 and we send blessings and salutations upon the last Prophet and Messenger, our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We remind ourselves always to always have the taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in our heart and displayed and manifested in our actions. Dear brothers, dear sisters, if someone were to tell you that you can see without eyes and that you can hear without ears, you can walk without legs, what would you say? Someone was to say you could see without eyes, you can walk without legs, you can hear without ears. What would any one of us say? And how would we react? How is that even possible? Yet we do this every day. Every day when we go to sleep we see without eyes and we hear without ears and we walk and we travel without legs, without any mode of transportation. That's what we call dreams. Our topic today is about dreams, about Ruqya and Ahlam. What are dreams? What happens when we go to sleep? What is the reality of dreams? What are the sources of dreams? What value do we assign to dreams? What value does Sharia assign to dreams? Do dreams have any hujjah, any legitimate binding upon us? Should we worry about dreams or should we not? When we see a dream do we tell people about it or do we not? We all see dreams. All of us see dreams. And some dreams we remember. Some dreams we forget. Some of us could care less whether we see dreams or not. Dreams in my life are nothing. No value is attached to them at all. And some of us are the exact opposite. When they see a bad dream their whole mood is affected. It affects them for a day, it affects them for a week, it affects them for months, it affects their relationships with their family and their friends, their bosses at work and so on and so forth. So for some people it makes a world of difference when they see a dream. And for some it doesn't make any difference at all. Should we allow dreams to affect our life? We heard the azan. We just heard the azan. Do you know that the azan came to us through a dream? After the Prophet ﷺ emigrated to Medina they were contemplating how they should call people toward prayer. And some suggested trumpet, some suggested a bell. And then one person saw a dream. Abdullah ibn Zaid, radiallahu anhu. Another person saw the same dream. A third person saw the same dream. And they came to the Prophet ﷺ and told him about this dream. He says it is a true dream. It is from God. It is from Allah ﷺ. And then he told Abdullah ibn Zaid, tell your dream to Bilal. Bilal's voice is melodious. Bilal's voice is unique. Bilal's voice can reach. Allah ﷻ describe sleep as one of his wonder signs. And in Surah al-Rum, verse 23, Allah ﷻ says, وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ مَنَامُكُمْ فِي الْلَيْلِ وَالْنَهَارِ وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ مَنَامُكُمْ فِي الْلَيْلِ وَالْنَهَارِ And among his signs, among his wonderous signs, among his truly wonderous signs is your sleeping by day and night. Allah ﷻ called the activity that we do every day for about eight hours a day, seven to eight hours a day, a third of our life. He called it one of his signs. What is a sign? A sign is something that points to something beyond itself. It's an invitation to study this phenomena of sleep and to understand it because everything in life has a metaphysical cause. Everything in life has a metaphysical cause. Many scientists, they try to study this phenomena of sleep and dreams, and they come up with explanations. Their explanations never have a metaphysical cause. And as you know, science does not explain. It describes. What is the role of science for those who are in high school or university? Is it to describe or to explain? It is to describe, not to explain. And it does a good job at describing, but not at explaining. The root causes up to the metaphysical cause, they can't do that. They start somewhere in the middle and they give you a description of that phenomena. Then they try to describe it using formulas and mathematics. Some scientific discoveries were actually made through dreams. The father of chemistry, the theory of chemistry and a German scientist in the 19th century, he was puzzled by the chemical structure of benzene. And scientists before him used to think that benzene is the arrangement of molecules in a linear fashion, straight lines. In a dream he saw something that we call uroboros, which is a snake or a dragon swallowing its own tails. It's a ring structure. And made him think of a ring structure. And he verified it. As you know, benzene has an alternate double ring for those who know chemistry. I mean, ayatih, manamukum bil laili wan nahar. But what is dream? And maa hapei qatu hu. What is the reality of dream? What we see, we see the phenomena of dreams. But we don't see what goes on behind the scenes. If I were to tell you what is sleep, you can explain sleep to me. You go to bed and you sleep. But what is the reality of sleep? It's very hard to explain. If I were to ask you what is life, well, life is easy. Because I see you walking and talking. But what is the reality of life? It's very hard to explain. And sleep in the Qur'an is called, as the ulama deduced, it's like a minor death. Allahu yata waffa al-anfusa, heena moutiha. Wallati lam tamuthi manamihah. It is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that takes back the soul from their bodies. When the soul departs from the body, it's called death. Every day we go through a minor death. When the soul partially departs from the body, it's a partial departure. What kind of state are we in then? We are not dead so that we can get buried, nor are we alive. It is in between. The soul is there. But consciousness is not. Consciousness is not. And this is one of the great signs and proofs for the existence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This sleep that we enjoy every day, either at night or in the day for those who can't sleep at night. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is drawing our attention that sleep is a different world. When you go through this portal called sleep, you are actually entering a new world that has wonders in it. And one of the wonders that we experience when we go to sleep is what we call dreams. It's one of the signs of the greatness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as the creator of the universe. And that's something perplexing because consciousness exists when we have our soul and our body. When we die, we have no more consciousness. And that's very puzzling. But when we go to sleep, the soul exists, but consciousness does not. And who is it that brought about this separation between life and consciousness? We're still alive, yet we don't have consciousness. When we die, we don't have life, and we don't have consciousness. When we're alive, we have consciousness and we have life. We have a Ruh inside of ourselves. It's a great gift from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he created the soul and infused it in our body in a way that none of us has any way of how it's happened. And it's part of the luttuf of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he gave us the gift of relaxation. We can relax at night. Had Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala known that we can relax without going to sleep, he would have done it. He would have allowed us to relax with our eyes open. He would allow us to relax while sitting on a bench or sitting on a chair or sitting on our couch. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knew that in order to relax properly, he created this form of relaxation. That he takes consciousness from you momentarily or temporarily. It's like the brain, part of the brain stops functioning. That's sleep. And sleep is one of the signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's jundun min jnudil lahya al thawajal. When we go to sleep, it's good for our memory. It's good for our immunity system. It's good for our body to get rid of these toxic materials. It improves our mood. It improves our long term memory. It has a lot of impact on our health as a person, as an individual. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made it a sign. And at the same time, he says, la taqhuzuhusina tun wal ana. He says about himself that he does not sleep, nor does he rest. Because he is not weak like us. We are in need. He is not in need. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us guidelines when we go to sleep. What kinds of dua we should say before we rest? What kinds of dua we say when we wake up? Praise be to Allah, the one who brought us back to life after he caused us to go through a minor death at night. And to him is a final return. The Prophet started with having good dreams. For six months in a row, prior to him becoming a Prophet, every dream he saw became a reality. And it was a true dream. And that is one of the signs that our ulama told us. As long as the heart is attached to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the more the heart is attached to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the more the dreams will be true dreams. And kullama kana l-insanu, the more we are truthful in our sayings, in our actions. In the daytime, the more our dreams will also be true. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, lam yabqa min al-nubuwati illa al-mubashirat. What is left of prophethood is nothing but true dreams. And a good dream of a righteous person, whether male or female, equals to one of forty-sixth part of prophethood, as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says. Dreams are of various types. We have true dreams from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and from the angels. And we have false dreams from shaitan. And we have common dreams that are either from hadith or nafs or from our own souls. We have true dreams from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or from the angels. And these two dreams are called nubashirat. They are giving us glad tidings, good news. And good news sometimes comes in the form of a good news. And sometimes it comes in the form of a warning. Some of the great awliyaa made tauba through dreams. Malik ibn dinar, radiallahu anhu, he made tauba after he saw a dream. He saw himself in the hereafter. Surrounded by his evil deeds. He used to be a bad man. Surrounded by snakes, by beasts, and everyone wants to snatch a piece of him. And a little girl came to him and grabbed him by his hand. He says, who are you? He says, I am your good deed. His good deeds were so weak and it was manifested in the form of a little girl that has no power. He woke up and his life was transformed after that. Completely. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam also told us that some dreams come from shaitan. One man came to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam and told him, Ya Rasulallah, I saw myself in a dream and I saw my head rolling on the ground and every time I tried to catch it, it runs away. It's like a soccer player is kicking it. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam told him, don't let the shaitan play with your head. Shaitan is playing with your intellect, with your head. There are guidelines for dreams. If we see a good dream, we should only tell it to people that they love us and respect us and wish good for us. Don't tell it to anyone. When Sayyiduna Yusuf alaihi sallam saw his dream, his father Ya'aqub told him, La taqsus ru'iyyaka a la ikhwati kafa yaqidu laka qaida. When he saw a dream that the sun and the moon and eleven stars planets are prostrating before him and paying respect toward him, he said, my son, do not tell this dream to anyone. Do not tell it to your brothers. Do not tell it to anyone that may wish harm for you. When one sees a dream, one should tell it to a person that knows how to interpret it well in a manner that's beneficial for you. Because as we see in the hadith and the ayat, Allah swt and the Prophet taught us to respect the spiritual and psychological dimension of the dreamer, the one who sees a dream. There are parameters and variables that will come and play a role in interpreting the dreams, depending on the state of the person and depending on who they are. The scientists tell us that we forget most of our dreams. Ninety-five percent of our dreams are forgotten. We only remember five percent of our dreams. In our sharia, we never consider dreams to be hujjatun sharaya. Because we cannot tell the difference between what's a good dream and what's a bad dream, what's from shaitan, what's from Allah, what's from my nafs. In the case of the Prophet, whether the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. or any other Prophet, shaitan has no access to their hearts. Hadith and nafs has no access to their hearts. Some dreams are from shaitan. Shaitan, Mr. shaitan comes to and know you. Some dreams are from Allah swt and the angelic realm. When our soul departs and travels through the worlds and seesings, when it penetrates the heavens or where the angels congregate and seesings, or when our soul departs and meets with other souls and seesings, many people see dreams, good dreams from Allah swt. Even before they become Muslims. It could be a dream because their heart is sincere. Allah swt sends them a message. Sometimes a dream is called rukia tafsiriyya. Sometimes a dream is called rukia taqwiliyya. Ibrahim s.a.w. saw a dream that our ulama told us he rukia tafsiriyatun fi awwaliya taqwiliyya tun fi akhirya. He says, ya buna ya inni arafil manami anni asbahu. A dream may have an impact on you only. Sometimes it has an impact on the whole world. Sayyiduna Ibrahim s.a.w. a dream that had an impact on the whole world. When he saw that he was sacrificing his son. Sometimes a dream comes as is. Sometimes it's encrypted. It's decoded. It's coded. So you have to decode it. It's encrypted. You have to decrypt it. It requires interpretation. It could be a symbol for something else. And sometimes we see dreams from our own selves. Hadithun nafs. Tomorrow I have an exam. I go to sleep and I see myself in the exam, failing the exam or passing the exam. I eat a good plate of biryani. I go to sleep. All I dream about is biryani. Sometimes dreams comes from our own selves. I like to have a Ferrari when I go to sleep. All I see is Lamborghinis and Ferraris. The Prophet s.a.w. interpreted the dream for us. And through this interpretation the ulama developed some kinds of guidelines. It became a science. Interpreting dreams is a science. And sometimes dreams has an impact on you. Sometimes has an impact on the whole country. Like the king of Egypt when he saw, he saw seven good cows and seven weak cows. He says, Ftuni firu. Ya ya in kuntum sadiqin. And the people around him told him, Adhaas wa ahlam. Wa maa nahanu bita'weeli al-ahlami bi'aalimim. Bi'aalimim. Because interpreting dreams is a science. And some people before Islam also knew part of that science. That became a science after Islam. Not anyone can interpret dreams. Imam Malik was asked about interpreting dreams. He said, Awayul abubin nubuwa? Dreams are once 46 part of nubuwa. Does anyone play with nubuwa? No. People who have knowledge can interpret dreams. But don't tell anyone about your dreams. Especially if it's a bad dream. Because as I'm told us, if you see a bad dream, just turn your head and spit without any saliva. Say, Awwadub bi'aalimil shaitanir rajim. If you see a good dream, only tell it to people that you trust and they love you. Wish good for you.