Religious scriptures agree with the ability of famous prophets of God to receive messages in their dreams and interpret these dreams. In ancient polytheistic societies dreams were considered as the language of Gods. And towards the end of the 19th century, the interpretation of dreams of Sigmund Freud brought the idea that dreams are the activities of the subconscious mind. The idea was the foundation of psychoanalysis and helped understand how the subconscious mind can handled desires and frustrations. In religions however, dreams have played such an important role that the revelations could not have been possible without the ability of people to have dreams and study their meanings. But are dreams really messages from the divine or just a trick of our mind?
It will not be possible to answer this question without taking into consideration the aspects in which dreams occur. Dreams were used in medieval societies to counsel wise men and rulers and the interpretation of dreams have played an important role in the revelation of religious scriptures. And the Freudian psychological conception is also true in one aspect of the religions view. Dreams can allow us make an introspection into ourselves, (our soul or our hearts). According to Freud, dreams are about the fulfillment of wishes and desires that could not be realized in the normal way.
Whereas this conception focuses on the urge to fulfill repressed desires such as unfulfilled sexuality, the role of dreams in religions was mainly based of communicating with the unseen and the heart. No one can be a believer without taking into consideration the unseen, because the physical world that we apprehend with our five senses is not always truthful. Dreams are transcendental experience and might be helpful for personal introspection in the modern materialistic age of corruption . Unfortunately in the name of rationalism and science, true religious experiences have been sometimes rejected. The possibility of validity of knowledge is nowadays only explained in using scientific epistemology but sometimes even the criteria of selection of the so-called scientists is not wholly objective.
Indeed dreams are not useful if the subject is not spiritually sound event-though the study of symbolism of dreams can be done in a scientific way. There are some universal symbols that have been recognized by dream interpreters throughout the world. The symbols can help identify the main meaning of a dream but the interpretation of dreams is more useful when taking into consideration religious revelations. The study of dreams through religious scriptures can demonstrate the validity of the religious interpretation of reality.
In the old testament, to be considered here as part of the Jewish scriptures, there are evidences that God sent messages to his prophets in dreams:
Then he said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; He is faithful in all my house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings,; And he sees the form of the :Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?(Numbers 126-8 )
And the Quran confirms that God speaks to his prophets through dreams. The prophet confirm that one source if not the main source of divine inspiration is dreams.
[Remember, O Muhammad, when Allah showed them to you in your dream as few; and if he had shown them to you as many, you believers would have lost courage and would have disputed in the matter , but Allah saved you from that. Indeed, he is knowing of that within the breasts.(qu’ran) 8:43
Well known stories of how God speaks to prophets in the qu’ran and the bible are among others, the story of Ibrahim(Abraham) from whom God requested the sacrifice of his son and the story of Yussuf(Joseph) who could interpret dreams accurately as a gift of God. And God has spoken several times to his beloved prophet Muhammad. In the course of history, God has spoken to al lot of people from righteous to normal people
through dreams.
“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”” (Genesis 20:3)
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)
Even though the religious mind consider dreams as a possibility to converse somehow with the divine as it is the case with true dreams that enable some people to take concrete decision in their lives, it is also warned that the interpretation of dreams is not easy or accessible to everyone in every state.
Satan can attack us through dreams. Satan or evil spirits can use dreams to attack or subdue believers as they are are given respite by the creator himself to mislead whoever they can. This might be the reason wish many scientific analysis of dreams with consider them as obscurity. In the Islamic interpretation of dreams for example, the same dream may have various meanings depending on the subject. Intuition is needed for the interpretation of true dreams and it is therefore not suitable for scientific inquiry. Freud had a model that could explain trauma and sexual frustration through dreams but it was however not suitable to deal with dreams that come true.
There are various principles that should be taken into account in the interpretation of dreams. Ibn Sireen who is known as one of the most accepted interpreter of dreams consider as reported by the sunnah that “true dreams are one part of the 46 components of prophecy. But it is necessary that the interpreter of true dreams be a righteous person.
The prophet Muhammad distinguished 3 kinds of dreams. Dreams from ourselves which could fall into the same categories as Freud’s dreams, good dreams that are messages the creator can send to his servants, and bad dreams that are dreams used by the devils to frighten us, these are bad dreams and nightmare. In many monotheistic religions dreams are also mentioned among the signs of the end of time. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “When the time (of the end of the world) draws close, the dreams of a believer will hardly fail to cometrue, and a dream of a believer is one of the forty-six parts of prophethood.”
(Bukhari)
He should be according to Muslim scholars someone who is well-versed in the Quran and hadiths as well as recognized as pious and good behaving.
And both The Bible and the Quran warned about astrologers, magicians, soothsayers. The message that they give cannot always be true, but the visions made by the righteous and guided are true.
Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “ The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to King Neuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days……
(Daniel 2:27-29)
Obviously no one can attain higher degrees of spiritual awakening without considering the messages encoded in dreams. But the practice of the teachings of the prophets and the law of God must be prioritise here.
Dreams must be handle with care because it is a symbolic language of both the divine and our mind. Agreeing with the hadiths of the prophet, God can use dreams to advice us warn us and give us guidance. But Satan can as well use dreams to frighten us or mislead us so the interpreter of dream must be very pious and spiritually advanced.
A life of happiness, fulfillment and peaceful live should consider authentic religious teachings for enhancement of ethical values, and these teachings are useful today and will be more and more useful in the future.
