Bibliotherapy
Ibn Khaldun: From The ‘al-Muqaddimah’ – About Dreams

Life-size bronze bust sculpture of Ibn Khaldun that is part of the collection at the Arab American National Museum. (Catalog Number 2010.02). Commissioned by The Tunisian Community Center and Created by Patrick Morelli of Albany, NY in 2009, it was inspired by the statue of Ibn Khaldun erected at the Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis.
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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA are three extracts from Ibn Khaldun’s trail-blazing and seminal treatise, the ‘al-Muqaddimah’, here in Franz Rosenthal’s translation, as published in 3 volumes in the Bollingen Foundation Series, in which it is number 43 at Pantheon Books in 1958. Excerpt I is from Chapter 1, the Sixth Prefatory Discussion , excerpt II is from Chapter 1, the Sixth Prefatory Discussion and excerpt III is from Chapter 6, section 17.
‘Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) was one of the most remarkable Muslim scholars of the pre-modern period. He founded what he called the science of human society or social organization, as well as a new methodology for writing history and a new purpose for it, namely to understand the causes of events. While his ideas had little impact on the development of Muslim thought for several centuries, they hugely impressed European thinkers from the nineteenth century on—some of them proclaimed Ibn Khaldun a progenitor of sociology and modern historiography.
The contrasted range of responses the reception of Ibn Khaldun in his own time and in the modern period, in the Islamic world and in the West, includes those who thought Ibn Khaldun merely reworked ideas found in the works of al-Farabi and in the Ikhwan al-Safa to those who compare him to the giants of Western political and sociological thought, from Machiavelli to Marx’. Syed Farid Alatas at Oxford Center for Islamic Studies.
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I. Dream Visions- From Chapter 1, the Sixth Prefatory Discussion
Real dream vision is an awareness on the part of the rational soul in its spiritual essence, of glimpse(s) of the forms of events. While the soul is spiritual, the forms of events have actual existence in it, as is the case with all spiritual essences. The soul becomes spiritual through freeing itself from bodily matters and corporeal perceptions. This happens to the soul (in the form of) glimpse(s) through the agency of sleep, as we shall mention. Through (these glimpses) (the soul) gains the knowledge of future events that it desires and by means of which it regains the perceptions that (properly) belong to it. When this process is weak and indistinct, the soul applies to it allegory and imaginary pictures, in order to gain (the desired knowledge). Such allegory, then, necessitates interpretation.When, on the other hand, this process is strong, it can dispense with allegory. Then, no interpretation is necessary, because (the process) is then free from imaginary pictures.
The occurrence, in the soul, of such glimpse(s) is caused by the fact that the soul is potentially a spiritual essence, supplemented by the body and the perceptions of (the body). Its essence, thus, eventually becomes pure intellection, and its existence becomes perfect in actuality. The soul, now, is a spiritual essence having perception without the help of any of the bodily organs. However, among the spiritualia, it is of a lower species than the angels, who inhabit the highest stage, and who never had to supplement their essences with corporeal perceptions or anything else. The preparedness (for spirituality) comes to (the soul) as long as it is in the body. There is a special kind (of preparedness), such as saints have, and there is a general kind common to all human beings. This is what “dream vision” means.
In the case of the prophets, this preparedness is a preparedness to exchange humanity for pure angelicality, which is the highest rank of spiritualia. It expresses itself repeatedly during revelations. It exists when (the prophet) returns to the level of corporeal perceptions. Whatever perception (the prophet) has at that moment is clearly similar to what happens in sleep, even though sleep is much inferior to (revelation).
Because of this similarity, the Lawgiver (Muhammad) defined dream vision as being the forty-sixth – or, according to other recensions, the forty-third, or the seventieth-part of prophecy. None of these (fractions) is meant to be taken literally. They are to indicate the great degree of difference between the various stages (of supernatural perception). This is shown by the reference to “seventy” in one of the recensions. The number “seventy” is used by the Arabs to express (the idea of) a large number.
The reference to “forty-six” has been explained by some scholars as follows. In its beginning, the revelation took the form of dream visions for six months, that is, for half a year. The whole duration of (Muhammad’s) prophecy in Mecca and Medina was twenty-three years. Half a year, thus, is one forty-sixth (of the whole duration of prophecy). This theory cannot be verified. The given (figures) apply only to Muhammad. How can we know whether they also applied to other prophets? Moreover, this (theory) describes the relationship of prophecy to dream vision in point of time only, and does not consider the true character of dream visions in relation to the true character of prophecy. If our previous remarks were clear, it will be realized that the fraction refers to the relationship between the primary preparedness general to all mankind, and the close preparedness limited to the (prophets) and natural to them.
The remote preparedness is commonly found among human beings. However, there are many obstacles and hindrances that prevent man from translating it into actuality. One of the greatest hindrances is the external senses. God, therefore, created man. in such a way that the veil of the senses could be lifted through sleep, which is a natural function of man. When that veil is lifted, the soul is ready to learn the things it desires to know in the world of Truth (haqq). At times, it catches a glimpse of what it seeks. Therefore, the Lawgiver (Muhammad) classified dream visions among “the bearers of glad tidings” (mubashshirat). He said, “Nothing remains of prophecy except the bearers of glad tidings.” Asked what they were, he said: “A good dream vision, beheld by – or shown to – a good man.”
The reason why the veil of the senses is lifted in sleep is as follows. The perceptions and actions of the rational soul are the result of the corporeal animal spirit. This spirit is a fine vapor which is concentrated in the left cavity of the heart, as stated in the anatomical works of Galen and others. It spreads with the blood in the veins and arteries, and makes sensual perception, motion, and all the other corporeal actions possible. Its finest part goes up to the brain. There, it is tempered by the coldness of (the brain), and it effects the actions of the powers located in the cavities of the brain. The rational soul perceives and acts only by means of that vaporous spirit. It is connected with it. (This connection is) the result of the wisdom of creation which requires that nothing fine can influence anything coarse. Of all the corporeal matters, only the animal spirit is fine. Therefore, it is receptive to the influence of the essence, which differs from it only in respect of corporeality, that is, the rational soul. Thus, through the medium of (the animal spirit), the influence of the rational soul reaches the body.
We have stated before that the perception of the rational soul is of two kinds. There is an external perception through the five senses, and an inward perception through the cerebral powers. All these perceptions divert the rational soul from the perception for which it is prepared by nature, (namely, that) of the essences of the spiritualia, which are higher than it.
Since the external senses are corporeal, they are subject to weakness and lassitude as the result of exertion and fatigue, and to spiritual exhaustion through too much activity. Therefore, God gave them the desire to rest, so that perfect perception may be renewed afterwards. Such (rest) is accomplished by the retirement of the animal spirit from all the external senses and its return to the inward sense. This process is supported by the cold that covers the body during the night. Under the influence of the cold of the night, the natural heat repairs to the innermost recesses of the body and turns from its exterior to the interior. It thus guides its vehicle, the animal spirit, into the interior of the body. This is the reason why human beings, as a rule, sleep only at night.
The spirit, thus, withdraws from the external senses and returns to the inward powers. The preoccupations and hindrances of sensual perception lessen their hold over the soul, and it now returns to the forms that exist in the power of memory. Then, through a process of synthesis and analysis, (these forms) are shaped into imaginary pictures. Most of these pictures are customary ones, because (the soul) has (only) shortly before withdrawn from the conventional objects of sensual perception. It now transmits them to the common sense, which combines all the five external senses, to be perceived in the manner of (those) five senses.
Frequently, however, the soul turns to its spiritual essence in concert with the inward powers. It then accomplishes the spiritual kind of perception for which it is fitted by nature. It takes up some of the forms of things that have become inherent in its essence at that time. Imagination seizes on those perceived forms, and pictures them in the customary molds either realistically or allegorically. Pictured allegorically, they require interpretation. The synthetic and analytic activity which (the soul) applies to the forms in the power of memory, before it perceives its share of glimpses (of the supernatural), is (what is called in the Qur’an) “confused dreams.”
According to (the sound tradition of) the Sahih, the Prophet said, “There are three kinds of dream visions. There are dream visions from God, dream visions from the angels, and dream visions from Satan.” This threefold division agrees with our preceding statement. Clear dream visions are from God. Allegorical dream visions, which call for interpretation, are from the angels. And “confused dreams” are from Satan, because they are altogether futile, as Satan is the source of futility.
This is what “dream vision” really is, and how it is caused and encouraged by sleep. It is a particular quality of the human soul common to all mankind. Nobody is free from it. Every human being has, more than once, seen something in his sleep that turned out to be true when he awakened. He knows for certain that the soul must necessarily have supernatural perception in sleep. If this is possible in the realm of sleep, it is not impossible in other conditions, because the perceiving essence is one and its qualities are always present. God guides toward the truth.
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II. Dream words-From Chapter I, the Sixth Prefatory Discussion
Note: Most of the ( aforementioned supernatural perception by means of dream visions) occurs to human beings unintentionally and without their having power over it. The soul occupies itself with a thing. As a result, it obtains that glimpse (of the supernatural) while it is asleep, and it sees that thing. It does not plan it that way.
In the ‘Ghayah‘ and other books by practitioners of magic, reference is made to words that should be mentioned on falling asleep so as to cause the dream vision to be about the things one desires. These words are called by (the magicians) “dream words” (al-bdlumah). In the ‘Ghayah‘, Maslamah mentioned a dream word that he called “the dream word of the perfect nature.” It consists of saying, upon falling asleep and after obtaining freedom of the inner senses and finding one’s way clear (for supernatural perception), the following non-Arabic words: ‘tamaghis ba’dan yaswadda waghdas nawfana ghadis’. The person should then mention what he wants, and the thing he asks for will be shown to him in his sleep.
A man is said to have done this after he had eaten but little and done dhikr exercises for several nights. A person appeared to him and said, “I am your perfect nature.” A question was put to that person, and he gave the man the information he desired.
With the help of these words, I have myself had re markable dream visions, through which I learned things about myself that I wanted to know. However, (the existence of such dream words) is no proof that the intention to have a dream vision can produce it.
The dream words produce a preparedness in the soul for the dream vision. If that preparedness is a strong one, (the soul) will be more likely to obtain that for which it is prepared. A person may arrange for whatever preparedness he likes, but that is no assurance that the thing for which preparations have been made will actually happen.
The power to prepare for a thing is not the same as power over the thing (itself). This should be known and considered in similar cases. God is wise and knowing.
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III. The Science Of Dream Interpretation-Chapter VI, section 17
This science belongs to the sciences of the religious law. It originated in Islam when the sciences became crafts and scholars wrote books on them. Dream visions and dream interpretation existed among the ancients, as among later generations. It existed among former (pre-Islamic) religious groups and nations. However, their dream interpretation did not reach us, because we have been satisfied with the discussions of Muslim dream interpreters. In any case, all human beings can have dream visions, and these visions must be interpreted.
Truthful Joseph already interpreted visions, as is mentioned in the Qur’an. (Sound tradition in) the Sahih, on the authority of the Prophet and on the authority of Abu Bakr, likewise establishes (the existence of dream visions). Dream vision is a kind of supernatural perception. Muhammad said: “A good dream vision is the forty-sixth part of prophecy.” He also said: “The only remaining bearer of glad tidings is a good dream vision, beheld by – or shown to – a good man.” The revelation given to the Prophet began with a dream vision. Every dream vision he saw appeared to him like the break of dawn. When Muhammad went away from the morning prayer, he used to ask the men around him, “Did any one of you see a dream vision during the night?” He asked this question in order to derive good news from dream visions, which might refer to the victory of Islam and the growth of its power.
The reason for perception of the supernatural in dream visions is as follows: The spirit of the heart, which is the fine vapor coming from the cavity in the flesh of the heart, spreads into the veins and, through the blood, to all the rest of the body. It serves to perfect the actions and sensations of the animal powers. The (spirit) may be affected by lassitude, because it is very busy with the sensual perception of the five senses and with the employment of the external powers. When the surface of the body, then, is covered by the chill of night, the spirit withdraws from all the other regions of the body to its center, the heart. It rests, in order to be able to resume its activity, and all the external senses are (for the time being) unemployed. This is the meaning of sleep, as was mentioned before at the beginning of the book. Now, 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.
The (preceding) exposition shows the difference between true dream visions and false, “confused dreams.” 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.”
It should be known that true dream visions have signs indicating their truthfulness and attesting their soundness, so that the person who has the dream vision becomes conscious of the glad tidings from God given him in his sleep.
The first of these signs is that the person who has the dream vision wakes up quickly, as soon as he has perceived it. It seems as if he is in a hurry to get back to being awake and having sensual perception. Were he (to continue) to sleep soundly, the perception given him would weigh heavily on him. Therefore, he tries to escape from the state (in which he has supernatural perception) to the state of sensual perception in which the soul is always fully immersed in the body and the corporeal accidents.
Another sign is that the dream vision stays and remains impressed with all its details in the memory of (the person who perceived it). Neither neglect nor forgetfulness affects it. No thinking or remembering is required, in order to have it present (to one’s mind). The (dream vision) remains pictured in the mind of (the dreamer) when he awakes. Nothing of it is lost to him. This is because perception by the soul does not take place in time and requires no consecutive order, but takes place all at once and within a single time element.
“Confused dreams,” on the other hand, take place in time, because they rest in the powers of the brain and are brought from the power of memory to the common sense by the imagination, as we have stated. (The process is an action of the body,) and all actions of the body take place in time. Thus, they (require) a consecutive order, in order to perceive anything, with something coming first and something else coming later. Forgetfulness, which always affects the powers of the brain, affects (them). That is not the case with the perceptions of the rational soul. They do not take place in time and have no consecutive order. Perceptions that are impressed in (the rational soul) are impressed all at once in the briefest moment. Thus, after (the sleeper) is awake, (his) dream vision remains present in his memory for quite some time. In no way does it slip his mind as the result of neglect, if it originally made a strong impression. However, if it requires thinking and application to remember a dream vision after a sleeper is awake, and if he has forgotten many of its details before he can remember them again, the dream vision is not a true one but a “confused dream.”
These signs belong in particular to (prophetic) revelation. God said to His Prophet: “Do not set your tongue in motion to make haste with (the revelation of the Qur’an). It is up to us to put it together and to recite it. And when we recite it, follow its recitation. Then, it is up to us to explain it.” Dream visions are related to prophecy and revelation, as is stated in (the sound tradition of) the Sahih. Thus, Muhammad said: “A dream vision is the forty-sixth part of prophecy.” In the same way, the characteristics of dream visions are related to the characteristics of prophecy. One should not consider that as unlikely. It appears to be this way.
God creates whatever He wishes to create.
As to the idea of dream interpretation, the following should be known. The rational spirit has its perceptions and passes them on to the imagination. (The imagination) then forms them into pictures but it forms them only into such pictures as are somehow related to the (perceived) idea. For instance, if the idea of a mighty ruler is perceived, the imagination depicts it in the form of an ocean. Or, the idea of hostility is depicted by the imagination in the form of a serpent. A person wakes up and knows only that he saw an ocean or a serpent. Then, the dream interpreter, who is certain that the ocean is the picture conveyed by the senses and that the perceived idea is something beyond that picture, puts the power of comparison to work. He is guided by further data that establish the character of the perceived idea for him. Thus, he will say, for instance, that the ocean means a ruler, because an ocean is something big with which a ruler can appropriately be compared. Likewise, a serpent can appropriately be compared with an enemy, because it does great harm. Also, vessels can be compared with women, because they are receptacles, and so on.
Dream visions may be evident and require no interpretation, because they are clear and distinct, or because (the ideas) perceived in them may be very similar to (the pictures) by which they are represented. Therefore, it has been said in (the sound tradition of) the Sahih, “There are three kinds of dream visions. There are dream visions from God, dream visions from the angels, and dream visions from Satan.” Dream visions from God are those that are evident and need no explanation. Dream visions from an angel are true dreams that require interpretation. And dream visions from Satan are “confused dreams.”
It should be known that when the spirit passes its perceptions on to the imagination, (the latter) depicts them in the customary molds of sensual perception. Where such molds never existed in sensual perception, (the imagination) cannot form any pictures. A (person who was) born blind could not depict a ruler by an ocean, an enemy by a serpent, or women by vessels, because he had never perceived any such things. For him, the imagination would depict those things through similarly appropriate (pictures) derived from the type of perceptions with which he is familiar – that is, things which can be heard or smelled. The dream interpreter must be on guard against such things. They often cause confusion in dream interpretation and spoil its rules.
The science of dream interpretation implies a knowledge of general norms upon which the dream interpreter bases the interpretation and explanation of what he is told. For instance, they say that an ocean represents a ruler. Elsewhere, they say that an ocean represents wrath. Again, elsewhere, they say that it represents worry and calamity. Or, they say that a serpent represents an enemy, but elsewhere they say that it represents one who conceals a secret. Elsewhere again, they say that it represents life, and so on.
The dream interpreter knows these general norms by heart and interprets the dreams in each case as required by the data establishing which of these norms fits a particular dream vision best. The data may originate in the waking state. They may originate in the sleeping state. Or, they may be created in the soul of the dream interpreter himself by the special quality with which he is endowed.
Everyone is successful at the things for which he was created.
This science never ceased being transmitted in the circles of the early Muslims. Muhammad b. Sirin was one of the most famous experts in (dream interpretation) among them. Certain norms of dream interpretation were written down on his authority. People have transmitted them down to this time.
Al-Kirmani wrote on the subject after Ibn Sirin. Recent scholars have written many works on it. The books in use among contemporary Maghribis are the ‘Mumti‘ and other works by Ibn Abi Talib al-Qayrawini, a scholar from al Qayrawan, and the ‘Kitab al-Isharah‘ by as-Salimi which is one of the most useful and briefest books on the subject. There also is the ‘Kitab al-Marqabah al-‘ulya‘ by Ibn Rashid, who belonged to (the circle of) our shaykhs in Tunis.
Dream interpretation is a science resplendent with the light of prophecy, because prophecy and dreams are related to each other, and (dreams) played a part in the (prophetic) revelation, as has been established in sound tradition.
“God knows the supernatural.”
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More about the translator:
Franz Rosenthal

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