It is not easy to understand the language of dreams. Dreams have metaphorical diction so to draw a precise conclusion from the symbolic language of dreams is very complicated.
There are diversified and even contradictory opinions about dreams. Socrates held the view that all dreams do not end up at wakefulness. Freud said that all the previous theories of dreams are absurd and based on superstitions. According to Freud, desires manifest themselves in changed forms in dreams. Jung refuted the theory of Freud and believed the dreams are interpretations of past and present. Adler, an associate of Freud, while commenting on dreams, says that dreams do not point out our past and present. However, we can locate some clues to our future in dreams. He believed dreams virtually reflect new ways for us.
Long ago, I approached the largest and prime library of Kashmir for a comprehensive book written on the dreams, but was greatly disappointed to know that not a single book was available there on this subject. Then I went to many other libraries but met with the same fat. I tried really hard to get some exhaustive book on this subject but could not, though I approached all the big bookstores of Srinagar. Then I made all possible effort to read all that literature on this subject whatever came to my hand, and finally complied a detailed book on this subject and published in 2006 A.D.
Shakespeare said:
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Stories about the dreams.
“During the world war Adolph Hitler once while in a bunker on chilly night saw a dream that debris and earth fell upon him and crushed him. He woke up in a frightened state and began to run outside the bunker. After covering some distance, he stopped. To his surprise he saw that a shell hit the bunker killing all the occupants”.
“Abraham Lincoln, the Ex. President of America had dreamt of his assassination just a few days before the actual tragedy. He had revealed his dream to his friend Ward Hill Lamon. It is said that Mr. Lincoln had seen a deathlike silence all around in the dream which was broken by some sobs. He went downstairs. According to Mr. Lincoln, “there was nobody but the sounds of distress. I arrived at the East room. There was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Soldiers were guarding it. I asked a soldier, ‘who is dead?’ He replied, ‘The President. An assassin killed him’.”
It is said that once “Siddhartha saw a dream wherein he visioned a dead body lying on the ground. A saint told him: ‘Siddhartha! This is you. Try to know this truth and live a life in its light.’ When Siddhartha woke up, he left his palace, his wife and son, and finally became Gautam Buddha”.
One day second Khalifa of Muslim Ummah Hazrat Ummar (R.A.) said that he had seen a cock striking him with its beak in a dream. Then he added, some non-Arab would assassinate me. Only a few days after that dream a non-Arab slave named Abu Lolo attacked him with a dragger injuring him critically that resulted his martyrdom.
Dreams invade imagination and can’t be measured with physical and social yardsticks.
Christians believe dream a state where man converses with God. Jews say, angels send messages in dreams. Hindus hold the view that dreams are the messages from God. It is said that Maharaja Harish Chandra promised a saint in his dream to donate all his assets to him. Next day, a saint named Vishwamitra came to him and asked for the assets as promised in the dream. So the king handed him over while reign and left for jungles with his family. Buddhists also accept the significance of dreams. Muslims too believe in its significance. Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alihe wassallam) said that the true dream is a kind of revelation. Allama Ibn-e-Khaldoon said, dreams are related to the perception of soul.
Just a little use of the brain can make us realize how the Greatest Allah is. There are many signs within the human being and outside him which invite our thinking so that we can to some extent realize the greatness of our Creator.
[He is] the one to whom belongs the kingship of the heavens and the Earth. He never had a son, nor does He have any partnership in kingship. He created everything in exact measure; He precisely designed everything. (Surah Furqan 25:2
Our ‘Buzargs’ tell us that probing the universe and ones own self is a method to explore the creation of God. This can bring a man near to his Creator and can have his ‘Morifat’. People should use their ‘Aql’ (intellect) so that they may understand Allah’s signs. There are great lessons in the signs of Allah.
Nazir Jahangir is a freelance writer and columnist.
