Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Amikam Elad, Medieval Jerusalem and 

Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage

(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993); Oleg Grabar, The Shape of the 

Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton 

University Press, 1996).

dreams

Dreams and visions (Arabic: ruya or manam) 

occupy a special place in Islam as in many ancient 

Near Eastern religions, since such experiences are 

considered intimately linked to prophecy. In the 

q

Uran

 (as in the Bible), God communicates to his 

prophets

 through dreams and visions, and many 

prophets are endowed with the power of dream 

interpretation. Several 

hadith

 manifest m

Uham

-

mad

’s affirmation of the relation between dreams 

and prophethood; for example, “The divine rev-

elation comes to prophets in waking as well as 

in sleep.” Given the quranic precedent and the 

importance that Muhammad attached to dreams, 

the early Muslims greatly esteemed oneiromancy, 

the pre-Islamic science of dream classification and 

interpretation. The belief in the divinely inspired 

K  202  

dreams

---

“good dream” (ruya hasana)—as distinguished 

from demonic-inspired “muddled dreams” (adghath 

al-ahlam)—has provided a paradigm for the social 

acceptance of dreams and visions as authoritative 

in Islamicate societies up until the modern period. 

The proliferation of dream narratives in Islamic 

(auto)biographical writings, historical chronicles, 

belles-lettres, and philosophical treatises demon-

strates that they fulfill the social functions of arbi-

ters of contested religious and political 

aUthority

and sources of communal or individual guidance. 

Traditionally, oneiric accounts have predominated 

in Sufi (auto)biographies.

Quranic narratives of the dreams and visions 

of prophets and kings follow the biblical accounts. 

a

braham

’s vision (manam) ordering him to sacri-

fice his son (Q 12:102), the dreams of J

oseph

, and 

the “muddled, confused dreams” of Pharaoh (Q 

12:44), among others, are recorded. The Islamic 

inheritance of this oneiric legacy is seen in the 

scriptural references to Muhammad’s dreams 

and visionary experiences, which prefigure criti-

cal events in his life. Prior to the Battle of Badr, 

God granted Muhammad a dream of the victory 

(Q 8:43). His triumphal entrance into m

ecca

 is 

described as the fulfillment of the vision (ruya) 

of God’s apostle (Q 48:27). The narrative of 

Muhammad’s Night Journey to J

erUsalem

 (isra) 

and heavenly ascension (miraj) reads “We [God] 

granted the vision [ruya] which we showed thee, 

but as a trial for men” (Q 17:60). Despite this 

quranic attestation of a vision, most Muslims 

believe that the ascension was an actual physical 

journey manifesting Muhammad’s charismatic 

powers.

The science of oneiromancy flourished under 

Islam due to the interest in interpreting Muham-

mad’s dreams and his declaration that in the 

absence of further prophecies after him, God 

would continue to guide human beings through 

“good dreams.” The most renowned system-

atic oneirocritics of the Islamic period include 

Ibn Sirin (d. 728), al-Dinawari (alive in 1006), 

al-Shahin (15th century), and al-Nabulusi (d. 

1731). Treatises on the subject by the latter three 

authors still survive and show the influence of 

Artemidorus’s Oneirocritica, which was translated 

into Arabic by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 873), the 

Christian transmitter of Greek philosophy to the 

Arabs. Such treatises typically expound defini-

tions and procedures of dream interpretation, the 

duties of the oneirocritic, and elaborate systems of 

dream classification.

For Islamic philosophers such as i

bn

  s

ina

(d. 1037) and i

bn

 r

Ushd

 (d. 1198), dreams were 

manifestations of ultimate reality, instruments 

through which God (the divine intellect) trans-

mitted knowledge to mankind. In Sufi narratives, 

spiritual progress is often recounted in ascend-

ing stages patterned on Muhammad’s heavenly 

ascension. Autobiographical accounts of Sufis’ 

dreams authenticate the authors’ own piety and 

charisma vis-à-vis their peers. Often, as with 

al

-

g

hazali

 (d. 1111), a dream could be a liminal 

experience marking a conversion to a new spiri-

tual state. Medieval historical chronicles often 

exploited the symbolic nature and authority of 

dreams to surreptitiously reveal an ostensibly 

neutral author’s true opinion about a communal 

dispute.

In the modern period, dreams continue to 

function as loci of power for Sufis and as alterna-

tive sources of authority for political or religious 

reformers. Thus, Shah Wali Allah of Delhi (d. 

1762) became convinced of his mission to reform 

the Islamic 

umma

 after dreaming of Muhammad 

and his grandsons. The Fulani leader U

sman

 d

an

F

odio

 (d. 1817) justified his 

Jihad

 against social 

corruption in response to a dream of the prophet 

Muhammad. Nevertheless, some contemporary 

Arabs and Muslims have exhibited skepticism 

toward the authority of dreams. This is true of 

Salafi reformers seeking to purify Islam from 

the “innovations” of popular and Sufi religious 

practices, such as m

Uhammad

  a

bdUh

 (d. 1905) 

and  m

Uhammad

  r

ashid

  r

ida

 (d. 1935), who 

had studied European ideas on skepticism and 

rationality.