ENCOUNTERING THE ‘TRUE DREAM’ IN ISLAM: A JOURNEY TO TURKEY AND PAKISTAN 7

Encountering the ‘true dream’ in Islam: a

Journey to Turkey and Pakistan
A
S AN anthropologist I have been studying Naqshbandi Tariqa (order). These choices of Islam, dreams are considered very important
the relationship between night dreams Islamic countries were partly determined and followers of a Sheikh may regularly
and culture, between dream imagery experience guidance dreams from him. I had
and human behaviour for twenty-five years. previously studied a Naqshbandi Sufi centre
More recently I have focused on the Dr Iain R Edgar, University of Durham, in England and many members reported
phenomena of ‘true dreams’, al-Ruya, in Islam recounts his findings from a research receiving guidance dreams from Sheikh
and how these appear to have influenced trip undertaken in 2005 to investigate Nazim, which they acted on when making
Muslims throughout Islamic history and the significance of dreams in a sample key life decisions. So, I wanted to see how
contemporaneously across the Islamic world. of Islamic cultures. common and important dreaming is in a
In particular, I have studied media reports as sample of Islamic cultures, to understand
to how reported ‘true dreams’ have apparently how dreams are interpreted and particularly
inspired and guided leading Islamic Jihadist through personal and professional contacts. how ‘true dreams’ are interpreted. I was
leaders including Osama bin Laden, Mullah In my three weeks in Turkey I interviewed particularly interested in how militant
Omar, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda dozens of people about their dreams and Jihadist claims to true dreams were
leader in Iraq, and many others. dream interpretive practices. Briefly, I found understood; also I was interested in finding
that almost all the people I had interviewed, out more about the Islamic dream incubation
At the end of February 2005 I set out on a two
from market traders to senior academics, practice, Istikhara.
month journey, funded by a Small Research
related purposefully to their dreams in one
Grant from the British Academy to study In Turkey, I found an almost visible tension
way or another. I found a general consistency
dreams in the Islamic world. I principally between the secularist tradition promoted by
in dream interpretive practices based on the
stayed in Aydin, western Turkey, courtesy of Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish
threefold Islamic dream classification of there
the University of Adnan Menderes, and then state, and the Islamic belief system of a large
being true dreams from Allah, false dreams
in and around Islamabad and Peshawar in number of my informants. This tension was
from Shatan, and largely meaningless dreams
Northern Pakistan. Finally I spent a few days most evident when I attended a Sufi Zikra
from the Nafs (mixture of Freudian Id and
in Northern Cyprus waiting to interview the (remembering and singing the names of God)
Ego, or the lower self as described in Islamic
well known Sufi Sheikh Nazim of the and the two academics with me would only
psychology).
attend if in the role of translators, as otherwise
The dream in Islam can be very significant as their academic integrity would be
the Prophet Mohammed reportedly dreamt endangered, a situation inconceivable in the
parts of the Koran (1/46th is usually stated) UK. Dream examples included a hospital
and was a notable dream interpreter, starting medical consultant who was expecting a baby
each day by asking his companions if they and was watching her dreams so as to help her
had any dreams for him to interpret. In the name her offspring; seeing a flower in a dream
Hadiths (the reported sayings and actions of would provide a girl’s name; a quality, such as
the Prophet) there are many references to strength, a boy’s name. An academic colleague
dream interpretation. Bukhari, one of the confided in me at the end of a meal that
most reliable Hadiths, writes, reporting the because I was a dream researcher she would
words of Aisha (the Prophet’s wife), that the tell me dreams that she had told no-one but
‘commencement of the divine inspiration was her family. Then she told me how at very
in the form of good righteous (true) dreams in difficult periods of her life she had dreamt of
his sleep. He never had a dream but that it the Prophet Mohammed and Angels and
came true like bright day of light’ (1979: 91). these images had sustained her. I asked a
In Islam, major prophecy is believed to have gardener in a small town if he had ever had a
finished with the revelation contained in the memorable dream and he said, ‘Yes. Once I
Koran, but spiritual guidance can still be had a dream of crying and the next day I
gained through true dreams. killed my neighbour over a land dispute and
spent eight years in jail for murder.’
Throughout Islamic history ‘true dreams’ are
perceived as having been received by political In Pakistan, I found all but one person I spoke
and religious leaders as well as ordinary to (a national poet) fervently believed in the
Sheikh Nazim in Northern Cyprus people. In Sufism, the mystical branch of power of dreams, and everywhere I went with
8 ENCOUNTERING THE ‘TRUE DREAM’ IN ISLAM: A JOURNEY TO TURKEY AND PAKISTAN

my dream questions, people from all walks

and classes of life would tell me how dreams
had changed their lives. A textile shopkeeper
in Peshawar spoke of how his life had been
transformed by a dream of the Prophet that
had advised him to pray five times a day, and
then his continual unsatisfied thirst, as
expressed in the dream imagery, would be
met, and that since this dream and his
commitment to praying five times a day, he
said he had been happy. A close companion
told me how his illiterate father had been
made literate following a dream. A close
relative of a very senior Afghani politician and
religious leader described how this man had
been advised by dreams whilst in prison
under the communists. Istikhara, Islamic
dream incubation, I found was practised by
young and old alike, especially in marriage
choices, but also in business deals and in
political choices. Istikhara involves reciting
special ritual prayers before going to bed and
meditation upon life choices, such as Dr Iain Edgar and Sufis near Islamabad
marriage, before sleeping. In the morning the
dreamer will, sometimes with specialist dreams, which included a dream of a sacred minute interview with the Sheikh. Nearly two
assistance from an Imam, interpret the figure which commanded Omar to ‘save hundred of his followers, called Mureeds,
meaning of their dream through using Afghanistan’ and implement Sharia law. It was from many countries, including the UK, were
specialist Islamic dream interpretation codes; apparently inspired by this dream that Omar there also. To his Mureeds, Sheikh Nazim is
an example would be that dream imagery founded the Taliban. Moreover Yusufzai literally in constant contact with Allah. I had
portrayed in green and white would signify a confirmed for me that Omar had dreams never seen such devotion and love expressed
favourable outcome to that choice, whilst during the Taliban campaigns which inspired to any person; he was 84 years old and
dreaming of red and black an unfavourable his military strategy. Yusufzai told me, ‘I was becoming frail; he walked with support from
outcome. One woman who did Istikhara told by so many Taliban leaders, commanders, two Mureeds, and all the time other Mureeds
around her daughter’s future marriage, dreamt fighters, look you know, Mullah Omar is a would throng around him, just to touch him
of a good looking bowl of dates which holy man and he gets instructions in his and kiss his feet and hands, to receive his
however in the event didn’t taste very nice. dream and he follows them up. The genesis of (Allah’s) Baraka (blessing). In my interview
She told me how this imagery anticipated the the Taliban Islamic movement was this vision, with the Sheikh I asked him about the many
outcome of the marriage. this night dream that Mullah Omar had’. On accounts I had heard in the UK and in his
one occasion, moreover, Omar telephoned Turkish Cypriot community of his ‘sending’
In Peshawar, Pakistan, I talked to the BBC
Yusufzai in Peshawar before 9/11 and said that his followers dreams; he replied that when he
journalist, Rahimullah Yusufzai, about Mullah
his (Omar’s) brother, also a dreamer, had had sent his ‘power’ to his Mureeds he sometimes
Omar, the Taliban leader. Yusufzai had
a dream of a ‘white palace burning’, and Omar would do so in dreams, ‘when necessary’. I
interviewed Mullah Omar a dozen times and
knew that Yusufzai had officially visited the ventured to ask how, and he replied that it
was the first journalist to interview him;
White House in Washington and wanted to ‘was all a matter of spiritual knowledge as
Yusuzai writes for Time and Newsweek and
know about its construction and whether it there were hundreds and thousands of inner
almost all the stories about Omar from a web
was built from wood. This reported phone call worlds’ and the Sufis had ways to access these.
search will source them from Yusufzai.
verifies the importance of dreaming to Omar. A technology apparently available only to
Yusufzai told me that Omar was a reclusive
those who had moved away from immersion
and wholly unexceptional and uncharismatic Sufis, particularly, seemed to inhabit an
in material existence.
half-trained Mullah, indistinguishable from a alternative mystical universe, co-existing with
thousand others apart from his dreaming. our understanding of this reality, in which How though does Islam, and Muslims in
Whilst Yusufzai didn’t interview Omar very significant and often precognitive dream general, recognise a true dream, when in their
directly about his dreams he did confirm that experiences of and by Sheiks/Pirs and their belief system, Shatan has such power to
the Taliban came from nowhere, and that the followers were commonplace. When I visited delude humanity? The Hadiths say that if the
Taliban commanders and followers believed Sheikh Nazim and his community in Lefte, Prophet appears in a dream then this is a true
in Omar as a Holy Man on account of his Northern Cyprus, I waited three days for a ten dream, and generally, the many people I
 ENCOUNTERING THE ‘TRUE DREAM’ IN ISLAM: A JOURNEY TO TURKEY AND PAKISTAN 9

spoke to confirmed this belief about the status Islamic dream interpretation, people who dictionaries, unlike their western counter-
of seeing the Prophet in a dream. However, dream need to be careful who they tell their parts, may contain many interpretations for
one important Pakistani Imam qualified this dream to; if it is a good dream they should not the same symbol. In Islam, dream interpret-
apparently absolute view and argued that not tell it to anyone but only to the one they love; ation, as with self-fulfilling prophecies, can
all inner sightings of the Prophet in dreams likewise if it is a bad dream they should not lead to delusion, error and worse. Correct
could be regarded as true dreams and he gave tell anyone and pray to Allah (and also spit dream interpretation though is understood to
me two examples from his dream inter- three times on the left side). This practice help believers in the pursuit of spiritual
pretation experience. The first involved a is because an incorrect interpretation, and guidance and correct Islamic behaviour.
lawyer coming to him for help interpreting a especially a negative interpretation, can
dream of the Prophet rolled up in a carpet and The story of Islam is founded on the Prophet
facilitate misfortune. Perhaps our western
the Imam responded by saying ‘you are a Mohammed’s revelation more than 1300
psychological idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy
corrupt lawyer’, presumably as the body and hundred years ago. This revelation, perfectly
is similar.
energy of the Prophet was circumscribed. This wrought to the believer, finds itself embodied
Iman told me that for a dream of the Prophet In Islam, Muslims understand dreams as they in the Koran, supplemented by the Hadiths.
to be regarded as true, then the image of the understand and interpret reality. In night The exalted status of this revelation includes
Prophet must be complete and in his proper dreams, the Soul is freed from the material the special place given to the true dream, al-
shape. The Hadith written by Bukhari speaks world and can traverse, without limit, the past Ruya, in Islam. The mind set of the Muslim is
of when the Prophet is seen in a dream the and the future. The real world and the unseen tuned to the possibility of true dreams
Prophet needs to be in his ‘real shape’ (1979: world, such as can be manifest in dreams, are appearing to any human. The fact that the
104). The second example the Imam told me all created by the one God, Allah. Allah also Taliban revolution may have been, at least
was of a man who came to him with a dream authorised Shatan to delude and misguide in part, motivated by a pious, reclusive,
in which the Prophet had said he could drink humanity, to snare their spiritual strivings in unknown and half trained Mullah in
alcohol. The Imam asked him if he was a the desires of the material world. This or these Afghanistan, who was believed to have had
‘drinker’ and the man said ‘yes’, to which the unseen, but manifest, powers sustain and true dreams, is a contemporary example of the
Imam replied that that was not the Prophet created the universe and spiritual guidance numinous and problematic nature of dream
but a self-justification. It is not perceived as a can be given through dreams, even to the experience and interpretation.
true dream in Islam if the dream message or lowliest of souls. To lie about a dream is a
Reference
content contradicts the Koran or Hadiths. serious sin in Islam.
Dream interpretation in Islam, even given the Bukhari (1979) The Translations of the
Dream interpretation, though, in Islam as Meanings of Sahihal-Bukhari. M.M. Khan,
apparently simple classificatory system, is
everywhere, is a tricky business. You could trans. Lahore, Pakistan: Kazi Publications.
complex. I was told by religious scholars that
say that the devil is in the detail. Whilst the
only a Prophet can truly determine a true
overall pattern of Islamic dream
from a false dream; even spiritual leaders such
interpretation is based on the already
as Sheikhs may disagree about interpretations.
presented threefold classification of dreams as Dr Iain R Edgar is Senior Lecturer in
Dream interpretation in Islam is not solely being true, false or worldly (nafs), the practice Anthropology at the University of Durham. He
about the dream but about the relationship itself is extremely sophisticated and takes into has published extensively on imagination and
between dreams and events as in the famous account the following factors: the piety and dreaming. His research trip to Turkey and
Joseph Sura in the Koran (ie Joseph’s spiritual rank of the dreamer; their social Pakistan was funded by a British Academy
interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dream of the position in the world; the time of night of the Small Research Grant.
seven fat cows and the seven thin cows). In dream and the time of year; Islamic dream