The Twenty-eighth Letter

 

Dreams • Thanking God • Different issues

 

(This letter consists of eight issues, each a treatise in itself.)

 

First issue

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

If you know how to interpret dreams... (12:43)

 

SECOND369 : MAY I SAY OF YOUR GOOD, PROMISING DREAM, WHOSE meaning became clear 3 days after we met 3 years ago?

I am neither of the night nor a worshipper of the night;

Rather I am a child of the sun and therefore give tidings of the sun.

Those fancies are the traps of saints;

And the reflections of the bright-faced ones of Divine gardens.

 

Given this, dear brother, as well as my habit of discussing the truth with you, and since it is not fit for the way of truth-seeking to discuss dreams (which usually have to do with human fancies), I will explain certain Qur’anic truths about sleep (a “brother” of death) in six points and interpret your dream in the seventh.

FIRST POINT: Like Prophet Yusuf’s (Joseph) dream, the kernel of Sura Yusuf, such verses as: We have appointed the night for you as a rest (78:9) show that sleep and dreams contain important truths.

SECOND POINT: The people of truth do not approve of using the Qur’an as an oracle or of relying on dreams. Since the Qur’an often gives severe blows to unbelievers, believers who open it to receive counsel may despair if they encounter such a verse. Likewise, as dreams are often opposite to reality, they may cause despair or demoralization even if they are essentially good and promising. Many apparently bad and dreadful dreams prove to be good and pleasing in actual life. As not everyone can find the true relationship between a dream and its actual meaning, they become uneasy and anxious. This is why I quoted, as the people of truth do, Imam Rabbani: “I am neither of the night nor a worshipper of night.”

THIRD POINT: God’s Messenger says in an authentic narration that true dreams are one of Prophethood’s 46 aspects.370 Therefore they contain some truths and have some connections with the Prophetic mission. But I leave any elaboration on this profound and significant lengthy matter to a later occasion.

FOURTH POINT: There are three kinds of dreams. Two are included in the Qur’anic category of “jumbled dreams.” Either the imagination gives form to a bad temper’s deviations or the mind remembers an exciting event and gives it a new form. Both are worthless.

The third kind is true dreams. As the dreamer’s senses connected with the outer, material world do not function during sleep, the innate inner spiritual faculty can find an opening to the Unseen World. Looking at impending events through that opening, it meets a manifestation of the Guarded Tablet or an example of the “letters” of Destiny and sees real events. But since the imagination “colors” what the spiritual faculty sees, the dreamer does not see an accurate reflection. Thus such dreams require interpretation, even if their meanings are clear during the dream.371

FIFTH POINT: A true dream is the result of a presentiment being highly developed. Both human beings and animals have a degree of presentiment. I have discovered that both also have two additional senses: motivating and

enticing senses. Although people of misguidance and corrupt thinking call these unperceived senses “instincts,” they should be regarded as “inborn inspiration” through which Divine Destiny directs people and animals.

Such direction allows a blind cat to find the necessary curative herb and, rubbing its eye against it, be healed. Likewise, such carnivorous birds as vultures, the sanitary officials of Earth’s surface who remove the corpses of wild animals, detect and locate a carcass tens of miles away through Destiny’s direction, inspired presentiment, or Divine orientation.

This happens with young bees that fly far away and then return to the hive without error. It also happens when someone you just mentioned appears unexpectedly. Your spiritual faculty felt, via presentiment, that person’s coming. Such occurrences are so common that we have a proverb: “When you mention a wolf, grab a staff to hit it with.” You do not know that that person or wolf is coming, nor has your reason informed you about it, but you feel it through presentiment and so mention it unintentionally. Among pious people and saints, such presentiment develops to the point of becoming a source of wonders.

Ordinary people with a kind of sainthood can grasp something of the future or the Unseen World in true dreams. Just as sleep is like a rank of sainthood in respect of true dreams, it is a time or space of recreation in which magnificent Divine moving pictures are shown. People of good conduct think of what is better and see beautiful tablets, whereas those of evil conduct think of what is worse and see ugly tablets.

True dreams make sleep a window opening on the Unseen World, a field of release and freedom for human beings (who are confined in a restricted area), a theater having a kind of permanence, and a realm in which only the present exists (past and future are united). In addition, sleep is a period of repose for living beings crushed under life’s burdens. Given this, the Qur’an teaches us the truth of sleep in such verses as: We have appointed sleep for you as a rest (78:9).

THE SIXTH AND  MOST IMPORTANT POINT: My experiences with true dreams have added to my conviction that Divine Destiny encompasses everything. When I have true dreams, I know that whatever will happen to me tomorrow has been predetermined. I learn of them at night, as if reading them with my eyes. This has happened perhaps 1,000 times: The people I see or the matters I talk about in dreams become true the next day with only a slight interpretation. Thus nothing is accidental, coincidental, or random. Rather, everything is destined and predetermined.

SEVENTH POINT: Your beautiful dream is significant for us and the Qur’an. Time has interpreted it and continues to do so. It is being manifested in an auspicious way, and you will understand it if you analyze it carefully. I will explain a few of its aspects to show its truth. That is, I will point out a reality, and what you saw in your dream are the forms that reality has assumed in this corporeal world.

The vast quarter you saw is the Muslim world. The mosque at its far end is Isparta. The muddy water is today’s marsh of dissipation, laziness, and religious innovation. That you reached the mosque in security and without being dirtied by that water signifies that you obtained the Qur’an’s lights earlier than anybody else and thereby maintained your purity of heart. The mosque’s small congregation consists of those who convey The Words, such as Haqqi, Hulusi, Sabri, Suleyman, Rusdu, Bekir, Mustafa, ‘Ali, Zuhdu, Lutfi, Husrev, and Rafet. The small pulpit is a small village like Barla. The loud voice you heard signifies The Words’ power, influence, and rapid dissemination.

Your place in the first row is the seat left vacant for you by ‘Abd alRahman. The congregation’s desire to transmit The Words globally, as through radio, will come true, by God’s will. Even if that community’s members are now like seeds, with God’s help they will grow into a tall, elaborate tree. The boy with a turban is expected to be included among the disciples and disseminators who will serve the Qur’an on the same level as Hulusi, or even ahead of him. I guess he will appear among certain people whom I know, but I cannot say exactly who he is. He will appear with the power of sainthood. You may interpret the other aspects of your dream on my behalf.

Since it is approved and pleasant to converse with friends like you, I dwelled on this matter longer than I had intended. But since I began with the intention of pointing out a kind of interpretation of relevant verses, I hope God will forgive or not consider it a waste of speech.

 

369 The Letter’s first part is not included in the published text. (Tr.)

370 As he had true dreams in the initial 6 months of his 23 years of Prophethood, true dreams of believers are a kind of Divine inspiration.

371 A Prophetic Tradition reports that the Messenger’s dreams during the initial days of his Prophethood were so clear that no interpretation was necessary. (Tr.)