and was to establish the pattern for the genre, was
composed in 1006 for Caliph al-Qadir bi'llah (r. 991-1031). 4
Numerous later dream books followed this example, one of the most
popular being the encyclopaedic key to dreams of al-Nabulusi
 DREAMS FROM ALLAH 53

(d. 1731), in which lists of dream symbols are organized in alphabetical

order for easy reference. 5 This book has been widely circulated,
undergone a number of printings and remains a very popular work for
consultation.

The dreamer and the dream interpreter

All these dream interpreters concentrated on the uncovering of hidden
meanings in symbolic dreams, which were thought to require special
expertise in understanding their inner significance. They would discuss
the symbolism contained in sleeping visions of all kinds of natural
phenomena and creatures; rain and snow, wind and fire, human beings,
animals, birds and insects. However, in addition to such symbolic
dreams, Islamic literature is filled with records of literal dreams where
the meaning is abundantly clear and indeed is spelled out to the
dreamer. Typical of such dreams are those in which the dreamer's
relatives or teachers appear to give some instruction for action that
must be taken or in which dead saints or even Prophet Muhammad
himself tell the dreamer some information supposedly unknown to their
contemporaries. In the case of a vision of the Prophet, this may provide
fresh guidance not available from the written Hadith.
Since the acceptance of dreams as sources of such information and
guidance could have serious consequences not only for the individual
but also for the community, it mattered very much who was the dreamer
and who the interpreter. If the dreamer were a prophet, then there would
be no problem because the prophets were held to receive their mes-
sages, including dream communications, directly from Allah. In the
case of the great mystics of the Sufi tradition, belief in the genuineness
of dream guidance of this type was always more problematic. While
many Muslims would endorse the validity of the mystic's opening to
divine truths through the medium of dreams, others would be more
sceptical and cautious. They might at times be ready to concede the
possibility of such an experience being authentic for certain individ-
uals, but dangerous if followed as guidance superseding the inherited
written tradition.
For the dreamer at a less advanced spiritual level, there would be
frequent recognition of the risks to which one could be exposed if he or
she were to misunderstand the dream. Whereas the pure in faith would
be opened in sleep to true visions from Allah, the average believer who
was still veiled by sin might receive dream visions produced by their
own human anxieties or even originating from the devil. Hence there is
54 DREAMS FROM ALLAH

a constant preoccupation among Sufis with the need to be advised by

the spiritual master, the shaykh, who can discern the real source and
significance of each dream. The master will then also be able to gauge
the extent of the disciple's mystical progress. Illustrative of such a case
is an anecdote related about the great early Sufi Junayd (d. 910). One of
his disciples had come to believe himself more spiritually advanced
than he actually was and had taken to solitary retreats, in which he
dreamt of being transported to Paradise. Junayd, learning o f his situ-
ation, advised him that on the next occasion he should call upon Allah,
seeking refuge with Him. The disciple did so and the beautiful vision
vanished, leaving him on a dunghill with a pile of bones. 6
Even if the dream interpreter were not a Sufi shaykh, it would still be
seen as highly desirable for such a person to be learned and pious,
discreet and perceptive. Although the oneiromancer claiming to foretell
the future would be a common enough sight in the market place, he
would not earn real regard among the educated. The serious analyst of
dreams would be expected to be a scholar of Qur'an and Hadith, but
able also to explain the dream in a way appropriate to the dreamer's
social status and degree of understanding. The same dream image could
have quite different meanings depending on the dreamer's position in
society, gender, age or health, apart from considerations of character
and personality. If the dreamer were sinful, a dream of Mecca would
not necessarily be a positive sign of pilgrimage to be performed, but
might rather reveal guilt because of the dreamer's neglect of worship.
Consequently, the successful interpreter was presumed to have a sharp
insight into his client's moral state, even when there was no assumption
of a guiding role.

The dreamer and Allah

In the view of most Muslim theologians, it was only the prophets who
would be granted a vision of Allah in this life due to their special
position as intermediaries between Him and humankind. If others were
to be granted the same experience it could give rise to heresies and
undermine the proper functioning of divine revelation in the world.
Nevertheless, records of dream visions of Allah abound in Sufi
literature, including accounts of the mystics' intimate conversations
with God. The Great Shaykh Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240) was probably the
most celebrated of those who laid claim to such encounters. As a young
man in Spain, perhaps in 1190 in Cordoba, he relates an extraordinary
vision of the Resurrection: 'The God came, "in the darkness of thick
 DREAMS FROM ALLAH 55

clouds, accompanied by angels" (Qur'an 2:210), seated on His Throne

which was being carded by angels. They placed the throne to my right.
While all this was happening I experienced no fear or anxiety or
fright. '7 He continued to explain how Allah placed His palm upon him
to confirm his status in the world and informed him that he would enter
Paradise. Ibn 'Arabi then sought to intercede for his sisters and wife and
was assured that they would join him there together with all his rela-
tives and companions. He reports Allah's final dream response to his
questions: 'Even if you were to ask me if you could take all the people
of the Stations (ahl al-mawaqi¢), I would let you'.8 The 'people of the
Stations' are the whole of humankind who, according to a hadith cited
by Ibn 'Arabi but not included in the canonical collections, will travel
the distance of fifty stations or stopping-places at the time of the
Resurrection and Last Judgement.
The function of the dream vision of Allah is to serve as an assurance
to Ibn'Arabi that he enjoys a high status with his Lord and that he and
his loved ones will be among the saved at the Last Day. It demonstrates
that, with God's permission, he will also be able to act in the role of
intercessor with Allah on behalf of the human creation. The dream
message is primarily a personal one for the mystic, but can also have a
wider relevance for his family, relatives and the Muslim community,
This type of experience is shared in common with other spiritually
advanced Sufis, for whom the vision normally operates in very similar
ways.
The dream of Allah is also discussed at the beginning in the early
books of dream interpretation, out of deference. The interpreters see a
wide variety of meanings in the dream appearance of God or hearing
His voice. For the pure and sincere believer, it is usually a favourable
sign. However, this is not always the case; if there is a veil between the
believer and Allah, this may signify that the dreamer is or will become a
grave sinner. Even if he or she receives a gift from God, it does not
necessarily indicate approval, but may show that the dreamer is too
attached to worldly goods which are little esteemed by Allah. These
dreams may effectively serve as a warning of the need to reform. The
time and place in which the dream occurs may also be of importance,
whether for the individual or a community. If Allah is seen in a dream
in a particular town where the people are sinners, then they may expect
punishment. If they are the ones wronged, that people may hope for
justice. But there are also a range of possible allegorical interpretations
of the dream, since the symbol of Allah might indicate a great king or
even a tyrant ruling over the land. Nevertheless, these theophanies are
56 DREAMS FROM ALLAH

generally of more importance for the spiritual life of the dreamer than
for the society.

Guidance from beyond the grave

Dreams of the dead are perhaps the most notable for providing
instruction both to individuals and to Muslim communities. Such
dreams are often literal, although they may at times contain symbolism
that requires skilled interpretation. Sometimes the dead visit the
dreamer in sleep without any apparent preparation, but commonly the
vision of them follows a pilgrimage to a tomb or other sanctuary, even a
nocturnal vigil or sleeping by the grave in a deliberate effort to seek
guidance through a dream. This conscious process of sleeping at the
holy site in order to consult spirits of the dead is known as istikhara. 9 It
has strong affinities with ancient practices of incubation and has been
treated with caution by religious lawyers who have laid down rules in
an effort to control a suspect practice. Set prayers are thus prescribed
before the devotee falls asleep in the hope of consulting the deceased,
usually about a particular problem. Away from scholarly regulation,
magical elements have been introduced, as in the case described from
Morocco where the aim is to discover the identity of a thief: 'A magic
formula is written on one's hand and one then goes to sleep, with this
hand placed under the right cheek; the thief is then revealed in a
dream', lo Sleeping on the right side is presumed to ensure a dream from
a good source and not from the devil.
If such ghostly contacts perform a practical role in information-
gathering, others have a more distinctively instructional aspect. For
Sufis, the most sought-after dream spirits are generally their spiritual
predecessors, hence the popular saying that it is possible to learn more
from a shaykh after his death than during his life. 11 Sometimes former
masters or great 'saints' may appear to confirm a Sufi's spiritual
ranking, to approve or censure a course of action. The Egyptian mystic
al-Sha'rani (d. 1565) records more than a hundred dreams in his
autobiography, these types of meetings with the dead being of special
importance to him. 12 Thus he relates how the thirteenth-century poet
Ibn al-Farid showed his respect for him by apologizing for having been
sent from his tomb when al-Sha'rani had come earlier to visit him.
However, he also recalls being rebuked by the great ~urist aI-Shaft'i
(d. 819) on account of his failure to perform the pilgrimage to his grave
in Cairo.
 DREAMS FROM ALLAH 57

For certain Sufis, significantly those of the major Naqshbandi

brotherhood, dead shaykhs could play an important role in their
spiritual initiation. They would thus be 'not (only) initiated by a living,
physically present Shaykh, but (also) by the "spirituality" or "spiritual
presence" (ruhaniyyat) of a deceased Shaykh' .13 The presence, which
might appear through the medium of the dream, could be evoked by the
disciple's practice of concentration on the master. Similarly, the dream
could transmit the presence of a living shaykh to his disciple, as is
described in the case of Baha' al-din Naqshband (d. 1389), whose
disciple is said to have seen him in his dreams while Baha' al-din was
on the pilgrimage to Mecca. 14

The Prophet as guide

Among all the dream spirits of the dead, the Prophet Muhammad is the
most highly esteemed and the most likely to be followed in offering
instruction for the society as a whole. Conviction of the authenticity of
the Prophetic vision was grounded in various traditions such as the oft-
cited 'Whoever sees me in his sleep has truly seen me and it is not
POssible for the devil to take my shape'.
In many cases this involved a dream vision in which the Prophet
delivered a literal message to his community. When the recipient of the
dream was in a dominant position, this could mean that commands
were issued in the Prophet's name. For example, in the Islamic state
established in the North Caucasus by Imam Shamil between 1834 and
1859, Shamil, himself a Naqshbandi shaykh and fierce opponent of
Russian intervention, believed that he was acting on the direct orders of
the Prophet in implementing flesh laws. This sometimes led to a par-
ficularly severe line being taken, as when smokers were punished by
being forced to ride backwards on donkeys with pipes thrust through
their nostrils. 15 Understandably, the question of whether there was any
validity for posthumous dream teachings from the Prophet was to be a
contentious issue among Muslim scholars. Since the scholars were
expected to act as the custodians of the written tradition, their authority
could readily be undercut by any visionary who claimed access to new
guidance that was also impossible to verify.
The authors of the traditional dream books interpreted all visions of
the Prophet as true in some sense and usually a positive indication for
the Muslim community. However, the significance of the dream could
vary considerably depending on the form taken by the Prophet: old or
young, smiling or frowning, alone or with a number of his Companions.
58 DREAMS FROM ALLAH

It does not always show a good moral state in the dreamer, but may be
taken as a sign of one who is not meeting the standards expected of a
pious Muslim. The vision could be interpreted as predicting that he will
be led to repentance and receive the guidance of Prophet Muhammad.

Christians and the Muslim's dream

There are central elements in Muslim experiences of dreaming that
have little apparent relevance for Christians. The Prophet does not
guide through his own dreams or through others' visions of him.
Christians have different views of those whom Muslims would regard
as earlier prophets, whose pure state makes them the perfect vehicles of
Allah's dream messages to humans; the Joseph of Genesis is not the
Joseph of the Qur'an and Jesus Christ is not the Jesus of whom Muslims
dream: the sinless prophet and, for Sufis, the seal of the saints.
Christians may indeed find it hard to relate to the Muslim dream
interpreter's reflection that workmen and physicians who dream of
Jesus may benefit especially by having his abilities as a carpenter or
healer transferred to them.
Given such differing perceptions, are there aspects of Muslim dream
life that offer some spiritual wisdom more meaningful to Christians?
Perhaps, if special attention is directed to the Sufi tradition of spirit-
uality and the desire to access the individual's experience of dreaming
in order to disclose a possible source of divine inspiration. Accounts of
Muslim mystics' opening to God are filled with records of wonderful
visions such as those of the Great Shaykh of Moorish Spain, Ibn 'Arabi.
Such mystics have little sense of a division between the waking life of
the believer and the life experienced in the sleeping vision. God is seen
in both, is heard in both. Both are treated as equally real and at times it
becomes impossible to tell where dream ends and waking vision
begins.
However, there is also the awareness within the Islamic tradition of
the need for caution in assessing the nature of the dream. Christians are
also likely to identify with Muslim anxieties about the following of
spiritual guidance provided by a dream. It is a problem that has caused
many divisions which have deepened in the last hundred years with
increasing exposure to western scepticism. Cautious appraisal of the
dream has in the case of many Muslims changed into outright rejection
of the validity of dreams as central to spirituality. Nevertheless, the old
dream books are still being reprinted and in demand, even if the market
place or scholarly interpreters are close to extinction.
 DREAMS FROM ALLAH 59

E l i z a b e t h S i r r i y e h is a l e c t u r e r i n I s l a m i c Studies in the D e p a r t m e n t o f
T h e o l o g y and R e l i g i o u s Studies in the U n i v e r s i t y o f L e e d s . She has p r e v i o u s l y
taught in the U n i v e r s i t y o f A b e r d e e n and in Y a r m o u k University, Jordan. S h e
is the author o f Sufis a n d anti-Sufis ( C u r z o n Press, 1999).

NOTES

1 See A. J. Wensinck and J. P. Mensing (eds), Concordance et indices de la tradition musuhnane

(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1936-64), vol 2, p 205 (r.'.y.) for references containing this tradition.
2 See T. Fahd, 'lbn Sirin' in Encyclopaedia oflslam (E/) 2, vol 3, pp 947-948 and, by the same
author, La divination Arabe: dtudes religieuses, sociologiques etfolkloriques sur le milieu natif de
l'Islam (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966), pp 312-315.
3 Cited in Fahd, La divination Arabe, p 313.
4 The treatise is named after this caliph, al-Qadirifi'l-ta'bir, the work of Abu Sa'id al-Dinawari.
The earliest Arabic treatise on dreams is known to have been composed by Kirmani in the late
eighth century, but has not survived. A ninth-century work by Ibn Qutayba has been preserved in
fragments quoted in a later dream book by Abu 'Ali Husayn al-Dari, one of those treatises wrongly
attributed to Ibn Sirin. See Fahd, La divhzation Arabe, pp 316-328.
5 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, Ta'tir al-anamfi ta'bir al-manam (Beirut, reprint 1996).
6 The anecdote is related in a twelfth-century collection of Sufi biographies by 'Attar, trans A. J.
Arberry, Muslim saints and mystics (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966), pp 208-209.
7 Ibn 'Arabi's Book of visions quoted in Claude Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur: the life oflbn
'Arabi (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1993), p 84.
8 1bid., p 85.
9 See T. Fahd, 'Istikhara' in E1 2, vol 4, pp 259-260.
10 Ibid., p 260.
11 The saying is attributed to Abu'l-'Abbas al-Mursi (d. 1287), one of the seminal figures in the
Shadhili Sufi brotherhood.
12 See Jonathan G. Katz, 'An Egyptian Sufi interprets his dreams: 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'rani
1493-1565' in Religion vol 27 (1997), pp 7-24.
13 Johan G. J. Ter Haar, 'The importance of the spiritual guide in the Naqshabandi Order' in L.
Lewisohn (ed), The heritage ofSufism vol 2 (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), p 312.
14 See ibid., pp 320-321.
15 See Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Sufis and anti-Sufis: the defence, rethinking and rejection of Sufism in
the modem world (Richmond: Curzon, 1999), pp 38-42, on Shamil's state, Sufis and their
resistance to the Russians in Chechnya and Daghestan.