The Idea of dream interpretation

The rational spirit has its perceptions and passes them on to the imagination.

The imagination then forms them into pictures but it forms them only into such pictures as are somehow related to the (perceived) idea.

For instance, if the idea of a mighty ruler is perceived, the imagination depicts it in the form of an ocean. Or, the idea of hostility is depicted by the imagination in the form of a serpent. A person wakes up and knows only that he saw an ocean or a serpent.

Then, the dream interpreter, who is certain that the ocean is the picture conveyed by the senses and that the perceived idea is something beyond that picture, puts the power of comparison to work. He is guided by further data that establish the character of the perceived idea for him.

Thus, he will say, for instance, that the ocean means a ruler, because an ocean is something big with which a ruler can appropriately be compared. Likewise, a serpent can appropriately be compared with an enemy, because it does great harm. Also, vessels can be compared with women, because they are receptacles, and so on. 565

Dream visions may be evident and require no interpretation, because they are clear and distinct, or because (the ideas) perceived in them may be very similar to (the pictures) by which they are represented. Therefore, it has been said in (the sound tradition of) the Sahih, “There are three kinds of dream visions.

There are dream visions from God, dream visions from the angels, and dream visions from Satan.”

Dream visions from God are those that are evident and need no explanation. Dream visions from an angel are true dreams that require interpretation. And dream visions from Satan are “confused dreams.”

It should be known that when the spirit passes its perceptions on to the imagination, (the latter) depicts them in the customary molds of sensual perception. Where such molds never existed in sensual perception, (the imagination) 567 cannot form any pictures.

A person who was born blind could not depict a ruler by an ocean, an enemy by a serpent, or women by vessels, because he had never perceived any such things.

For him, the imagination would depict those things through similarly appropriate (pictures) derived from the type of perceptions with which he is familiar - that is, things which can be heard or smelled. The dream interpreter must be on guard against such things.

They often cause confusion in dream interpretation and spoil its rules.

The science of dream interpretation implies a knowledge of general norms upon which the dream interpreter bases the interpretation and explanation of what he is told. For instance, they say that an ocean represents a ruler. Elsewhere, they say that an ocean represents wrath.

Again, elsewhere, they say that it represents worry and calamity. Or, they say that a serpent represents an enemy, but elsewhere they say that it represents one who conceals a secret. Elsewhere again, they say that it represents life, and so on. 568

The dream interpreter knows these general norms by heart and interprets the dreams in each case as required by the data establishing which of these norms fits a particular dream vision best. The data may originate in the waking state. They mayoriginate in the sleeping state. Or, they may be created in the soul of the dream interpreter himself by the special quality with which he is endowed.

Everyone is successful at the things for which he was created. 569

This science never ceased being transmitted in the circles of the early Muslims. Muhammad b. Sirin 570 was one of the most famous experts in (dream interpretation) among them. Certain norms of dream interpretation were written down on his authority.

People have transmitted them down to this time. Al-Kirmani 571 wrote on the subject after Ibn Sirin. Recent scholars have written many works on it.

The books in use among contemporary Maghribis are the Mumti’ and other works by Ibn Abi Talib al-Qayrawini, a scholar from al-Qayrawan, and the Kitab al-Isharah by as-Salimi 573 which is one of the most useful and briefest books on the subject.

There also is the Kitab al-Marqabah al- ‘ulya by Ibn Rashid, 575 who belonged to (the circle of) our shaykhs in Tunis. Dream interpretation is a science resplendent with the light of prophecy, because prophecy and dreams are related to each other, and (dreams) played a part in the (prophetic) revelation, as has been established in sound tradition.