Discussion of dreams and visions.

The questioner : There is a book on dream interpretation by Ibn Sirin, or so they claim. I mean, how much truth is there in relying on it? Let us not say that we believe in or hold to what is found in such books as an attempt to shed light on some dreams.

The Shaykh : No one benefits anything from it. Dream interpretation is not an acquired science, but rather a gift. In the beginning of my scholarly career, there was a story in this matter. I was living with some young men, and I was among them. I was, I mean, the most prominent of them in terms of jurisprudence at that time. So from that standpoint, whenever someone saw a dream, he would relate it to me. I went down to the market and bought the large volume, the book of dreams by Ibn Sirin, and on its margin was the book of dreams by Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi.

The questioner : Your initial beginning was Sufi.

The Shaykh : Whenever anyone related a vision to me, I would return to this book, and the result was that I would return empty-handed. There was no benefit. The outcome was that the book remained with me, thrown aside, until a spider built a web on it. I never used it at all. I do not know, as they say, "where it went; the earth ate it." So the bottom line is that the science of dreams, the interpretation of dreams, does not return to rules and guidelines like the other sciences. Rather, it is, as I mentioned earlier, a gift, according to what Allah the Exalted grants to the person. In addition to that, one must have prior knowledge of what came in the Sunnah regarding visions in general, including that they are divided into three categories: a vision from the Most Merciful, a vision from Satan, and a vision from the whispers of the self. After a person is gifted, he should keep in mind that the dream that so-and-so is talking about might be whispers of the self or from Satan’s manipulation. So the third category: one of the three might be a vision from the Most Merciful. Then it may be interpreted according to its apparent meaning, or it may be interpreted figuratively. From here appears the precision of the subject of dream interpretation, because you have to perform a filtering process: this is not whispers of the self, it is not whispers of the self, it is not from Satan’s manipulation of the human being. If it is a vision from the Most Merciful, do you see whether it is interpreted according to its apparent meaning, or does it have an interpretation other than what its apparent meaning indicates? How does a person reach this result? Therefore, I have run through my whole life; whenever someone starts to relate a dream to me, I say, if you just want me to listen to you without asking me about its interpretation and figurative meaning, I will listen to you. Otherwise, hold back, there is no benefit, because I am not an interpreter of dreams.

The questioner : There is a hadith in Muslim or in this meaning.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is right.

The questioner : What is the hadith?

The Shaykh : I do not remember the text now.

The questioner : .

The Shaykh : Yes, this is it. I brought it. May Allah reward you with good. And what do you want? Just like that.

The questioner : Consequently, who can actually decide? Even in the human being, the human soul cannot be alike. So the whispers of the self that we talk about may have been taken up by psychologists to be that a person is eating heavily or is thinking about a matter in his subconscious, or it is an operation of a certain suppressed concentration that comes out in the dream. The reality is that many of these matters are explained in the sense that, or all of us have experienced them. For example, one gets up at night, a child or someone, and he wants to go to the bathroom, so he dreams that he is urinating. In fact, the process of habituation is real; he wakes up after a period and finds himself in this state, so it becomes like a process of concentration or discharge of a suppressed desire. Likewise, one may think about a person or a certain matter, and it comes to him by way of... I mean, and this is also, again.

The Shaykh : I told you once, a long time ago, I do not know who was present, a story with a strangeness that happened to me. I was afflicted with something in my eye in the beginning of my youth. A doctor at that time, a specialist in eyes, called it the flying fly. I would look at this wall and see a blackness moving. He called it the flying fly. He prescribed for me rest, leaving work. I was repairing watches, and I spent most of my time in the Dar al-Kutub al-Mu'ayyada. This needs rest, and some drops. I tried to follow this prescription, but psychologically I did not rest. I cut off from knowledge, and the subconscious was working. So it inspired me to task the copyists of the Dar al-Kutub al-Mu'ayyada to copy for me a treatise in the handwriting of al-Hafiz Ibn 'Asakir al-Dimashqi. The man copied it, and this was as a pastime for me because of my not frequenting the library. The time for collation came, and he had left a blank of two words he did not know how to read. In the collation, these blanks are corrected and filled. He had left the blanks, we did not have them, butThe Shaykh : the so-called one also stopped at a sentence he did not know how to read. I sought the help of some who preceded me in this field, among them Ahmad 'Abd al-Ilah, may he be remembered with good, if he is alive, or if he has died, may Allah have mercy on him. The second one also did not manage to read it for me. The point is, I saw myself at night speaking in words and hearing them while I was sleeping. What was I saying? "Firda firda firda firda." And it is my custom, I do not know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but just like that, Allah raised me. Any dream I see, good or bad, evaporates in the morning. I do not remember from it except perhaps words that do not form a complete sentence, as they say. Here, on the contrary, as soon as I heard myself saying "Firda firda," it was as if an inspiration was telling me: get up and record this speech. I took the paper and wrote "Firda firda." And when morning came, as is my custom, I am forgetful. I saw the paper: "Firda firda." To be, this has a connection to the manuscript that we did not know how to read. I went and put "Firda firda," and if it is it, why did it puzzle me? Ibn 'Asakir, may Allah have mercy on him, "shablah shabla." They say in our land in Sham, I do not know what you say, "the fa and the ra are connected to the dal, and the dal is connected to the alif." It became as if it is one word. What word? The ri is separated, the end is connected to the dal, and the dal is separated, the end is connected to the alif. And two words like each other: "Firda firda." Yes, when I put this paper in front of the copy, and if it is it, what is this? Whispers of the self. This is a very clear example of whispers of the self. But

The questioner : But this is mixed with a vision from the Most Merciful...

The Shaykh : Allow me a little. But if I had not woken up and written it, it might not have been interpreted for me, or it might not have been interpreted for any person. But when we connected the written on the paper to the blank left in the copy, we compared it with the manuscript, and the truth was revealed.
Al-Halabi : Is this the same story as the lost paper from *Dhamm al-Mala'ih*?

The Shaykh : No, it is different.
Al-Halabi : It is also different. Subhan Allah. Was it in the same period, I mean?

The Shaykh : Perhaps, and I do not know, by Allah.
Al-Halabi : Because that one was, I mean, also your eye. You wrote in the introduction of al-Muntaqa. .