The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Yūsuf – Verse 4

إِذ قالَ يوسُفُ لِأَبيهِ يا أَبَتِ إِنّي رَأَيتُ أَحَدَ عَشَرَ كَوكَبًا وَالشَّمسَ وَالقَمَرَ رَأَيتُهُم لي ساجِدينَ

When Joseph said to his father: ‘Father! I saw eleven planets, and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrating themselves before me.’

EXEGESIS

Yūsuf (Joseph) is a Hebrew name,[1] despite some claims that it is Arabic.[2] However, such claims are incorrect, as the name originates from Hebrew.[3] Prophet Joseph’s (a) name is mentioned twenty-seven times in the Quran, of which twenty-five are in this surah, and once in 6:84 and 40:34.[4] The original meaning of the Hebrew word is said to be ‘to increase’.[5] In addition to Hebrew, Syriac and Ethiopian have also been suggested as sources of the word.[6]

Yā abati (O father): yā is the article used when calling out to someone (nidāʾ) and can be translated in English as ‘O’ although it is often left untranslated, as has been done here, and simply expressed with an exclamation mark.

Abati has sparked much discussion amongst the grammarians in terms of its structure, but it is apparently a variation of abī, which is the word ab (father) combined with the suffix ī (my). The kasrah of the possessive construct (iḍāfah) has been replaced with t and a final kasrah has been added as a replacement for the ī ending of abī.[7] The word abati is only used in conjunction with nidāʾ and one would never say yā abatī, since as we mentioned the t has taken the place of ī.[8]

Raʾaytu (I saw) comes from raʾā, which refers to the vision of the eye (ruʾyah) or what is seen in the dream (ruʾyā) as per the next verse: My son, do not recount your dream (ruʾyāka) to your brothers, and at the end of the story: Father! This is the fulfilment of my dream (ruʾyāya) of long ago (verse 100).[9]

Kawkab (planet) should be from the root k-k-b, but k-w-b and w-k-b have also been suggested. Zubaydī points out that k cannot be one of the extra letters, and so it should be k-k-b.[10] It bears similarity to the Hebrew word kokāb, Aramaic kokbā, and Syriac kawkba,[11] and Muṣṭafawī argues that the word has its root in those languages. He adds that it originally means anything that appears bright and luminous. Its difference with najm (also star) is that najm originally means ‘to appear’ and does not necessitate luminosity (hence it can be used for plants as well, which sprout).[12] It hence refers to any visible celestial bodies that appear in the sky, and can include things such as planets, and so on. Because of this, the exegetes have discussed why the sun and the moon have been mentioned separately from the kawākib, and have generally concluded that this is to emphasise their greater significance in comparison to the other kawākib.[13]

The verse uses the rational plural sājidīn and rational pronoun hum to refer to the planets, and the sun and the moon, because the action of prostration has anthropomorphised them.[14] Another proposal is that it is because the celestial bodies in the dream were symbols of actual people and so the rational plural is used,[15] but this is not as convincing as the previous explanation.

EXPOSITION

The story of Prophet Joseph (a) begins with a description of the vision he had in his dream as a young boy. The dream was a premonition of things to come and, as we shall read, would take decades before it manifested itself. By starting the story in this way, we are immediately introduced to it through the lens of the surah’s main theme: God’s foreknowledge of all things, how He has a plan for everything, and how He reveals of that plan to whom He wills so that those who have been given knowledge may use that wisdom to rely on Him.

Furthermore, beginning the story with this vision and ending it with its manifestation is an excellent storytelling device.

When Joseph said to his father: his father’s name was Jacob (Yaʿqūb), also named Israel. Prophet Jacob (a) is considered one of the Biblical patriarchs, along with his father Isaac (a) and his grandfather Abraham (a).

It is not known what age Prophet Joseph (a) was when he saw his dream, except that he was quite young.[16] Some report that he was nine years old when he saw this vision,[17] but the ages seven[18] and twelve have also been mentioned.[19]

The expression yā abati (Father!) conveys the love between father and son in a succinct manner.[20]

I saw: he saw the celestial bodies in a dream (as explicated in the next verse), and as is known, the dreams of prophets can be revelation.[21] Two possibilities may merit consideration; one is to consider this dream as revelation. Subsequent verses in the surah seem to suggest that Prophet Joseph (a) was indeed granted prophethood and was receiving revelation at a very young age: That is how your Lord will choose you (verse 6) and We revealed to him (verse 15), although these are open to other interpretations, which will be discussed under those verses.

In this case, because the vision involved his father and was significant regarding Prophet Joseph’s (a) future, he wished to inform his father of it. This is similar to when Prophet Abraham (a) told his son Prophet Ishmael (a) of his vision: My son! I see in a dream that I am sacrificing you. See what you think (37:102). Certainly Prophet Abraham (a) was not doubting the divine origin of his vision, nor questioning the command of God. However, because the vision involved Prophet Ishmael (a), it was appropriate that he be informed of it and its divine origin. Prophet Jacob’s (a) reaction that God has chosen him (verse 6) can be seen as him congratulating his son.

Another possibility is to consider it simply as a dream, albeit one of great import. In this case, Prophet Joseph (a) relating it to his father may be seen as seeking advice from his father as to the significance of the dream and what its interpretation is. If we understand it this way, then the next verse should be seen as Prophet Jacob (a) explaining that to him. As we said, one who receives revelation does not need to be informed by someone else that they have received revelation, nor does revelation require any sort of interpretation, but rather it is always conveyed in a manner that the recipient understands what they have received.

As transpires in verse 100, the eleven planets represented his brothers, and the sun and the moon his parents.[22] The names of the other sons of Prophet Jacob (a) are not mentioned in the Quran, although reference is made to their eldest in verse 80 and the youngest several times. The Quran does not name them, nor does it speak of their mother/s, but it is agreed that the youngest of them was Benjamin.

I saw them prostrating themselves before me: as his father confirms in the following verses, Prophet Joseph’s (a) dream was a profound glad tiding from God, foretelling the lofty station he would attain. When God grants such a vision to someone, it serves as both a promise and a source of reassurance. It signifies that, no matter the trials they may face, they will be granted the strength to persevere and ultimately fulfil the divine purpose destined for them. This is a reminder of God’s unwavering support for those He chooses, as He says: Indeed, the friends of Allah will have no fear, nor will they grieve (10:62), For them are glad tidings in the worldly life and in the hereafter (10:64). Prophet Joseph’s (a) story thus becomes a timeless testament to the fulfilment of God’s promises and the triumph of faith over adversity.[23]

Prostration of the celestial bodies is here symbolic and figurative of showing humility before Prophet Joseph (a), otherwise it is not possible to imagine them performing the physical act of prostration.[24] Yet, sometimes things are seen in dreams which rarely have correspondence in the real world, such as animals speaking, or one person becoming another, and so on. It is difficult therefore to accurately imagine what Prophet Joseph (a) actually saw.

We learn from this verse and other dreams told in the Quran, that often in these dreams or dreamlike visions that things are not told directly, but rather displayed through symbols and metaphorical allegories. Such symbols require unpacking and decoding for their true significance to be ascertained. This ties in of course to the surah’s main theme. Those who have knowledge may ascertain future events through these dreams; whereas those who have no knowledge will be unable to do so.

Aside from the dreams mentioned in this surah, and the dream of Prophet Abraham (a) which we referenced earlier, the Quran mentions some of the dreams of Prophet Muhammad (s), which were actually revealed visions, such as the dream preceding the Battle of Badr (8:43), the dream about performing the pilgrimage whilst the polytheists still ruled Mecca (48:27), and the dream about monkeys climbing his pulpit (17:60).

Finally, we also understand from this that the ability to interpret dreams and their significance – as mentioned in the next verse – should not have been something unique to Prophet Joseph (a), but rather all prophets of God were able to receive and understand significant dreams.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. From al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn al-Faḍḍāl, from Imam al-Riḍā (a), that the Prophet said: ‘Whoever sees me in a dream has truly seen me because Satan does not take my form, nor does he appear in the likeness of any of my successors (awṣiyāʾ), nor in the likeness of any of their Shia [i.e. followers]. Indeed, truthful dreams are one-seventieth of prophethood.’[25]

Note: Other reports attribute similar statements to the Prophet, but with different ratios. In those reports it is said that a dream is one-seventieth,[26] one-fortieth, one-forty-ninth, one-fiftieth, one twenty-sixth, or one-forty-fourth of prophethood.[27]

  1. From Ibn Abbas, that the Prophet said during the final days of his illness: ‘Of the glad tidings of prophethood (mubashshirāt al-nubuwwah), only dreams remain; they will either be seen by a goodly servant of God, or they will be seen about him.’[28]
  2. From the Prophet: ‘Dreams are of three types: glad tidings from Allah, distress from Satan, and what a person wishes in his heart and sees in their dream.’[29]
  3. From Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Prophet said: ‘If one of you sees a dream that he likes, it is from Allah, so let him praise Allah and talk about it. But if he sees other than that, seeing something which he dislikes, then it is from Satan. Let him seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed, and not mention it to anyone, for it will not harm him.’[30]

Note: There is also an extensive hadith narrated from Imam al-Bāqir (a) that delves deeply into the story of Prophet Joseph (a), explaining various details.[31] However, this isolated report is more akin to Isrāʾīliyyāt and frequently distorts the Quranic narrative in favour of the Biblical one. It also has several problematic assertions and should therefore be discarded. Most problematically, the hadith starts by the Imam commanding his servant to give something to any beggar that comes to his door, saying he does not want to experience the same tribulations that the family of Prophet Jacob (a) went through, explaining that Prophet Jacob (a) turned away a beggar and because of that God decreed all kinds of difficulties for him and his offspring.[32] Subḥānī points out that Prophet Jacob (a) was a kind and generous prophet of God and it is difficult to imagine he would turn away a hungry beggar. Furthermore, it is unimaginable that the recompense for not feeding a beggar should be to be separated from one’s son for so many years, or indeed that Prophet Joseph (a) should be punished for something his father did.[33] More than that, it is incorrect to view the events of the story of Prophet Joseph (a) as a punishment sent by God or the result of His displeasure. Rather, they were all part of His plan and meant to elevate Prophet Joseph (a) and the family of Prophet Jacob (a) and a blessing. Once the plan reached fruition, Prophet Joseph (a) himself frames all the events as a blessing: Certainly Allah has shown us favour. Indeed, if one is God-wary and patient Allah does not waste the reward of the virtuous (verse 90).

Similar reports that impose the Biblical narrative on the Quranic one are also transmitted from many of the tābiʿī exegetes.[34] In fact, many of the traditions related about the story of Prophet Joseph (a) are similarly problematic and need to be critically assessed based on their chains of narrations and content and must be examined in order to make sure they are compatible with the Quranic account.[35]

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

In reports attributed to Imam al-Bāqir (a), Ibn Abbas, and others, the moon has been identified as his father Prophet Jacob (a) and the sun as his mother Rachel,[36] because the sun is feminine and the moon masculine[37] (in Arabic grammar); in another opinion attributed to Suddī, the moon is his mother and the sun his father.[38]

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

  1. Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate[a] robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, ‘Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.’ His brothers said to him, ‘Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?’ And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, ‘What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?’ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.[39]

Note: The Biblical account differs from the Quranic one in some important ways. Firstly, the age of Prophet Joseph (a) is much higher than the Quranic account. The Quran portrays him as a young boy who has not yet reached maturity: Let him go with us tomorrow so that he may eat lots of fruits and play (verse 12), and ‘Good news!’ he said. ‘This is a young boy!’ (verse 19). Secondly, it portrays Jacob (a) as loving Joseph (a) for the reason that he was ‘the son of his old age’, whereas the Quran says this was because of Prophet Joseph’s (a) faith, character, and his rise to prophethood, expressly stated by Prophet Jacob (a): That is how your Lord will choose you (verse 6). In other words, Prophet Joseph (a) is the choice of God, not the choice of Prophet Jacob (a). In the Bible, Jacob (a) is portrayed as openly treating Joseph (a) with favouritism by gifting him the Septuagint cloak. The Quran tells how Prophet Jacob (a) was very careful not to display any preferential treatment and going as far as to advise Prophet Joseph (a) not to let his brothers know that God has favoured him: My son, do not recount your dream to your brothers, lest they should devise schemes against you (verse 5). Thirdly, it speaks of a dream about sheaves. While it is theoretically possible that the Quran omits one dream making mention of only the other, it is contrary to the rest of the Quranic narrative. In the Bible, Joseph (a) immediately informed his brothers of his dream. If he had already told his brothers about such a dream, the Quranic account where Prophet Jacob (a) tells him to refrain from recounting his dream to them would make little sense if they were already aware of it, so this part of the Biblical narrative should be disregarded. As for the dream about the sun, moon, and eleven stars, the Quran is explicitly clear that he did not inform his brothers.[40] His father’s reaction was also not one of jealousy, but rather he was thankful, reminding Prophet Joseph (a) that this was a huge responsibility and the fulfilment of God’s promise (verse 6). It is reported from Wahab ibn Munabbih that before the dream mentioned in this verse, Prophet Joseph (a) experienced another vision when he was seven years old. In this vision, he saw eleven tall rods planted firmly in the ground only to be overshadowed by a shorter rod that overcame them all. He then shared this dream with his father, who advised him not to disclose it to his brothers. Later, when he was twelve years old, he saw the dream mentioned in this verse.[41] This is of course directly sourced from the Biblical passage mentioned earlier, and as a convert to Islam from Judaism, Wahab was known for such Isrāʾīliyyāt. As usual, the report from Wahab modifies the Biblical narrative somewhat so that it is not in obvious contradiction to the Quran, such as Prophet Joseph (a) telling the dream to his father instead of his brothers as well as making his age seven instead of seventeen, since the Quran clearly portrays Prophet Joseph (a) as a young boy.

  1. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali. And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Paddan Aram.[42]

TOPICAL ARTICLES

Dreams and Visions

Sūrat Yūsuf presents numerous examples of dreams that serve as visions of future events, offering glimpses into realities that have yet to unfold. This phenomenon naturally raises profound questions about the nature of dreams and their connection to such divine insights. How can dreams transcend the boundaries of time and space to reveal what lies ahead? These instances in the Quran invite reflection on the spiritual and metaphysical dimensions of dreams.

Before delving into this topic, it is pertinent to keep one basic Quranic fact in mind: the human being consists of two aspects: one is the physical, material body, the other is the metaphysical, immaterial soul. The two of these are connected to each other, but not in a physical sense. It would be mistaken to think that the soul occupies a certain place in the human body, as it is immaterial and the quality of location is only for material things.[43] Also, while the body may be destroyed, the soul is permanent and eternal. 

We read in the Quran about the similarity of death and sleep: Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those who have not died in their sleep. Then He retains those for whom He has ordained death and releases the others until a specified time. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect (39:42), which suggests that pondering the connection between sleep and death has signs … for a people who reflect. Of course, death is not the end of the human experience, but merely the end of his current physical form. When a person dies, the connection between the soul and the body is severed. Sleep is likened to a small death, because during sleep the connection between the soul (consciousness) and body is weakened. As Rāzī puts it, in sleep the soul is less busied with directing the body and can thus focus more on the spiritual realm, as well as its own imaginations.[44]

Our sleep during the night can be divided into two parts. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. NREM sleep is further divided into subcategories depending on the type of brain activity, going from ascending to descending stages (indicating greater brain activation levels).[45] Sleep cycles are not random but follow a rhythmic pattern, with each cycle lasting about 90-120 minutes and typically starting with NREM sleep followed by a period of REM sleep. Due to these shifting durations, REM sleep generally occurs more during the end of the night.[46]

Dreams have usually been linked to the REM cycle of sleep, although more recent studies have shown that is not always the case.[47] The main difference recorded between dreams in REM and NREM sleep is that NREM dreams are remembered less often, are shorter, and less organised than REM sleep. Furthermore, REM sleep dreams that are seen further from waking are generally more abstract and self-centred.[48] It is good to keep in mind that there is still much about the biological aspects of sleep that we do not fully understand. Scientists are still debating as to why exactly we dream, and why humans and some other animals experience REM sleep, although it is known that it affects brain activity in various ways, which we need not detail here.

As for dreams, they can be divided into two portions:

  1. Dreams that are based on one’s emotions, thoughts, memories, and experiences.
  1. Dreams where a person’s soul connects to the spiritual world.

In the first type of dream – which is the more common type by far – instead of connecting with the metaphysical world, the human consciousness instead turns inwards and receives input from the mind itself, going over memories, fantasies, and thoughts, for some neural or emotional purpose. A common suggestion is that the brain activation during sleep allows for ‘development and maintenance of circuits necessary for higher brain functions, including consciousness’.[49]

There is no doubt that most dreams are simply related to what we are thinking about. For example, one looking forward to a trip might dream about that trip, or a person worried about burglars might dream about burglars. Other dreams will be about the experiences of that day. For example, if one went on a boat ride, they might dream about the sea or swimming.[50] While only the second type of dreams may be considered spiritual visions, the former is still not without meaning, and may be of use to psychologists and psychotherapists seeking to understand the psyche and thoughts of the dreamer.[51] The significance of the latter type is usually quite personal and subjective. It is also often exceedingly difficult to differentiate between the two types of dreams and to tell what has actually been a vision and what has merely been the product of the dreamer’s own consciousness.

As for the second type, these dreams may offer visions and glimpses of future or past events, or things happening in other physical locations. They are the result of the soul connecting to the otherworldly realm which is usually identified as the spiritual realm (ʿālam al-arwāḥ) or higher dominion (malakūt).[52] This connection is possible due to the shared nature of the human spirit and the spiritual realm, as well as the soul’s increased detachment from the body – and thus the physical world – during such states. In this elevated condition, the soul becomes more receptive to insights and realities beyond the material realm.[53] In other words, because the human consciousness is not busied with sensory input from the physical world, the soul will begin to receive ‘input’ from the metaphysical world. Ālūsī relates that the clarity of such visions in the dream state depends on the strength of the soul’s connection to the otherworldly realm. The closer and more profound this connection, the clearer the vision becomes, and the less it requires interpretation.[54] It is important to understand that the otherworldly realities sometimes seen by the dreamer are interpreted and understood by the dreamer’s own consciousness, essentially being filtered by it, presenting themselves in the framework of the dreamer’s understanding and worldview. Hence, when interpreting dreams, it is not always sufficient to know what has been seen, but rather who has seen it and how they have understood it.

We read in this surah examples of how things seen in the dream world are interpreted by the mind as symbols. Hence, stars might represent brothers, squeezing grapes might represent serving wine, a fat cow might represent years of plentiful harvest, and a lean one drought and famine.

In a hadith related from Muhammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Nawfalī, he asks Imam al-Ṣādiq (a): ‘Why does a believer sometimes have a dream that happens as seen, while other times it doesn’t mean anything?’ The Imam replied: ‘When a believer sleeps, part of his soul ascends to the heavens. Whatever the soul sees in the heavenly dominion, where decrees and decisions are made, is true. But whatever it sees on earth is merely confused dreams.’ Al-Nawfalī asked him: ‘Does the soul really ascend to the heavens?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ Al-Nawfalī asked: ‘Does the entire soul leave the body?’ He said: ‘No, if the whole soul left the body, the person would die.’ Al-Nawfalī asked: ‘Then how does the soul ascend?’ The Imam said: ‘Don’t you see how the sun remains in the sky, yet its light and rays extend to the earth? In the same way, the soul’s origin remains in the body, while part of its movement extends upward to the heavens.’[55]

Naturally, ‘movement’ in this hadith should not be understood as physical movement, but rather metaphysical traversing from the physical realm to the spiritual realm. Other than that, the rest of the hadith is quite clear and outlines most of what we mentioned earlier.

The truth is that what we deem as past, present, and future are that which is simply separated by time. If one were to remove the constraints of time, what happened yesterday would be no different to that which is happening now, or tomorrow, or forty years from now. The human spirit may connect with the realm that is outside these constraints and discover realities that would otherwise be hidden from it.[56]

The spiritual realm (ʿālam al-arwāḥ) is also sometimes called the realm of decree (ʿālam al-amr), as mentioned in the hadith of al-Nawfalī. In the realm of decree, time has no meaning, this is why God declares, All His command, when He wills something, is to say to it ‘Be,’ and it is (36:82). In that realm the decree of God manifests itself ‘immediately’ (although time has no meaning there), whereas in the physical realm that decree may take time to manifest, and only does so after all the causes leading up to it have first manifested.

Interestingly, somewhat similar effects to dreaming may also be achieved by other methods that weaken the connection between mind and soul (consciousness), such as sensory deprivation and intense meditation leading to a trance state. As the name suggests, in sensory deprivation a person is deprived of all sensory input, by cutting off all sight, hearing, smell, and with the use of specialised flotation tanks, even sense of touch and weight. In such a situation, it is common that after some time the subject will begin to experience increasingly intense hallucinations and fantasies. Similar results can be achieved through hypnosis or self-hypnosis or intense meditation such as that done by some mystics or yogis.[57] While this is usually explained as the brain creating stimuli in the absence of stimuli, it nevertheless tells us about the effect that muting the senses has on human consciousness. It may even be that perhaps in some such cases the soul does find the ability to connect to the spiritual world, and this may be the explanation for some of the meditative practices and the resulting experiences and visions gained by mystics in the various cultures of the world throughout history.

History records many dreams of premonition. Most people have either experienced or known someone who has experienced a dream-vision. According to one study, nine percent of the population has experienced one or more precognitive dream.[58] There is a vast trove of anecdotal reports of people dreaming about significant future events in their life, although these are notoriously difficult to study empirically and may often suffer from confirmation bias.

There are many scientific experiments done as well, aimed at testing the ability of dreams acting as means of precognition. Many of these have also been criticised by many psychologists as being pseudo-science and giving into paranormal and magical thinking.[59]

However, even amongst scientists the issue is not black and white. Modern medicine does for example recognise that a ‘sense of impending doom’, a strong feeling that a person gets of being in imminent and perhaps terminal danger, despite a lack of any apparent danger or other symptoms, as a legitimate medical symptom related to a variety of things such as heart attacks. This sense may come from a dream, or inexplicably in waking, or persist from dream state into waking life. There are many reports of people sensing cancer or tumours or miscarriages in such a manner, through either dreams or simply by being overcome with an overwhelming sense.

In Ancient Egypt ‘the dream was perceived as a sort of liminal space whose boundaries lay somewhere between the world of the living and the world beyond that allowed contact between the dreamer and those who inhabited the afterlife’.[60]

There are many records of Egyptian kings experiencing what they considered dreams of significance and divine visions. In those dreams, recorded and preserved till today, the earliest records tell of dreams that were immediately understood by the dreamer and which did not require an interpreter. During the Ramesside Period we find records of dreams dreamt by other than royals, and we also see the increasing rise of popularity of oneiromancers, specialists in interpreting dreams. This role was at least partly filled by priests, who would interpret dreams for both the elite and the common folk.[61] This increasing popularisation of dream interpretation may have been partly due to the significance of the role of Prophet Joseph (a), when he interpreted the dream of the king (see verses 43-55) and saved Egypt from famine.

While for the prophets dreams were simply one way of receiving revelation, dream-visions were not limited to them. In this surah we read examples of other people who had dream-visions, which Prophet Joseph (a) then interprets for them, based on the knowledge granted to him by God.

It is strenuous at best to describe interpreting dreams as a science, since it is extremely difficult to empirically test the results of dream interpretation. Interpreting dreams should as a rule not be done in a general manner without knowing sufficient details about the dreamer and the circumstances and context of why they might have seen such a dream. If a dreamer has connected to the spiritual realm, what they see and experience will as a rule be shaped by their own understanding and worldview which tries to make sense of what they have seen. As such, things might be seen, experienced, and perceived by different dreamers in very different ways. Therefore, sweeping statements about certain things meaning certain things in dreams should be avoided. When consulting people for the interpretation of dreams, one should always exercise some caution. It is also good to keep in mind that such matters will always attract unscrupulous individuals who are willing to speak without true knowledge either for the sake of financial gain or to elevate their status. Others may not be ill-intentioned, but may well suffer from compound ignorance, thinking they know and understand such issues whilst in reality being ignorant of them.

As for how one may know the difference between a dream-vision of mystical significance and a regular dream, that is the critically important question, and it is often the dreamer himself who is best positioned to gauge that their dream was somehow special in nature and different from regular dreams. Often such dreams will leave the dreamer waking up in an emotional state that imparts to them that they have just experienced something of note.

Perhaps one of the wisdoms behind God granting us dreams is that it is a direct experience of every person regarding metaphysical realities. Because we each have experienced dreams, it allows us to better digest the message of prophets who speak of otherworldly realms and realities and spirits.

[1] Zamakhshari, 2/441; Baghawi, 2/474; Qurtubi, 9/120; Muhit, 6/236.
[2] Those who have claimed it is Arabic say it is from the word asaf meaning ‘sadness’, and asīf meaning ‘slave’ (related in Baghawi, 2/474; Qurtubi, 9/120).
[3] Zamakhshari, 2/441; Muhit, 6/236.
[4] Munyah, 14/139. The hadith is long and quoted partially here.
[5] Brown-Driver-Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon, accessed at: https://www.sefaria.org/BDB%2C_%D7%99%D7%95%D6%B9%D7%A1%D6%B5%D7%A3.1?lang=bi&lookup=%D7%99%D7%95%D6%B9%D7%A1%D6%B5%D7%A3&with=Lexicon&lang2=en.
[6] Arthur Jeffries, Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran (Leiden: Brill, 2007), p. 295.
[7] Zamakhshari, 2/441-442. For a slightly different explanation see Razi, 18/418.
[8] Qurtubi, 9/121.
[9] Mizan, 11/77. Some have argued that ruʾyah refers to what is seen in dreams, and ruʾyā whilst awake, but this is not conclusive (see for example the discussion in Sharawi, pp. 6848-6849).
[10] Taj, 2/378, k-k-b.
[11] M J Mashkour, A Comparative Dictionary of Arabic, Persian and the Semitic Languages (Tehran: Bonyād-e Farhang-e Īrān, 1978), 2/785.
[12] Tahqiq, 10/151-152, k-w-k-b.
[13] See for example Tantawi, 7/317.
[14] Tibyan, 6/95; Thalabi, 5/197; Zamakhshari, 2/444.
[15] Tabari, 12/91.
[16] Razi, 18/419.
[17] This is mentioned in a report attributed to Imam al-Bāqir (a). See Qummi, 1/340; Nur, 2/410.
[18] This is mentioned in a report attributed to Imam al-Ṣādiq (a). See Ayyashi, 2/170; Nur, 2/416.
[19] Related in Nemuneh, 9/308.
[20] Mizan, 11/77.
[21] Tabari, 12/90; Tabrisi, 5/320.
[22] Tibyan, 6/95.
[23] Mizan, 11/77-78.
[24] Nemuneh, 9/308.
[25] Faqih, 2/584-585, h. 3191; Amali.S, p. 121; Uyun, 2/288. Other reports also mention Satan not being able to take the form of the Prophet. See Bukhari, 1/36, 7/118; Muslim, 7/54; Ibn Majah, 2/1284-1285, h. 3900-3905; Tirmidhi, 3/365, h. 2378.
[26] In addition, see also Ahkam, 3/1073; Ibn Majah, 2/1283, h. 3895 and 3897; Ahmad, 2/18; Muslim, 7/54.
[27] For all of the aforementioned, see Qurtubi, 9/122-123. See also Alusi, 6/374. Qurṭubī has a discussion about these and concludes that one-forty-sixth is the correct report.
[28] Muslim, 2/48; Ahmad, 1/219; Darimi, 1/304; Ibn Majah, 2/1283, h. 3899.
[29] Ibn Abī Jumhūr al-Aḥsāʾī, ʿAwālī al-Laʾālī al-ʿAzīziyyah fī al-Aḥādīth al-Dīniyyah (Qum: Maṭbaʿat Sayyid al-Shuhadāʾ, 1985), 1/79, h. 166; Bihar, 58/191; Nemuneh, 9/312. See also Ibn Majah, 2/1285, h. 3906; Ahmad, 2/395; Darimi, 2/125; Muslim, 7/52; Abu Dawud, 2/481, h. 5019; Tirmidhi, 3/366, h. 2382. For a similar report narrated from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) see Kafi, 8/90.
[30] Alusi, 6/373. See also Bihar, 73/220.
[31] Ayyashi, 2/167-172; Ilal, 1/45-50.
[32] Similar stories about God punishing Prophet Jacob (a) because he turned away a beggar are also told by many early exegetes and Followers (tābiʿīn) such as Wahab ibn Munabbih. See for example Thalabi, 5/249; Zamakhshari, 2/499; Baghawi, 2/509; Razi, 18/500. Rāzī also mentions another story in which Prophet Jacob (a) buys a slave woman who had a child, and he sold the child, and the slave woman cried until she went blind. Attributing such deeds to prophets of God is abhorrent.
[33] Munyah, 14/154-154.
[34] See for example what is reported in Tabari, 12/95-96.
[35] Munyah, 14/155.
[36] Qummi, 1/339; Tabrisi, 5/320. Tabatabai dismisses the report as weak (Mizan, 11/85).
[37] Baghawi, 2/475.
[38] Tabrisi, 5/320. A variant of this attributed to Qatādah identifies the moon as his maternal aunt, claiming that Rachel had died by this time (Thalabi, 5/198). This is naturally based on the what is mentioned in Genesis 35:16-19, where Rachel is described as dying as a result of giving birth to Benjamin.
[39] Genesis 37:1-11.
[40] For more, see the discussion on verse 8.
[41] Tabrisi, 5/320; Thalabi, 5/198.
[42] Genesis 35:22-26. The same names are also provided in Exodus 1:1-5. Abū Ḥayyān provides a list of their Arabised names: Kādh (Gad), Binyamīn (Benjamin), Yahūdhā (Judah), Naftālī (Naphtali), Zabūlūn (Zebulun), Shamʿūn (Simeon), Rūbīn (Reuben), Yasākhā (Issachar), Lāwī (Levi), Dhān (Dan), Yāshīr (Asher), and of course Yūsuf (Joseph). See Muhit, 6/238. A slightly different list is also found for example in Tabrisi, 5/323; Thalabi, 5/199.
[43] The suggestions of philosophers such as Descartes should not be misunderstood either. He did not consider the pineal gland to be the place where the soul is located, but that which facilitates the interaction between the two. See C A Pallis, ‘Descartes, the pineal soul, and brain-stem death’, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, accessed at: https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Descartes-the-pineal-soul-and-brain-stem-death on 27/09/2024. In any case, this is merely a theory and one should not argue from any theological position on such matters.
[44] Razi, 18/454.
[45] NREM sleep is divided into three stages: N1, N2, and N3. These stages represent progressively deeper sleep, not necessarily ascending or descending in terms of activation. N1 is light sleep, N2 is a deeper but still relatively light sleep, and N3 is deep or slow-wave sleep, characterised by the lowest levels of brain activation.
[46] P McNamara et al, ‘Rem And Nrem Sleep Mentation’ in International Review of Neurobiology (Elsevier Academic Press, 2010), vol. 92, pp 69-86, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0074-7742(10)92004-7.
[47] M Solms, Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms, in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Cambridge University Press, 2000) vol. 23, issue 6, pp. 843-850, accessed at: https://doi:10.1017/S0140525X00003988.
[48] C Cavallero et al, ‘Memory Sources of REM and NREM Dreams’, in Sleep (New York: Raven Press, 1990), vol. 13, issue 5 (September), pp. 449-455, accessed at: https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/13.5.449.
[49] J A Hobson, ‘REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness’, in Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2009), vol 10, pp. 803-813, accessed at: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2716.
[50] Nemuneh, 9/312-313; Munyah, 14/148.
[51] See Munyah, 14/182.
[52] Malakūt may be considered a general term for all metaphysical dimensions of existence.
[53] Baydawi, 3/155. See also Munyah, 14/148.
[54] Related in Alusi, 6/373.
[55] Amali.S, p. 209, h. 231. Ṣadūq reports two other narrations that are in the same vein.
[56] See also Qutb, 4/1972.
[57] L J West, ’Sensory deprivation’, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, accessed at: https://www.britannica.com/science/hallucination/Sensory-deprivation on 27/09/2024.
[58] David Ryback’s survey placed three criteria as to what constitutes a precognitive dream: 1. It has detailed information that clearly corresponds to real-life events. 2. The events seen in the dream are not mundane, but rare and significant. 3. Proof of recognition, meaning the dream has been told to someone or recorded, prior to the event taking place.
[59] See S Krippner & F Bogzaran & A P de Carvalho, Extraordinary Dreams and How to Work with Them (New Albany: State University of New York, 2002), pp. 121-122.
[60] K Szpakowska, ‘Dream Interpretation in the Ramesside Age’, in Mark Collier and Steven Snape (eds.), Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen (Bolton: Rutherford Press, 2011), pp. 509-517.
[61] K Szpakowska, ‘Dream Interpretation in the Ramesside Age’, in Mark Collier and Steven Snape (eds.), Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen (Bolton: Rutherford Press, 2011), pp. 509-517.