Posted by Mohammad Awais Tahir
B- Mechanism Of Different Types Of Dreams
(1)Dreams from Allah سبحانه و تعالى: They are of an extra dimensional nature (See Reference # 10). The scholars who wrote on the subject of 'ruh' have discussed these dreams of type 1 in great detail.
Although it is not possible for us to comprehend fully the matters of the spirit, but one thing is certain that dreams of type one are initially received by the 'ruh' and then we are able to visualize them even in our dimension.
How this happens? Ibn e Khuldun writes in his Muqadmah:" The spirit of the heart is the vehicle of man's rational spirit. Through its essence, the rational spirit perceives everything that is in the divine world, since its reality and its essence are identical with perception. It is prevented from assimilating any supernatural perception by the veil of its preoccupation with the body and the corporeal powers and senses.
If it were without that veil or stripped of it, it would return to its reality, which is identical with perception. It would thus be able to assimilate any object of perception. If it were stripped of part of it, its preoccupation would be less. It is thus able to catch a glimpse of its own world, since external sense perception, its greatest preoccupation, now occupies it less.
Its (supernatural perception) corresponds (in intensity) to the degree to which the veil is withdrawn from it. Thus it becomes prepared to receive the available perceptions from its own world that are appropriate for it. When it has perceived these perceptions from its own worlds, it returns with them to its body, since, as long as it remains in its corporeal body, it cannot be active except through corporeal means of perception.The faculties through which the body perceives knowledge are all connected with the brain. The active part among them is the imagination.
It derives imaginary pictures from the pictures perceived by the senses and turns them over to the power of memory, which retains them until they are needed in connection with speculation and deduction. From the (imaginary pictures), the soul also abstracts other spiritual-intellectual pictures. In this way, abstraction ascends from the sensibilia to the intelligibilia.The imagination is the intermediary between them.
Also, when the soul has received a certain number of perceptions from its own world, it passes them on to the imagination, which forms them into appropriate pictures and turns those perceptions over to the common sense. As a result, the sleeper sees them as if they were perceived by the senses. Thus, the perceptions come down from the rational spirit to the level of sensual perception, with the imagination again being the intermediary. This is what dream visions actually are."
(Muqamda ibn e Khuldun ,Chapter: The Science of Dream Interpretation) (These paragraphs are hard to grasp, but without having understood these it is hard to move forward, anyone having difficulty should try and find me on Googletalk, and I will try to elaborate by the will of Allah)
(2)Dreams from Shaitan: Shaitan is basically a Jinn. Jinns are extra-dimensional beings for us, and they have been given the power (or some of them acquire the power) to interact with those in other dimension. Those Jinn which disturb humans living in other dimension are known as Shayateen. Everyone of us have a Shaitan with us which runs through our body like the blood and disturbs us through various ways. One of the way adopted by Satan is to disturb is through sleep. Nightmares are a result of Satanic intervention into our 'physical' domain of sleep ( See Reference # 36). How Jinns enter into our dimension and interact with our perceptions is a matter beyond our comprehension and very little thinking has been done on the topic because dreams from satan have no real importance and we've been told to ignore them.
(3)Dreams from Nafs: Ibn e Khuldun writes in his muqadma: All of them are pictures in the imagination while an individual is asleep. However, if these pictures come down from the rational spirit that perceives (them), they are dream visions. But if they are derived from the pictures preserved in the power of memory, where the imagination deposits them when the individual is awake, they are "confused dreams." (Muqamda ibn e Khuldun , Chapter: The Science of Dream Interpretation)
These are the dreams which belong to this physical dimension of us alone. Psychologists can only comprehend these types of dreams. Any think which occupies our mind for a long time, any extreme wish, any captivating fear which might be preserved in some corner of our brain might turn up in strange shapes during the dream.These dreams deal with our near or distant past and have nothing do with future.
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