On Abdolkarim Soroush's Theory of 'Prophetic Dreams', Neyyer Tahoori

With the advent of Islam, the focus on studying the Holy Qur'an began not only with the aim of understanding the text itself, but also for understanding Islam. Over the fourteen centuries since the Qur'an's emergence, mystics, thinkers, intellectuals, Islamic scholars, and commentators have scrutinized and reflected upon the Qur'an in the hope of

‌The present article seeks to recall that what has been proposed in Dr. Soroush's recent theory is not only not an innovation in the understanding of religion, but also has a relatively clear precedent. Many renowned Islamic mystics, such as Ibn Arabi and his commentators, and philosophers like Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra… as well as great Iranian poet-mystics such as Rumi and Hafez and… arrived at such an understanding much earlier and spoke of it in various forms in philosophy and mysticism, in prose or in verse. This time too, the learned scholar, in his profound writing, points to matters that have been discussed and clearly expressed in Islamic mysticism and even in the sacred text. It seems that he has deliberately and consciously avoided citing the aforementioned statements, perhaps in order to refrain from embarking on a kind of academic (scientific) interpretation, in Barthes's terms, according to which, as he himself has stated, the Quran should not be interpreted but rather ta'bir (oneirically interpreted)!

Moreover, it seems that in this way he has sought not to provide cause for the flight and distancing of readers interested in specialized discussions in this field, who, when faced with the daunting prospect of heavy and cumbersome technical debates, usually abandon the gift of entering into such matters, although the rigid and immense gate of the circle of the "elite" already bars their entry.

The aim is to open up the concepts that Abdolkarim Soroush has proposed in his recent theory, although its roots can be found in his older writings, including The Expansion of the Prophetic Experience. He has, of his own volition, refrained from elaborating on it and states that he does not intend an ontology of the Five Divine Presences, the World of Images, Jabalqa, Jabarsa, etc., and only deals with the phenomenology of revelation. But how can the phenomenology of a text be independent of the cultural context in which it was born and developed? Thus, Soroush deliberately refrains from referencing and citing foundational sources and ideas, in order to present the issue as much simpler than it is, easy and self-evident, to express it in sweet and simple language, yet with a highly capable and scholarly pen, and to call everyone to reflect and ponder upon the subject. This theory, due to its extreme obviousness, seems strange!

While bowing my head before the lofty station of the Prophet of Islam, I seek permission, by stating some matters that he has apparently not mentioned, but as "between the lines"—that is, by writing what is not written in his text—to take a step, however short, in illuminating its complexities. Perhaps in this way I may have fulfilled a debt to the esteemed position of a teacher from whom I have learned much. I know well that I may be subject to this saying from him: "Everyone became my friend from his own opinion." Therefore, before anything else, I must say that what follows is the writer's personal understanding of the theory of "Prophetic Dreams," not necessarily what he had in his lofty mind.

O ascetic, pass safely through the alley of the libertines,

Lest the company of a few ill-reputed ones ruin you.

O beggars of the tavern ruins, God be your aid,

Do not fix your eyes of expectation on a few benefactors.

How well the tavern elder said to his dregs-drinker,

"Do not speak of the burnt heart's state to a few raw ones." (Hafez)

****

1. Among the most important points that have become controversial in the article in question is the mention of the meaning that the Quran is a "dream-book" in which the Prophet was the "narrator of prophetic dreams." The author emphasizes that:

The reader can use words such as unveiling, spiritual occurrence, imaginal, discontiguous imagination, the Eighth Clime, Jabalqa, Jabarsa, and the Earth of the Kingdom instead of the word dream, but the writer, without opposing them, has deliberately chosen the word dream, firstly to avoid the cumbersome ambiguities of those ancient concepts and their terrifying metaphysics, and secondly to make the truth of Muhammad's (PBUH) prophetic experience more manifest and accessible.

Thus he himself has provided the key to the intended meaning: any of the aforementioned conventional terms can be substituted for “dream,” and through this disclosure he consciously avoids prolixity. The first thing one can infer even from the title of the theory of “Prophetic Dreams” is that such a sleep and dream is “prophetic” and specific to the prophetic station, not a sleep or dream of the kind experienced by the majority of people.

Dr. Soroush adds at the beginning of his discussion: “What is pursued in this article is not the ontology of imagination, the imaginal world, and the Five Divine Presences…”! It therefore does not seem far-fetched to begin the discussion precisely at this point, in the hope that it will open a path somewhere, and to bring forth what is absent from his writing so that the basis for understanding his recent theory becomes clearer.

A. The Five Divine Presences (al-Ḥaḍarāt al-Khams)

The Messenger of Truth, God’s chosen one, Muḥammad Muṣṭafā (PBUH), said: “People are asleep, and when they die, they awaken.” [5] And according to ʿĀʾisha, the Prophet’s entire life was a “dream within a dream.” It is essential to note that everything of this kind is called the world of imagination, and “for this reason, it requires interpretation.” [6] It is right here that Ibn ʿArabī provides the key to understanding the theory of “Prophetic Dreams.”

But one must ask: in what sense does he use the term “world of imagination”? To explain this, it is necessary to briefly outline the theoretical basis of Ibn ʿArabī’s ontology, known as the “Five Divine Presences,” so that, by avoiding the pitfall of misunderstanding, the correct meaning of sleep and dream in mystical discussions becomes clear.

Ibn ʿArabī expresses existence in relation to the Real within a structure of five levels of presence called the “Five Divine Presences,” in order to describe, based on this, the levels of existents as hierarchical shadows of the existence of God Almighty. In his account, within these levels, which are arranged in a vertical order, every higher level is the truer reality of its lower level, and every lower level is the shadow, image, or mirror of the level above it. In Ibn ʿArabī’s ontological system of the Unity of Being, the entire universe is the locus of manifestation of a single reality, namely the station of Aḥadiyya (Absolute Oneness); He alone is Existence, and others are existents; He is self-subsistent, and others subsist through His existence. This universe possesses a hierarchical, mirror-like structure: every lower level is the mirror of its higher level and the nurtured (marbūb) of its lord (rabb), which is that very higher level. The station of Aḥadiyya is Absolute Reality, and the four levels below it, conditioned by their level and by virtue of subsisting through Him, are His mirrors and shadows. In the hierarchical system of the Five Divine Presences, the first three levels—called the Presence of Aḥadiyya (Lāhūt), the Presence of Wāḥidiyya (Jabarūt), and the Presence of Disengaged Realities (Malakūt)—are purely spiritual and formless. The fourth Presence, the World of Image or Imagination (the World of Witnessing), is an intermediary between them, where forms first appear, and the fifth Presence is the world of material and sensible things or bodies (Nāsūt). In these five levels, the first three, the supernal ones, are purely spiritual and formless; it is at the imaginal and imaginative level that existents take on forms, so that in the sensory world they take shape as material realities. Existence “is in reality nothing but a single theophany,” whose First and Last is He. Existents become determined according to their nearness to or distance from Him, and their existential level is determined on this basis. “Thus, everything visible in the sensory world is a form for an unseen meaning,” [7] whose true form has taken shape in the World of Image. The malakūtī realities of the spiritual worlds, which are formless, become visible in the World of Image, which is their true form; the sensible forms in Nāsūt are the descents of these very forms.

Based on the ḥadīth qudsī, “Were it not for you, I would not have created the celestial spheres” [8], and also the prophetic ḥadīth, “The first thing God created was my light,” Ibn ʿArabī calls the second level of the Five Divine Presences—that is, the station of Wāḥidiyya or the Divine Names—the “Muḥammadan Reality” and the station of the “Perfect Human.” The first level of existence after the Most Holy Essence of Aḥadiyya, which through the light of existence manifests from the hiddenness of the immutable entities, is his light, the very one who is the synthesis of the Divine Names and, for this reason, is the object of prostration for the angels.

In light of the foregoing, the sensible existence of the Holy Prophet of Islam, through descent into the sensible world, assumes a real material form in the historical person of Muhammad (PBUH). The Prophet, as a human being who describes himself in the Qur'an thus: "I am only a mortal like you" [9], acquires a historical personality through the descent of his spiritual reality into the actual world, which is subject to time and space. Since the world of sensibles is perishable, his sensible existence, which was born one day, has inevitably departed from this transient world one day; just as other prophets—from Noah and Abraham to Moses and Jesus, and prophets such as Solomon, David, Jacob, Joseph, Zechariah, John, and others—once stepped into the sensible world and inevitably experienced death in history one day. Whatever becomes temporal inevitably becomes historical. Muhammad Mustafa is the Seal of the Circle of Prophethood, that is, the gem and seal of the path of the prophets. Attention to this prophetic hadith further opens up the matter: I was a Prophet when Adam was between water and clay [10]. Thus, in the statement that: "It is as if divinity entered the skin of a human and became human, and the supernatural clothed itself in the garment of nature and became natural, and the metahistorical stepped into the arena of history and became historical" [11], no injustice has been done to his sacred station.

B. Jābalqā, Jābalsā, and the Earth of the Kingdom

It is this very intermediary or imaginal world that Suhrawardī calls the "Eighth Clime," the world in which the visionary cities [12] of Jābalqā and Jābalsā, as well as Hūrqalyā, are located. Jābalqā, situated in the eastern side, opens toward spiritual and noetic realities, and Jābalsā, in the western side, faces the realities disclosed after death.

Ibn ʿArabī speaks of two kinds of imagination: conjoined imagination and disjoined imagination. The former is an imagination connected to the material world and constructed from human conceptions and mental imaginings, formed in an illusory combination of material realities that, in such a combined form, does not actually exist. The latter, that is, disjoined imagination, is separate from the material world and formed from spiritual realms; that is, a stage before something has yet appeared in the material world.

The relationship between conjoined and disjoined imagination is a perpetual connection between two levels of existence. Human imagination joins the world of the Kingdom (Malakūt), that is, the world of spiritual immaterialities, through the imaginal world.

The imaginal world creates an uninterrupted continuity between two levels of existence and enables human imagination to reach the Kingdom, that is, the world of spiritual immaterialities, through it. Some have considered the imaginal world the "key to the world of the Kingdom." Through the inner senses, without utilizing the outer senses, the spirit can journey in the world of the Kingdom, and the heart of anyone who has attained subtlety and awareness can see, hear, and enjoy beautiful and subtle forms in the world of the Kingdom.

Formless spirits assume form in the imaginal world, and bodies, there, by divesting themselves of the material garment, assume their imaginal form and become spiritual. On such a basis, Dārā Shukūh considers the Prophet's Ascension to have been with his celestial body, just as Jesus (AS) ascended to heaven with his own body. [13]

Henry Corbin introduces the imaginal world and imagination as the world of Hūrqalyā, or the celestial world of the soul, meaning the "Earth of the Kingdom" and "celestial corporeality," the very place where the Divine Presence manifests itself to our world. With humanity's separation from its origin, the "Earth of the Kingdom" is present in the heart. [14]

2. The Descent of Revelation:

Among the matters that have caused certain misunderstandings and misinterpretations from the very beginning is this: "The language of the Qur'an is human and mortal, and the Qur'an is directly and without intermediary the composition, experience, effusion, and growth of the soul of Muhammad (PBUH) and his tongue and expression." [15]

Now it can be explained why attributing characteristics such as having a human and mortal language to the Qur'an is not a strange or blasphemous statement. And the aforementioned statement is not only not a diminution of the Prophet's lofty station but, on the contrary, places him in his true and highest position. By posing several questions, we will proceed to unfold this meaning.

Question One. Since revelation originates from God, who is a spiritual and incorporeal entity, what does the descent of revelation to the Prophet mean? Given that the Prophet is an ordinary human being and, according to the explicit text of the Quran, like any other human, what difference between him and other people distinguishes him in the station of prophethood to receive revelation?

Answer: Considering the stages previously mentioned, the Prophet, who during his noble life on earth possessed a tangible material reality, must, in order to receive revelation, depart from his material and sensible state so that he can receive the spiritual and incorporeal matter. This is also recounted in the esoteric traditions of other religions and is not exclusive to the Prophet of Islam. It has been called the experience of leaving the body, which will be explained further later.

Question Two. How is communication possible between a real, sensible being in the transient, material world and the spiritual, incorporeal, divine matter?

Answer: Not only the Prophet in his human presence, but no other sensible and corporeal being in the material world can connect with the spiritual matter unless it temporarily leaves its physical body and enters the World of Images or Imagination, the experience of death before dying[16] which is described as a state similar to sleep. In Islamic mysticism, this state is explained through the World of Images, which is an intermediary between the real world and the spiritual, angelic realm and beyond. The first determined station of the Divine Essence, the level of “Names and Attributes” called the station of Unity, is the reality of the Prophet’s sacred existence. In this sense, to reach the station of the Perfect Human, he must, from the human station descended into the sensible and material level, transcend his own self, attain existential expansion, and become present in his inner or spiritual station, so as to be capable of perceiving the truth of revelation, which is the presential perception of his own true station. Then, upon returning to the world of sensibles and his material existence, he transmits and expresses that same spiritually received truth in the form of human language and a specific form, at a specific time and place, to the material world, which is said to be the descent of the Quran on the Night of Power.

His knowledge wells up continually from his soul,

Before him, it came neither borrowed nor on loan (Rumi)

The truth of the Quran, which is his own truth, namely the “Muhammadan Reality,” also called the station of the Pen, in its descending stages, at the angelic station of the world of incorporeal beings (the Inscribed Tablet), in the World of Images, takes on both a human form and the form of speech and a book! Then, by descending to the world of sensibles, one appears in the historical and human existence of the Prophet of Islam, and the other in the Mushaf of the Quran, which is now at hand as a book and is the descended form of its verbal and written truth. The descended Quran is the descent of the station of the “Muhammadan Reality” in the form of a book, which is nothing other than the Prophet’s true self. And this is why it is said that the Quran was once bestowed entirely upon the Prophet’s sacred existence, and another time over the twenty-three years of his prophethood, in a temporal and spatial manner, whereby its truth inevitably manifested according to the geographical and historical circumstances and sensible requirements of its descent.

Thus, in the statement that the Quran arose from the “source of the Prophet’s inner consciousness,” no error or mistake has occurred: The source of his inner consciousness is the “Muhammadan Reality” and the sum of the Divine Names and Attributes, that which God taught to humanity and which the angels were incapable of comprehending.[17] However the manner of receiving these verses is known or assumed, according to the explicit text, the station of humanity is higher than the angels, and what he knows, they cannot know! The meaning of reaching the station of the Perfect Human, meaning the highest station of human spiritual wayfaring, is nothing other than this. The Prophet of Islam occupies a station where he is worthy of actualizing all the perfections that God has placed as a trust in the essence of humanity (وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِي)[18], there where the primordial covenant between God and humanity was made based on this question: “اَلُستُ بِرَبّکُم؟”[19]. The trust that the heavens and the earth refused to accept, and only humanity accepted it.[20]

Having fallen into this manifest error, it is not right that we should consider the Perfect Human, who is the object of prostration for the angels, as lower than an angel, or that we should deem the Muhammadan Reality, which is the Breath of the All-Merciful, in need of an intermediary to receive the truth of the Quran and revelation. This is the meaning of that truthful statement that "the Quran is directly and without intermediary the composition, experience, effusion, and growth of the soul of Muhammad (PBUH), and his tongue and expression." If the Muhammadan Reality is that very specific Breath of the All-Merciful and all existents are situated beneath his sacred existence, then Gabriel the Trustworthy is also a level of his existence, not external to and separate from him, just as God is in the inner being of the Prophet, not outside of him. In addition to God having breathed of His own spirit into the human being, the fact that He is closer to him than his jugular vein[21] means nothing other than this. If God is closer to the human being than his jugular vein, how could the Messenger of Truth have needed an intermediary to receive revelation?

Learn the name of every thing from the Knower

Hear the secret of the mystery of 'He taught the names'

When Adam's eye saw by the Pure Light

The soul and secret of the names became manifest to him

When the angel found the lights of Truth within him

He fell in prostration and hastened to serve (Rumi)

3. The Prophet: "The Narrator of the Prophetic Dream"

Muhammad (PBUH) is the narrator of experiences and the observer of scenes that he himself has witnessed… He was not told, 'Go and tell the people that God is One'; rather, he himself saw and witnessed God in His attribute of Oneness and relates his account of this observation to us in his own words…

This notion that an angel poured verses into the heart of Muhammad (PBUH) and he recited them back must give way to the notion that Muhammad (PBUH), like a life-giving, imaginative reporter present at the scene, was reporting the events… Muhammad (PBUH) is the observer, and Muhammad (PBUH) is the narrator.

What is the explanation for this statement, which is a matter of dispute?

It is well known that God's archangel, Gabriel, fell behind and could not accompany the Prophet during the Ascension because his existential rank is lower than the rank of his Reality. If we so diminish the station of the Prophet of great dignity as to consider him confined and limited to his sensory and actual bounds, and deem him in need of Gabriel's mediation to receive revelation, we have done him an injustice! The correct view is to consider the Prophet as an active agent in the perception of the Quran's truth, and in this case, contrary to what is prevalent in common minds, we have not committed an error. The Prophet, in his sensory, corporeal, and lower level, is below the rank of the spiritual angel, but at the level of receiving revelation, the situation is reversed. The station of 'two bows' length or nearer'[22] belongs to him. There, where nothing is an intermediary between him and God, and he is so close to God that he feels His hand upon his shoulder. His pure heart did not lie about what it saw. What intermediary could be in a station closer to God than the Prophet's heart? It is the Prophet who ascends in his angelic existence while nothing is between him and God. Precisely those verses that many cite to refute the theory of dreams, on the contrary, confirm it! Based on these verses of Surah an-Najm, it can be understood that the Prophet was not in need of an intermediary like Gabriel in receiving revelation:

If Ahmad were to open that glorious wing

Gabriel would remain unconscious forever

When Ahmad passed beyond the Lote Tree and his watchpost

And beyond the station of Gabriel and his limit

He said to him, "Come, fly after me"

He said, "Go, go, I am not your companion"

Again he said to him, "Come, O burner of veils"

I have not yet reached my zenith

He said: Beyond this limit, O my blessed splendor,

If I flap a wing, my wing will burn (Rumi)

Since the Prophet, at the level of the Divine Names, takes his place in his own reality—a level that is the highest and truest degree of human presence and in its perfection—it is understandable that the Prophet, in his own Jabarūtī presence, is a witness and present at the scene, and indeed within it. Hence, in the sensible world, he is the narrator of truths he has witnessed. To receive the truth of revelation, by transcending his own limited bounds, he ascends to a degree that is superior to that of the angel. And it is from here that it has been said: “It is as if the Prophet stands on an eventful stage, and the prophets, martyrs, and angels come and go before his eyes, and he observes and narrates the Book, Paradise, and Hell, and the opening of their gates, and, in the Qur’anic expression, that ‘Great Spectacle.’” For Paradise and its inhabitants, which belong to the Jabarūt and Malakūt, take form in the fourth degree of the Five Presences, that is, the World of Image and Imagination.

In the first selected example from the Holy Qur’an, Jesus (peace be upon him) says to God: “… as long as I was among them, You were their witness; and now that You have taken my soul, You are still the observer over them…” As these verses suggest, this dialogue between God and Jesus took place after the physical and historical death of Jesus. That is, Jesus has returned from his historical, spatial, and temporal form to his imaginal and celestial form, and is engaged in dialogue with God as if such a conversation is happening “right here, right now.” Not only Christ, but the Prophet too, with a time gap of several centuries after the ascension of Jesus, is a witness and observer of that same scene in timelessness.

And so the theorist asks: “Where did these observations and visions take place?” and answers himself: “In a dream.” It is in a dream because it cannot have been received in tangible, spatiotemporal reality.

4. Sleep and Dream

I dream, but not in sleep

I am a claimant, but not a liar (Rumi)

Clearly, what has stirred uproar—that the Qur’an is a “dream-book”—contrary to what it seems at first glance, is not contrary to the truth! Such a description is not only not considered a reprehensible innovation, but sleep and dream are among the most important subjects, not only in Islamic mysticism but in other religions as well. With the explanation of the ontological system of Image and Imagination in the Five Presences, understanding this matter now seems simpler. Once again, referring to the Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam is illuminating.

Muḥyī al-Dīn, in the ninth chapter of the Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, “The Chapter of the Wisdom of Light in the Word of Joseph,”[23] describes the wisdom of light as the expansion of light [the corporeal existent] upon the Presence of Imagination,[24] meaning that what has manifested in the sensory world finds existential expansion in the Presence of Imagination, and as its distance from the Truth of Existence lessens and it draws closer to it, it becomes more real. Thus, the truths or forms that appear in the Presence of Imagination possess a truer existence than the world of sensibles or the actual world; a wisdom that Joseph (peace be upon him) is the most complete and perfect revealer of, because the wisdom of light spreads its light over the world of imagination, which “this expansion is the first manifestation of the principles of revelation to the people of providence, who are the prophets, peace be upon them.”[25] As can be seen, the light of the principles of revelation shines upon the prophets in the World of Image. The World of Imagination is not only superior to the actual and sensible world but truer than it. What Ibn ʿArabī calls “contiguous or restricted imagination” is the individual imagination and the illusory constructs of each person;[26] with existential expansion and the individual’s liberation from the bonds of sensory and illusory constraints, greater windows of imagination open to him, which is called “discontiguous or absolute imagination.” The unseen meanings of the celestial degrees of the Real take form in this very imaginal presence.

Considering this meaning, neither is any doubt cast upon the Holy Qur’an, nor any insult directed at the sacred station of the “Holy Prophet.” Those unaware of the lofty concept of “Imagination” recognize it only within the confines of their own individual limitations and measure “the deeds of the pure”[27] by themselves, and inevitably, their cry of denial rises to the heavens.

Since you fly aloft on the wing of air,

You therefore think ill of me, I must bear.

Whoever has the deeds of beasts of prey,

Of the noble thinks ill, come what may. (Rumi)

Aisha relates: The first thing that came to the Messenger of God in the way of revelation was true dreams,[28] which, according to the hadith, are one part of the forty-six parts of prophethood.[29] That is, the Messenger never had a dream but that it manifested in outward sense like the break of dawn, with nothing remaining hidden within it. Ibn Arabi adds: Aisha did not know that what manifests in outward sense is like what appears in a dream. Creation—which is asleep—is heedless of perceiving the truths and meanings that these manifested forms contain. The knowledgeable interpreter of dreams discerns the truth of the forms seen in sleep, and the gnostic perceives the truth of the sensory forms manifested in the world of reality. What has appeared in sense is the material form of something in the imaginal and exemplary world, and what is in the exemplary world is the form of the meanings of the truths overflowing upon the abstract spirits and the Divine Presences, and the requirements of the Names of God, the Exalted.[30] Thus, the gnostic of truths, upon witnessing a form, or hearing a word, or a meaning among meanings in the heart, infers from it its principles and discerns the intention of God, the Exalted. And from this comes: "Everything that occurs in the world is a messenger of God, the Exalted, conveying God's message to the servant." The one who is worthy knows and accepts it, and the one who does not know turns away from what is intended by that form. As stated in verse 105 of the blessed Surah Yusuf,[31] their turning away is from their lack of alertness and from their persistence in the "sleep of heedlessness." But only one to whom all the higher and lower stations have been unveiled, and who witnesses the Divine Command in each of the stations of its descent in the form of that station, attains the understanding of this station. Hence, the Quran itself says of its perceiver: None shall touch it except the purified. [32]

If you are watchful and awake, you

Will see the recompense of your deed at every moment anew.

If you are watchful and hold the rope,

You will have no need for the Resurrection to come. (Rumi)

Abstract entities assume forms in the World of Image, and pure (good) spirits are imagined in imaginal shapes. A dream, in the sense of heedlessness of sensory things and awakening in the World of Image, is far more real than the world of reality, and "what comes in this manner is called the World of Image, and for this very reason it requires interpretation."[33] That is, what was in the thing-in-itself in a specific form has appeared in another form, and the interpreter must pass beyond the form seen in the dream and reach the thing-in-itself for his interpretation to be correct.[34] Just as the Prophet interpreted the milk he had drunk in a dream as knowledge.[35]

It is for this reason that the Tongue of the Unseen, Hafiz, in interpreting his own dream at dawn, of drinking wine from the cupbearer's lip,[36] at a time when it was as if the sun had risen at night and become his companion, turns to the interpreter:

At dawn yesterday, a cup or two, by chance, came to my hand,

From the cupbearer's lip, wine fell upon my palate's land.

O interpreter, give glad tidings, for last night the sun,

In the sweet sleep of the morning draught, with me was one.[37]

In this sense, everything the Prophet saw in a state of wakefulness was of the same kind as what he observed in a state of sleep, albeit in different states—one being in sense and one in imagination (dream)—but since each is an image and a form, the true meaning of both is equal.[38] With this difference, that one (sense) is a descent of the other (imagination). Thus, everything in the world of being is of the kind that must be interpreted.[39]

And when revelation descended upon the Prophet, he was seized away from the sensibles to which he was accustomed, and became absent from those present [in the world of sense], and after the completion of revelation, he was returned to his former state. Thus, what he perceived occurred in the Presence of Imagination, but because it differs from sensible sleep, it is not called sleep.[40] That is, the transcendence from the sensible world to the imaginal world is of the genus of sleep that is not called sleep, because sleep is due to a humoral matter that befalls the individual, whereas this is a spiritual matter that overflows upon the heart and seizes him away from the visible world, and for this reason it is not called sleep.[41]

He said, how can that frenzied one be called asleep

When the sun enters into his mouth? (Rumi)

And when he returned to his normal state, the truths received in his soul would involuntarily flow upon his tongue:

The rational soul teaches the mouth aright,

Otherwise, that speech itself has a different stream.

It goes without sound and without repetitions,

Beneath which rivers flow, to the rose-gardens.

O God, show the soul that station

Wherein speech grows without letters,

So that the pure soul might make its way from head to foot

Towards the vast arena and the expanse of non-existence,

An arena so wide and spacious,

And this imagination and existence find sustenance from it. (Rumi)

Hence, it is stated in the article: "The Quran is but the dreams of Mustafa"[42], and this is not a diminution of his station, but an establishment of him in the loftiness of his true station. It is in such a station that "Muhammad (PBUH) is the narrator of experiences and the observer of scenes he himself has witnessed, and there is a great difference between the observing narrator and the addressee of a report."[43]

In many verses of the Holy Quran, there is mention of being an observer of the Truth and attaining the vision of God, including in Surah al-Qiyama: In the Hereafter, some faces will be radiant, looking towards their Lord.[44] When it is said that the Prophet was not the addressee of a report, it means that in the station of encounter with the Almighty Truth, he would meet Him without mediation. He, who is the master of the prophets, is not lower in rank than Moses (AS), who was Kalim-Allah (the one to whom God spoke). He who is the observer and witness of God's conversation with Jesus (AS), why could he not himself be in the station of conversing with God? And because he directly and without mediation encounters his own truth, he is directly addressed with "Say" in a face-to-face conversation with his own self. It is his Names-level and true reality that addresses his imaginal-level reality: O thou soul at peace… [45]

And thus he narrates from his own event: When the Event befalls…[46]

In the Event I saw, that I tasted of your candy,

With that sign you mentioned, this kiss named the sustenance.

You were an angelic soul, or Lord, what had you become,

That you showed a face, He begetteth not, nor is He begotten[47]?

When I drew your hand, I saw no other form,

I beheld a swoon, having lost my reason.

Give wine from on high, in the 'la' of 'la ilaha illa Allah',

So that the Spirit may see, and ruin the body. (Rumi)

Thus, in the aforementioned article, by recalling Sadr al-Din Shirazi's interpretation, the Surah al-Waqi'ah is emphasized. The Event (Waqi'ah) of Muhammad (PBUH) occurs within his soul; and it is he who narrates it for us, the heedless and absent from the presence of God.

Further on in the article, the Surah al-Takwir is mentioned, and the sun, moon, stars, and so on are discussed, followed by the explanation that commentators, falling into the fallacy of dream-interpretation, "have not considered that the sun and stars of a dream have another interpretation and do not necessarily signify the actual sun and stars." See how Rumi speaks of this meaning and inquires about the event that occurred in a dream, and what the meaning of the moon might be when seen in a dream, where "the first and the last"[48] merge and become one! It was seen in a dream, and that one must consciously put oneself to sleep, not merely succumb to the body's need for sleep:

I have beheld an event worthy of grace and praise

Arise, O interpreter of the age, behold the form of my dream

I have seen the moon in a dream; what is the moon within a dream?

For in a dream, the last and the first are resolved

He said, lay down the sting, do not reopen the wound

Put yourself to sleep, do not go to sleep, Husam al-Din (Rumi)

5. The Event, Laylat al-Qadr, and the Ascension

Among the most heart-stirring dreams of Muhammad (PBUH) was the one in which he saw all the inhabitants of the earth and the heavens and their shadows, night and day, willingly or unwillingly, prostrating in the presence of God. What a dream! What an unveiling! What a subtle imagination and what an imaginative pen!… The Event has occurred and left no room for doubt.[49]

Question. When does the Event occur?

Answer. On Laylat al-Qadr! In Surah al-Qadr, it is stated: "Indeed, We sent it down during the Night of Decree"[50]. Everyone can have their own Laylat al-Qadr, and the Prophet's Laylat al-Qadr occurred on the night of his Ascension, which the article mentions: "Some have also considered the Prophet's Ascension to be a spiritual experience, a prophetic dream, and a spiritual ascent, not a physical flight." And, of course, the heart-stirring dreams of the Prophet are discussed, where all the inhabitants of the earth and the heavens and their shadows are engaged in prostration before God. The author expresses his pleasant wonder at this dream, unveiling, and subtle imagination. Just as Rumi alludes to it in a famous ghazal, that the night of existence (Laylat al-Qabr), which is like the night of death and being in the grave, must be transformed into Laylat al-Qadr so that it becomes the dwelling place of pure spirits:

Go through the Night of the Grave, so that you may become the Night of Power

Since Power is for spirits, become a home, become a home (Rumi)

The fourth verse of Surah al-Qadr can be compared with the second verse of Surah al-Nahl:

He sends down the angels with the Spirit of His command upon whom He wills of His servants, [saying]: "Warn that there is no deity except Me; so fear Me."[51]

The angels descend with the (divine) Spirit by His command upon whomever He wills of His servants, to warn the people: indeed, there is no god but Me; so be conscious of Me!

The angels descend upon the servants—which servants? Those who, having practiced piety, have found the key to paradise, that is, the path to attaining the angelic realm. These angels and celestial beings have become actualized within the individual's inner being. This means that as a result of practicing piety, the person has experienced the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr) and, through the imaginal world, finds their way to the banquet of the Cherubim. Just as Mary (peace be upon her), through prayer and devotion to God, perceives the angels. In the verses concerning the annunciation of Jesus' birth, Mary (peace be upon her) is not only addressed by Gabriel, who appears to her in the form of a handsome young man, speaks with her, and then the Word of God matures within her womb. Here, Mary did not merely hear Gabriel's words; she saw him and became pregnant with the divine gift! The event of Mary (peace be upon her) on her Night of Power was the glad tidings of the birth of Jesus Christ:

إِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلآئِكَةُ يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللّهَ يُبَشِّرُكِ بِكَلِمَةٍ مِّنْهُ اسْمُهُ الْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَجِيهًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ وَمِنَ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ.[52]

6. Understanding the Quran: In Need of Interpretation (Ta'bir), Not Exegesis (Tafsir)

The torrential influx of figurative expressions (including metonymy, metaphor, and allegory…) in sacred texts and poetry collections, which, although bearing some resemblance to the language of dreams, is by no means identical to it… In the language of dreams, figurative language and metonymy have no place; that is, words are not applied to meanings other than their literal ones…

In the article, this meaning is elaborated: that the language of the Quran is the language of sleep and dreams, "its language is not the language of wakefulness, but the language of sleep…"; because the language of sleep is the language of imagination, it requires dream interpretation. It is not a language we speak, although it is "a conventional, human, and sweet language." The Quran is an earthly language conveying news of paradise, so pristine that no jinn or human has touched it, "except the purified ones," the very experience in which "mystics and prophets share the same taste." The Quran is a true dream, not a metaphorical one: "And the wine there is reality, not metaphor."[53] Therefore, because it is real, not resembling something else, it has appeared to the dreamer in its own reality. Hence the emphasis that the language of the Quran is neither metonymical, nor metaphorical, nor allegorical, and words are applied to their original meanings, not to anything else.

The language of the Quran is not the language of simile; it is the language of dreams. Exegetes have been heedless of this simple fact: that the Quran is the account of a present witness at the scene of events, who both sees and hears. The Quran is the account of a "realized, witnessed" event, which has appeared in the Arabic language. The Prophet was not Suhrawardi, to employ symbols and emblems in his expression; he was a Prophet. The Quran is not the product of tasteful refinement, nor does it arise from the Prophet's ontological or epistemological worldview; rather, it is the product of his observation in a state of sleep more wakeful than earthly wakefulness, born of witnessing the inner realities of the world. The Quran is not a book written by someone conscious and awake but "in the absence of presence"; rather, it is the account of the presence of one "present" before the Divine Court, and absent from among us!

Have you ever heard of an existent present yet absent?

I am among the gathering, yet my heart is elsewhere (Sa'di)

In the end, it is not amiss to mention that Chuang Tzu (one of the mystics of ancient China), in the teachings of the Tao, mentions the meaning of dream in the "Great Awakening." He describes truth as something entirely different from what is comprehensible through reasoning—a level of existence where "dream" and "reality" lose their essential difference. A state of consciousness where nothing remains itself and anything can be anything else. In this sense, this matter transcends time; it is something beyond the temporal order of things. In the eyes of one who has experienced the "Great Awakening," everything is one, everything is truth itself.[54]

The Quran is the account of the "Truthful Messenger" witnessing the Truth; it is the language of "symbolic representation" (tamthīl)[55], not "embodiment" (tamaththul)[56].

The Quran is the account of presence; it is what it is, not a representation of something else!

My ear heard the tale of faith and became intoxicated

Where is the share of the eye? The sight of faith is my desire (Rumi)

Endnote:

[1] . Come, cast our ship into the river of wine / Throw tumult and clamor into the souls of shaykh and youth (Hafez)

[2] . Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination (Al-Najm/3)

[3] . Hafez.

[4] . Some are thoughtful on the path of religion / Some have fallen into doubt on the way to certainty

I fear that one day a cry will rise / O unaware ones, the way is neither that nor this (Khayyam)

[5] . People are asleep; when they die, they awaken. Some have attributed this hadith to Amir al-Mu'minin Ali (AS).

[6] . Ibn Arabi, Fusus al-Hikam, Introduction, translation of the text, commentary and analysis by Mohammad Ali Movahed, Samad Movahed, Karnameh Publishing, Tehran 1385, pp. 451–452.

[7] . Ibid., p. 447.

[8] . We note that what is mentioned in Islamic mysticism is the authority of the hadiths in this discussion, not whether these sayings are authentic in terms of their chains of transmission; as Rumi also uses these same hadiths in his verses:

With Muhammad, the pure light was paired / For the sake of his love, God said to him, “Lawlāk”

Were it not for the sake of pure love / How would I have given existence to the heavens?

And: The hidden treasure surged from fullness / Clothed the earth in the sultanate of satin

The hidden treasure tore open from fullness / Made the earth more radiant than the heavens…

[9] . Al-Kahf, 110, (Say, “I am only a man like you, to whom has been revealed that your god is one God. So whoever would hope for the meeting with his Lord – let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone.”)

[10]. I was a prophet while Adam was between water and clay.

[11] . Abdolkarim Soroush, “The Prophetic Dream 1”.

[12] . We note that according to the mysticism of Ibn Arabi and Suhrawardi, the World of Image or the Imaginal World is a world between the spiritual and material worlds, and therefore its rank is more real than the actual world.

[13] . Dariush Shayegan, Hinduism and Islamic Mysticism, translated by Jamshid Arjomand, Farzan Rooz Publishing, Tehran 1382, p. 201.

[14] . Henry Corbin, Earth of the Kingdom, translated by Ziauddin Dehshiri, Tehran, Tahoori 1374, p. 27.

[15] . Soroush, ibid.

[16] . Die, die, in this love die / When you have died in this love, you are all kings and viziers (Rumi).

[17] . Al-Baqarah, 31–32; And He taught Adam the names – all of them. Then He showed them to the angels and said, “Inform Me of the names of these, if you are truthful.” They said, “Exalted are You; we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise.”

[18] . Al-Hijr, 29; And when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down to him in prostration.

[19] . Al-A'raf, 172; And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we have testified.” [This] – lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, “Indeed, we were of this unaware.”

[20] . Al-Ahzab, 33; Indeed, We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant.

[21] . And We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein (Qaf/16).

[22] . Al-Najm, verses 9 to 11; And was at a distance of two bow lengths or nearer. And he revealed to His Servant what he revealed. The heart did not lie [about] what it saw.

[23] . The story of Joseph in the Quran is referenced in the text of the article.

[24] . This luminous wisdom, the diffusion of its light is upon the presence of the Imagination.

[25] . And it is the first principle of divine revelation for the people of providence.

[26] . That which today is called the psyche and is studied in psychology.

[27] . Do not judge the works of the pure by analogy with yourself / Though in writing, "shir" (milk) and "shir" (lion) appear the same (Rumi)

[28] . He would not see a dream but that it would emerge like the break of dawn, with no obscurity in it.

[29] . As has been indicated in the article.

[30] . Kharazmi, Commentary on Fusus al-Hikam, pp. 333–334.

[31] . And how many a sign… (Yusuf, 105). And these people pass by many of God's signs in the heavens and the earth and turn away from them.

[32] . Al-Waqi'ah, 77–80; Indeed, it is a noble Qur'an; In a well-guarded Book; None touch it except the purified; A revelation from the Lord of the worlds.

[33] . Ibn Arabi, Fusus al-Hikam, p. 452.

[34] . And for this reason it is interpreted, that is, the matter which in itself is upon such a form appears in a form other than itself, so the interpreter crosses over from this form which the sleeper saw to the form of what the matter is in itself, if he is correct.

[35] . Like the appearance of knowledge in the form of milk. So he interpreted in the exegesis from the form of milk to the form of knowledge, and he interpreted, that is, he said: The outcome of this milky form is the form of knowledge.

And it is from here that some commentators, such as Sadr al-Din Qunawi, have interpreted the four flowing springs in Paradise as knowledge by presence and acquired knowledge, which flow in Paradise according to verses of the Qur'an. See: Sadr al-Din Qunawi, Misbah al-Uns of Hamza Fanari or the Link between Reasoning and Witnessing in Unveiling the Secrets of Existence, with an introduction and translation by Mohammad Khajavi, Tehran, Mowla, 1384, p. 12.

[36] . Al-Insan, 21, Their Lord will give them a pure drink.

[37] . Hafiz.

[38] . And everything seen in the state of sleep is of that kind, even if the states differ. And everything that comes of this kind is what is called the World of Imagination.

[39] . Kharazmi, Commentary on Fusus al-Hikam, p. 335.

[40] . When revelation came to him, he would be withdrawn from ordinary sensory things, and he would be covered and absent from those present with him: and when it was relieved from him, he would return. So what he perceived was in the presence of imagination, except that he is not called sleeping.

[41] . What psychologists such as Freud and Jung interpret are events originating from the individual's personal and collective unconscious, which in religious language takes place through the commanding soul (nafs al-ammara) and in the connected imagination. The state that came upon the Prophet during the descent of revelation occurred at the level of the tranquil soul (nafs al-mutma'inna), and he received the Truth. It is clear that if he had remained at the level of sensory, temporal, and spatial manifestation, or in other words, in his material mode of being, he would not have been able to receive the celestial Truth.

[42] . The Qur'an is the spiritual states of the prophets / The pure fish of the sea of Divine Majesty (Rumi)

[43] . Soroush, ibid.

[44] . Al-Qiyamah, verses 22–23, Faces that Day will be radiant ; Looking at their Lord .

[45] . Al-Fajr, 27–30, O tranquil soul, Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him], And enter among My servants, And enter My Paradise.

[46] . Al-Waqi'ah, 1; When the Event befalls.

[47] . Al-Isra, 111, (And say, "Praise be to Allah, who has not taken a son and has no partner in dominion, nor has He any protector out of weakness; and glorify Him with [great] glorification").

[48] . Al-Hadid, 3; He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is, of all things, Knowing.

[49] . Soroush, ibid.

[50] . Al-Qadr; 1–5; Indeed, We sent it down on the Night of Decree; And what can make you know what the Night of Decree is?; The Night of Decree is better than a thousand months; The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter; Peace it is until the break of dawn.

[51] . An-Nahl, 2.

[52] . Al Imran, 45; [And mention] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed God gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary – distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to God].

[53] . The jars are all in a tumult and uproar from drunkenness / And the wine within them is reality, not metaphor (Hafez).

[54] . Toshihiko Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, translated by Mohammad Javad Gohari, Rowzaneh, Tehran 1378, p. 330.

[55] . imaginal

[56]. representation

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An article by Neyyer Tahoori | Ordibehesht 95

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