Unconventional Duha Research Unitary

Qur’anic & Prophetic Grounding

Dreams (ruʾyā) in Islam are not random firings of the brain, but signs woven into the tapestry of divine guidance. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“The true dream is one part of forty-six parts of Prophethood.” (Bukhārī, Muslim)

“Nothing will remain of prophecy after me except mubashshirāt.” He was asked: “What are mubashshirāt?” He replied: “The righteous dream.” (Musnad Aḥmad, ṣaḥīḥ)

The Qur’an itself features dreams as turning points:

Ibrāhīm عليه السلام saw in a dream that he was sacrificing his son (Q 37:102).

Yūsuf عليه السلام interpreted his dream and those of others, which became means of deliverance and rise (Q 12:4, 36–49).

The Prophet ﷺ saw in a dream that he and the Companions would enter Makkah, which was fulfilled in the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyyah (Q 48:27)

1. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhu)

He dreamt that he was being taken to Hell, but two men said: “Do not fear, you are not of them.” When he told this to Ḥafṣah (his sister, the Prophet’s wife), she relayed it to the Prophet ﷺ.

The Prophet ﷺ said: “ʿAbdullāh is a righteous man — if only he would pray more at night.” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Taʿbīr, 1121)

2. Umm al-ʿAlāʾ al-Anṣāriyyah (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhā)

She saw in a dream that a man from the Companions (ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn) had entered Paradise. She later told the Prophet ﷺ, who confirmed: “Indeed, I have seen him in Paradise.” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Janaʾiz, 1198)

3. ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhu)

He dreamt of the adhan — a man carrying a bell taught him the words of the call to prayer. When he told the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet confirmed it as a true dream and instructed Bilāl to call the adhan with those words. (Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 499; Tirmidhī, Sunan, 189)

4. Multiple Companions

After the Battle of Uḥud, some Companions saw dreams of the Prophet ﷺ or of Paradise, giving them strength and sabr. The Prophet ﷺ would often ask after Fajr: “Who among you has seen a dream?” and interpret them. (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb al-Ruʾyā, 2269)

These show that dreams train perception and prepare action — imagination becomes a rehearsal for divine destiny.

Khayāl and Ruʾyā: The Islamic Frame

In the Islamic sciences, khayāl (imagination) is the faculty that translates meanings (maʿānī) into forms (ṣuwar). When a dream is true (ruʾyā ṣādiqah), it exercises the khayāl by presenting divine messages in symbols, parables, or visual forms.

Ibn Sīnā: Dreams activate the imaginative faculty, freeing it from sensory distraction, allowing intellect to imprint meanings into images.

Ibn ʿArabī: Dreams take place in the ʿālam al-mithāl (imaginal realm), which is ontologically real. They are not subjective hallucinations but encounters with a symbolic dimension of reality.

Thus, the sālik’s khayāl is trained in the dream state to recognize signs, discern truth from delusion, and become receptive to divine ilḥām (inspiration)

Neuroscience Echo: Dreams as Unconscious Training

Modern cognitive neuroscience supports this insight:

1. Memory Consolidation

Dreams integrate and strengthen memories during REM sleep, weaving fragments of experience into coherent narratives.

Citation: Stickgold & Walker, Sleep-dependent memory consolidation and reconsolidation (Science, 2005).

2. Problem-Solving & Creativity

The brain rehearses and simulates scenarios in dreams, enabling novel connections.

Citation: Barrett, The Committee of Sleep (2001) – scientists and artists throughout history (e.g., Kekulé’s dream of the benzene ring) received insights through dreams.

3. Emotional Regulation

Dreams process emotional events, reducing fear and integrating meaning.

Citation: Cartwright, The Twenty-Four Hour Mind (2010).

Thus, neuroscience confirms that dreams refine pattern recognition, creative synthesis, and emotional wisdom — all of which Islam already located in khayāl and ruʾyā.

Ruʾyā as a Station (Maqām) for the Sālik

For the sālik (traveler), dreams are not ends in themselves but stations (maqāmāt) of the path:

Training Khayāl: Dreams habituate the imaginative faculty to read signs, so that wakeful life too becomes symbolic — every event a potential āyah from Allah.

Sharpening Basīrah: True dreams awaken insight, the ability to see beneath appearances.

Opening to Ilḥām: When the heart is purified, the same receptivity that receives dreams becomes capable of receiving inspiration while awake.

As Imām al-Ghazālī writes in Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn: “When the heart is polished, it becomes like a mirror in which the unseen is reflected.”

Dreams, then, are like rehearsals for mushāhadah (witnessing) — training the sālik to walk in the highest maqām: constant awareness of Allah (iḥsān).

In the modern world, dreams are reduced to neurochemistry; in Islam, they are mubashshirāt — glad tidings and guidance. Neuroscience affirms what revelation teaches: that dreams refine imagination, integrate knowledge, and prepare action.

For the sālik, to honor dreams is to honor the faculty of khayāl, to polish the qalb, and to walk toward Allah with imagination purified by light. It is an invitation not into fantasy, but into a luminous epistemology where all faculties — reason, sense, imagination, and heart — are harmonized by the nūr of Allah.

References

Barrett, D. (2001). The Committee of Sleep. Crown Books.

Cartwright, R. (2010). The Twenty-Four Hour Mind: The Role of Sleep and Dreaming in Our Emotional Lives. Oxford University Press.

Stickgold, R., & Walker, M. P. (2005). Sleep-dependent memory consolidation and reconsolidation. Science, 294(5544), 1052–1057.

al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn.

Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya.

Ibn Sīnā, Kitāb al-Nafs.

Qur’an 37:102; 12:4, 36–49; 48:27; 91:7–8.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Taʿbīr; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb al-Ruʾyā.