The Content of Dream in Islamic Mystic Prose Texts (Pre–Seventh /13th Century)

• Main Authors: S. M. Mirbagherifard, S. M. Rozatian, Mahnoush Mani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2016-02-01
• Series: SAGE Open
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015624477

Dream is one of the important topics of mystic texts and is of great significance in Islamic mysticism. Most writers of such texts have allocated a section of their books to it. Dream could be viewed from different perspectives, but it seems, what attracts mystics the most is the content of dream. The important issues considered the content of dream are seeing God, the Prophet, the Imams, the saints; the state of mystics after death; seeing angels and Paradise huris (the beauties); seeing what helps the Wayfarer in his difficulties; gaining knowledge of the future; and, finally, seeing Iblis (the Satan). In this article, an attempt is made to analyze the reactions of dreamers to each type of content by comparing the content of mentioned dreams in mystic prose texts of pre-seventh century. The results show that dreaming the beloved (God) is of the most importance whereas dreaming the Satan is the least desirable one. As for the reactions, the most frequent reactions are fear, enthusiasm, hope, confidence, pride, and joy.