Elizabeth Sirriyeh - Dreams and Visions in the World of Islam: A History of Muslim Dreaming and Foreknowing

Elizabeth Sirriyeh was until her retirement Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Leeds. A specialist on dream interpretation in Islam, she has also written on Sufism and Islamic reform, religion in Ottoman Syria, Muslim ideological disputes and the interface between Islamic and modern Western thought. Her previous books are Sufis and Anti-Sufis: The Defence, Rethinking and Rejection of Sufism in the Modern World (1999) and Sufi Visionary of Ottoman Damascus: Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, 16411731 (2005).

To study the history of Muslim dreaming is to enter an enthralling meta-world in which believers sought authenticity, authority and salvation through their nocturnal encounters with the Prophets and Saints. Elizabeth Sirriyeh is a judicious and expert guide to over twelve centuries of deliberations on the credibility and meaning of dreams. Her book will appeal to anyone interested in this under-studied topic.

Nile Green, Professor of History, UCLA, author of Sufism: A Global History

Elizabeth Sirriyehs authoritative book on dreams and visions in the Islamic tradition concerns what might be termed mysticism, and as such relates to the very heart of the Sufi tradition. It provides a comprehensive and lucid account that commences in the pre-Islamic period and brings readers up to the present era with discussions of the topic within the contemporary Middle East. For students of Sufism and Islamic spirituality this book is indispensable, because it provides a clear account of the potency and significance that dreams and visions have had, and continue to have, in the region.

Lloyd Ridgeon, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies, University of Glasgow

The Prophet Muhammad received revelations from God in his dreams and he himself interpreted the dreams of his companions. And after his death, and the end of Qur'anic revelation, Muslims believed that God would continue to reveal himself to them through their dreams. In this fascinating book, Elizabeth Sirriyeh explores the role that dreams and visions played in the religious lives of pre-modern Muslims. She ranges widely: from the earliest biographical sources on the life of the Prophet, through formal manuals for the interpretation of dreams and philosophical treatises on the nature of dreams, to the visionary accounts of Muslim mystics. She devotes special attention to the unexplored dreams of Muslim women. Her analysis is masterful and eminently accessible, and there is much here to delight both the specialist and the general reader.

John C. Lamoreaux, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University, author of The Early Muslim Tradition of Dream Interpretation

DREAMS AND
VISIONS IN
THE WORLD
OF ISLAM

A History of Muslim Dreaming and
Foreknowing

E LIZABETH S IRRIYEH

Published in 2015 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

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Distributed worldwide by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

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Copyright 2015 Elizabeth Sirriyeh

The right of Elizabeth Sirriyeh to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

ISBN: 978 1 78076 142 8

eISBN: 978 0 85773 820 2

ePDF: 978 1 78673 964 3

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

For Hussain, Ala and Reema

CONTENTS

PREFACE

In a survey of Muslim academics, undertaken at the International Islamic University of Malaysia early in the twenty-first century, all the participants reported their belief in the possibility of receiving true guidance from God in their dreams. Many said that they performed rituals before sleep in the hope of receiving such dreams, had consulted expert dream interpreters and had experienced dreams of great importance for their lives. A number of those surveyed mentioned that the dreams had helped them in solving problems, had served as a warning of dangers and some believed that they had been given clear instructions via dreams. For example, one woman academic claimed that she had seen her deceased brother-in-law in a dream and that he had asked her to take care of his children.

Anyone may be regarded as being able to see the truth in their night visions, but those who are especially pious are generally considered to be more open to receiving and understanding divine communication. Consequently, they are commonly consulted for guidance as to the meaning of dreams and may even dream on behalf of more ordinary dreamers. A Turkish academic recounted his own experience from 1991 when he was seeking to marry into a pious family, who were associated with one of the Sufi orders in Istanbul. The family decided to consult their shaykh as to the suitability of the marriage. The shaykh then performed the ritual known as istikhara, in which he prayed to God to supply an answer before he went to sleep. He dreamt, but told the family that he had seen an unfavourable outcome if the marriage were to go ahead. The family accepted the shaykh's interpretation of his dream as a divine warning and rejected the proposal of marriage.

Those who do not have ready access to a skilled interpreter of dreams frequently turn to dream dictionaries for guidance. Some of the classical keys to dreams remain remarkably popular, although modern abridgements and compilations are also available. These works are easily identified as offering a method of foreknowing similar to that of the Greek dream interpreter Artemidorus (second century CE ). They claim to foretell the future rather than seeking to provide the dreamer with psychological insight. John Lamoreaux, writing of the early development of Muslim dream interpretation, explains this approach to interpreting dreams: Dream interpretation offered Muslims a royal road that led not inward, but outward, providing insight not into the dreamer's psyche but into the hidden affairs of the world.

How did the situation arise in which dreaming and other visionary experience became so important to highly spiritual men and women as well as many Muslims with more mundane interests? This book is principally occupied with seeking an answer to this question. The major focus is on the emergence and flowering of literature in Arabic relating to dreams and visions, principally, but not exclusively, designed as a means of foreknowing future events. A variety of forms of divination were in use among the Muslims and had the goal of knowing the future, such as astrology, sorcery and reading the meanings of shapes and lines drawn in the sand (ilm al-raml). However, they never gained the respected status of the veridical dream or vision, which was elevated above humbler divinatory practices and acknowledged as constituting a part of prophecy. Therefore, despite the interest of various branches of Islamic divination for their contribution to traditional culture, they fall outside the coverage of this book.