I am neither of the night nor a worshipper of the night;
Rather I am a child of the day and therefore give tidings of the day.
Those fancies that are the traps of saints;
Are the reflections of the moon-faced ones of Divine gardens.
While you sleep with your eyes closed, your ears deaf, your tongue mute, and your arms and legs motionless, how do you travel, meet people, and do many things in a few minutes or even seconds? When you get up in the morning, you feel deeply influenced by that few seconds’ adventure. Although Freud and his followers attribute dreams to the subconscious self, to thoughts and desires, impulses and past experiences, how can you explain dreams that inform you of a future event with which you have no contact or have never thought about? How do we dream? With what part of our body or being do we dream? Why do dreams last only a few seconds? How (and why) do we remember what we dreamed while asleep? All of these and many similar questions are like puzzles awaiting to be solved by science.
Sometimes while we are asleep, our thoughts and desires, impulses and past experiences, which constitute our subconscious, are revealed unconsciously. We may be sick or hungry, or have a problem that we cannot solve. The imagination gives form to the deviations of a bad temper, or the mind remembers an exciting event that happened some time ago and gives it a new, different form. All dreams coming from such moods are jumbled; they have some meaning, but they are not worth interpreting. For example, if we eat salty things before sleep, we may dream that we are lying by a pool; if we go to bed angry, we may dream that we are fighting with others.
There are some important hidden truths in sleep and dreams.
Like the dream of the Prophet Yusuf (Joseph), which is the kernel of the Qur’anic chapter of Yusuf, several verses (such as, We have appointed the night for you as a rest. (78:9)) show that there are some important hidden truths in sleep and dreams.
The people of truth do not approve of using the Qur’an as an ‘oracle’ to consult, nor of relying on dreams.
The people of truth do not approve of using the Qur’an as an ‘oracle’ to consult, nor of relying on dreams. Since the Qur’an gives to unbelievers severe and frequent blows, it may cause despair when the verses that threaten unbelievers appear before one who opens the Book to receive counsel. Likewise, since dreams are often opposite to the reality, they may also cause despair or demoralization even if they are essentially good and promising. There are many dreams which, though bad and dreadful in appearance, prove to be good and pleasing in actual life. Since not everyone is able to find the true relationship between a dream and its actual meaning, people become uneasy and anxious. It is for this reason that in the beginning I said as the people of truth say and quoted Imam Rabbani: “I am neither of the night nor a worshipper of night.”
True dreams are one out of the forty-six aspects of Prophethood.
God’s Messenger says in an authentic narration that true dreams are one out of the forty-six aspects of Prophethood. [That is, since God’s Messenger had true dreams in the initial six months of his twenty-three years’ Prophethood, true dreams are some kind of Divine inspirations.] This means that true dreams contain some truths and have some connection with the Prophetic mission. This is, however, a lengthy matter, profound and significant and related to Prophethood, so I will cut it short here, leaving its elaboration to some later occasion.
There are three kinds of dreams
Dreams are of three kinds. Two are included in the category of (in the Qur’anic expression) jumbled dreams. Either the imagination gives form to the deviations of a bad temper or the mind remembers an exciting event which happened some time ago, and gives it a new different form, and the dreams a man has in such moods are ‘jumbled ones’, (as mentioned in the sura Yusuf in the Quran1) not deserving of interpretation.
1. The king said: ‘I saw (in a dream) seven fat cows which seven lean ones devoured; and also seven green ears of corn and (seven) others dry. O my courtiers! Tell me the interpretation of my dream, if you understand the meanings of dreams.’ They said: ‘A jumble of dreams; and we are not skilled in the interpretation of jumbled dreams.’ (Joseph) said: ‘You shall sow, as usual, for seven years. Leave in the ear the corn you reap, except a little which you may eat. Then will come after that seven years of severity, which will consume all but a little of that which you have stored for them. Then will come after that a year in which the people will have abundant water and in which they will press (juice, oil, etc.)' (Yusuf, 12.43–4, 47–9.)
This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.