Islam, soul and dreams and their relationship

**hopjopper** · 04-19-2014 11:14 AM

Hi, welcome to my first post about the relation between soul, body , Islam and dreams.

Firstly we Muslims obviously believe in the soul, and we believe that the soul is the MUCH greater part of existence, the human body is like a vessel we are told, and really has no significance, and without the soul the body is just a pile of dust, it is in fact the soul which is made up of "intuitive" parts of existence, and the body is almost "unimportant" as compared to the soul, the soul is eternal and "living", while the body is obviously not eternal and is very vulnerable to anything , from small damage to death, also the soul its origins from the Quran is that it is comes from God "blowing" his spirit into Adam(pbuh) who is made from 'clay' , there is also another creation of God in Islamic theology which is known as Jinn, which is also like us humans, but instead of being made from 'clay' they are made from "smokeless fire' and live like us , they have kids, they have family, they eat and they choose morals in life between good and evil, they also have free will, however we cannot interact with them, while they can interact with us, and the infamous "Devil" is actually from their race, however he is another separate story all together.

Now the soul is made up of three parts which is actually told to us in the Quran, one part is know as the "qalb" which literally translates to the "heart" however it is not the heart in terms of organ, but heart in terms of the feelings it projects to the human soul, and the inclinations, habits , and desires, and love and even a connection with God (or a high omni-conscious imperceptible being) .
One other thing is that we are told is that God is constantly looking at the Qalb and not the "outside appearance/body" , and that the Qalb contains the WHOLE universe, in that Adam(pbuh) was taught the WHOLE universe or in the Quran "names" when he was created, and that we can even have access to this whole universe if we remove what is know as "veils" that are between these perceptions of God and the heart.

"Your remedy is within you, but you do not sense it. Your sickness is from you, but you do not perceive it. You presume you are a small entity, but within you is enfolded the entire Universe. You are indeed the Evident Book, by whose alphabet the Hidden becomes Manifest. Therefore you have no need to look beyond yourself. What you seek is within you, if only you reflect " Imam Ali(Islamic saint and vicegerent of God said 1400 years ago when he was on earth)

The second part is the part known as the "aql" which is another part of the soul and is considered as the "intelligence" or the "reasoning" or the "thinking" "perceiving" "calculating" part of the soul, obviously in all retrospect the "learning" part of the soul or "calculating" part of the soul but more importantly "reasoning" part of the soul, and these words dont do justice to it, so i will explain it with a quote from prophet Muhamad(pbuh) he said:

"there is two kinds of prophets that God sends, one is external, and the other is internal, the external Prophets are hand picked men by God from their communities, and the internal Prophet is the 'aql' "

obviously shedding light that the aql is not just calculating or reasoning but the influence and intuitive reasoning when it comes to the choice between good and evil and morals etc and furthermore and to tie in with the last part of the soul, the third part know as the "nafs" of the soul, which means the "self" when literally translated, however the "self" or "nafs" part of the soul is a very "basic" or "driving" force behind the soul, and according to Rumi is the part of the soul that takes "form" , he says beautifully in one of his poems:

I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones, 'To Him we shall return.'

Rumi

Which actually is always "badly" explained by those who try to explain its meaning, and even sometimes cutoff (the part up to the "Man" part) in order to try to explain this poem to mean an early adaptation of evolution, but nevertheless what Rumi was explaining and in order to help you understand the "soul" from an Islamic perspective, I have to further quote another saying of the Prophet or knowledge of the Prophet(pbuh) where he says( and to help you understand this part of the soul)

when God created the Angels he created them with a soul made up only of "aql" , when he created the animals he created their soul made up only of "nafs" or desires i.e they desire to eat to drink to mate to sleep, to be comfortable, etc, but when God created the Human, he said this is the best of my creation and the most perfect of my creation , and He made him of both "aql' and "nafs"

So as you can see what id being described is a continously changing soul made up of the parts and depneding on which parts are "used" or effected result in teh change of the state of the form of the soul, however the drive of the man, is that he is able to "learn", "change" , and "choose" i.e he has free will to be WHATEVER he wants to be hence why the man has the universe inside his heart, and hence why the heart of man can take on the form of ANY of God's creatures, he can become an angel, or he can become an animal, and it all depends on the variations and constructs of the various parts of these three, hence why Rumi in the peom above describes the various states of his "complete soul" and describes how he changes to become that something greater, the final state being an "infinite" or "God-like" state however not "God" because "God" is as we know "unique" but nevertheless a soul in which reaches the "highest state" which can do the greatest "God-like abilites" , such as heal sick people, raise the dead, walk on water, etc stuff like Jesus did, but ALSO stuff that other Prophets and God's elite did, and there is many such people in the history of humankind be it in Christendom, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism who achieved this state, some call it "transcendence" others call it "enlightenment" or in Arabic some call it "fana" which means annihilation of the self into nothingness and other names that are associated with this state.

So to summarize quickly, the soul is central part to our existence and it contains the entire universe in it, it is made up of 'aql' 'nafs' 'qalb' and based on how you treat these three, the "state" of your soul takes on forms which reflect the behaviors or habits which are made up of depending on which of these three you are "putting most of your money in" or which of these three you are "capitalizing" on , and also depending on which one of these three you "feed" most they become stronger and brighter, and start to attain abilities or cause effects on the total system , either by taking on "forms" as Rumi describes, or by becoming inclined or total in some certain inclination, of course this is the overall and nut shell definition of the above introduction, and like any other science there is FAR more detail and construct and sub trees to explore relating to each one and it subsequent parts. There is also another important fact, the qalb is the "perceiver" of the aql and nafs, and the driving force of the human, such as that it causes the persons "reality" to be augmented according to how it is affected, and to give you an example in the Quran God says:

"it is not the eyes that go blind rather it is the hearts(qalb) that go blind(to spiritual matters)

and also God told the Prophet in a revelation know as "hadeeth-qudsi" that there exists 90,000 veils that are applied to this heart, which are between God and us, which i will quote the reference from Islamic theology about this fact

we are told from Jibrail(Gabriel) who told Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) that:

"Jibra'il(Gabriel) continued by saying, "Between Allah and His creations, there exists 90,000 layers of concealment and the closest of creations to Allah are Isra'fil(angel) and myself; and between Allah and us exist four veils: Light, Darkness, Cloud and Water. From Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 18, p. 327,"

and to give you an example to help you understand these "sates" or "form" , a person who constantly eats and is glutenous is putting his "money" into the "nafs" which as i described above is the "only" part of the animal soul, but also a part of the self, this in turn causes veils to be thrown over the heart and the other parts of the soul "qalb" "aql"(angel soul) which block a person from "God" and also shapes the "state" of the person i.e soul of the person and hence he/she has certain inclinations or "scope" of "sight" into the world and worlds, and takes on forms which are reflected in the universe in constant creation such as a "dog or "cat" or "heavenly body"

Two other important facts to mention here , one is that God tells us in the Quran that he created "worlds" not just one world (Alhamdulilah hir rabbil alemeen which means "Praise and Glory be to God lord of the WOLRDS), but plural, and as to the amount of worlds that there is exactly, we dont know, this information is not given, but there are definitely some hints from those who unveiled their hearts and had access to them, and from Prophets and saints that also were given this "knowledge" and told the people information about it , one of those worlds being the "dream" world

Another important fact is that in Islam we are told that EVERYTHING is created from God's "names" which as you might have noticed i mentioned earlier that God taught these "names" to Adam(pbuh) and to further strengthen this part in the Quran again we are told that:

"wherever you turn is the face of your Lord"

meaning that WHATEVER you see is in fact made from one of the "names" of God, and in Islam we have from 99 names to 1000 names mentioned , also another reference from Islamic theology and tradition the same person i already quoted above twice named Imam Ali tells to us in a "dua" or his "soliloquy with God" where he talks to God and says:

And by Your face, which subsists after the annihilation of all things,
And by Your Names, which have filled the foundations of all things;
And by Your knowledge, which encompasses all things;
And by the light of Your face, through which all things are illumined!
O Light! O All-holy!

With the attention towards the second line which says that God's "names" have filled the foundation of all things. Now as you noticed earlier i posted the quote where angel Jibrael(Gabriel) tells us that(in Islamic literature) there are 90,000 veils between us and God, and that God taught Adam(pbuh) all the names, and this is what it refers to, these names of God is what is perceived in these 90,000 levels, and what is perceiving them is the heart.

In the outside world the thing we can see with our physical eyes are also foundations of God's names , and they have certain form, but in the physical world, being the lowest world , they have the most "limited" form, and each one of them belongs to one of these 90,000 levels in what they represent , and their "physical appearance" is actually an reflection also of the spiritual states or forms(remember our soul have the universe inside of it) such as they belong to all worlds, but their intensity and degrees vary

In reality God is imperceptible, but God had given us a keyhole peek into Him through these names, we pray to Him through these names, and we perceive Him through these names, such as "Most Merciful" and to further note, a person can also become "merciful" and become a "proof of God's names or what we call a reflection of God's names" when he strengthens and roots mercy in his heart and soul towards others and hence his soul taking on he form of this gem, but he is not limited to only one of these , he can also be "generous" to the point that generosity is his second nature if he is generous to God creations, and hence coming close to God in this degree etc, with the ultimate form being that a soul has all of these qualities rooted in them(from all of these names of God) and hence becoming "closest' to God by being closest to the "names" of God which is in fact the ultimate Goal of man, in fact we Muslims believe that the reason that Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is the last Prophet is that he was the only man in history to achieve the CLOSEST to God, and attained and perfected ALL of the qualities and names, he was merciful, he was turthful etc and all of the other names etc but thats another topic

"We have created man in the perfect form, and then rendered him to the lowest low, except those who do good..." Quran

So now, how does this all tie in with the dream world?

I will explain below

There is one world in the Quran mentioned which is called the world of "barzakh" which actually translates to "veiled" or "covering" , now this world is actually not a world that is "outside" but rather "inside" and close to you and me just like our thoughts are close to us, or our personal way of thinking is close to us, and also ITS effects affect us and weight down to us the same way physical ailments weight down on us, like i mentioned above, there exists three parts of the soul, there is the 'aql', 'qalb', 'nafs' and just the same way that there exists physical ailments, there also exists "diseases" of each of these three, meaning that we have to keep each one of these healthy or they also can get "diseased" or "sick"

and to quote from the Quran

There is a disease in their hearts, so Allah added to their disease and they shall have a painful chastisement because they lied.

where as you can see how because some people being described where lying, it caused their hearts to become "diseased"

and to cut the long story short, each of the subsequent parts of the three parts of the soul, are affected and take on "forms" or "states" or become "diseased" or "sick" based on the persons actions and morals

now if these parts of the spirit become diseased and sick, they start to change how you view the world around you, they have an immediate and direct effect on even the physical perception of the physical universe as well as how you perceive others and how you treat them

"i died as a mineral and became a plant..."

however like anything else there is levels of this sense perception, there is the level which most people experience daily, and then there is the highest level in which case the visions are shown where the person can see manifestation of this "perception" in their soul and of the barzakh world, we also believe that each Prophet of God is in a certain part of world which reflect one of the names of God

To give you an example anyone that has done some good in their life and felt themselves become overwhelmed by emotion or feeling of bliss, has sensed the barzakh world, anyone that has done evil and immediately felt "heavy" or guilty and "dark" afterwards has sensed also the barzakh world, these are all perceptions which belong to the spiritual world, and they can become more "clearer" or more "darker" until you cannot perceive them, the only difference is that in the spiritual world there is no limit to haw "dark" they can become, and also there is no limit to how "clear and light" they become, but in our physical world there is a limit to darkness and light for example

To give you another "world like" example a blind person in this life or a deaf person in this life, or a person who has no taste, and you apply all the subsequent stimulants to these blind parts, the person can only "feel" so much , such as even though a person may be deaf, they would still have a sense of sound being around them, such as if they see a person holding in instrument they can see that there is something there but they cannot quiet fathom that something , with the same reality applied to the subsequent organs and hence how our souls perceptions operate

However the good thing is that with the other senses of the barzakh world, they can actually be "unveiled" (remember 90,000 veils between God and us) so that eventually a person can perceive more and more until they reach a point in which they can see visions, as if he she is seeing the barzakh world with their own eyes while awake.

Also there is a few shortcuts, sometimes we are given a free card or a peephole into this "barzah" world and this is where dreams come into the story, we have dreams of our own state of the soul or we might see actions or perceive smells or even hear sounds in our dreams when our soul leaves our body to a certain extent, but even this requires to be "unveiled" for the subsequent parts of the perception

Here is the situation right now according to Islamic spirituality, you are building your body in the next life, and the actions you do here is relative and pertain to the body and environment you are building permanently for your self in teh eternal and permanent life.

If you are an ignorant person or sinner and so on and so forth, you are actually causing blindness and deafness and impotence in the other life, and sometimes the effects are so grand that they are even passed onto and effect your body here as i already explained

Such as there is no limit to the blindness you can cause in your eternal body/soul, and there is no limit to the "smallness" you can stunt to your soul, and there is no limit to "darkness" you can cause in the soul world body of yours
Whatever you imagine and more can be applied to your body in the next world, and it goes both ways

In the Quran God says

He is indeed successful who causeth it to grow
And he is indeed a failure who stunteth it.

Every action be it good or evil here has an effect there, so that even if you have 1 defect here in your behavior you can be sure that will turn into something negative which will be a permanent part of your eternal body, unless you purify it before you leave this place(death)

so what you might see in your dreams is the reality of this state of the soul and permanent wolrd, sometimes you might see evil deeds that resulted in evil actions which could become manifestations of your worst fears that would haunt you in the spiritual world of your soul or you might see beautiful environemnts and beautiful people bodies etc which are the good deeds or the purified and unveiled soul

evil may take on the form of a raging sea, and the other evil actions might become hideous beasts that want to attack you in those seas as well as other actions and how they translate to the spiritual world of your soul(made up of the three parts) every evil or good you do will become some manifestation that will be applied to you soul and take on forms which you are familiar with in the physical world , hence why in dreams we see things we are familiar with in the real world

"reap what you sow"

this is the world we are building in the spiritual realm, and when we dream during sleep we can sometimes see these world of ours and how they appear and take form

There is also things in the dream world and soul world which are not "logical" to us here but take que from what we are familiar with in the physical world and to give you and example , in Islamic dream interpretation seeing your teeth in your dreams represent your family members. The closer the teeth to the front teeth, the closer the family members, with the front teeth top and bottom being your father and mother , and next to them siblings and further away further family , and what happens to your teeth in your dream or how they appear in your dream represent something that might happen to them or some other meaning, do bear in mind that for each person there also exists different interpretations, also what needs to be taken into consideration is also the surrounding environment, but anyway i will continue this another time and give some explaining relating to what i have already explained and its relation to the dream world.

Anyway hope you had an interesting read and informative read.

Cheers and see you around.

**EbbTide000** · 04-19-2014 12:50 PM

Thank you hopjopper

I have copied this into my Dreamviews waking Journal so I will always find it quick, in the future.

. Waking journal is invisible to everyone but me. I can put private dreams in it. It is for keeping a diary of the day to see if what I do in waking life effects my dreams.

Originally Posted by hopjopper

Hi, welcome to my first post about the relation between soul, body , Islam and dreams.

Firstly we Muslims obviously believe in the soul, and we believe that the soul is the MUCH greater part of existence, the human body is like a vessel we are told, and really has no significance, and without the soul the body is just a pile of dust, it is in fact the soul which is made up of "intuitive" parts of existence, and the body is almost "unimportant" as compared to the soul, the soul is eternal and "living", while the body is obviously not eternal and is very vulnerable to anything , from small damage to death, also the soul its origins from the Quran is that it is comes from God "blowing" his spirit into Adam(pbuh) who is made from 'clay' , there is also another creation of God in Islamic theology which is known as Jinn, which is also like us humans, but instead of being made from 'clay' they are made from "smokeless fire' and live like us , they have kids, they have family, they eat and they choose morals in life between good and evil, they also have free will, however we cannot interact with them, while they can interact with us, and the infamous "Devil" is actually from their race, however he is another separate story all together.

Now the soul is made up of three parts which is actually told to us in the Quran, one part is know as the "qalb" which literally translates to the "heart" however it is not the heart in terms of organ, but heart in terms of the feelings it projects to the human soul, and the inclinations, habits , and desires, and love and even a connection with God (or a high omni-conscious imperceptible being) .
One other thing is that we are told is that God is constantly looking at the Qalb and not the "outside appearance/body" , and that the Qalb contains the WHOLE universe, in that Adam(pbuh) was taught the WHOLE universe or in the Quran "names" when he was created, and that we can even have access to this whole universe if we remove what is know as "veils" that are between these perceptions of God and the heart.

"Your remedy is within you, but you do not sense it. Your sickness is from you, but you do not perceive it. You presume you are a small entity, but within you is enfolded the entire Universe. You are indeed the Evident Book, by whose alphabet the Hidden becomes Manifest. Therefore you have no need to look beyond yourself. What you seek is within you, if only you reflect " Imam Ali(Islamic saint and vicegerent of God said 1400 years ago when he was on earth)

The second part is the part known as the "aql" which is another part of the soul and is considered as the "intelligence" or the "reasoning" or the "thinking" "perceiving" "calculating" part of the soul, obviously in all retrospect the "learning" part of the soul or "calculating" part of the soul but more importantly "reasoning" part of the soul, and these words dont do justice to it, so i will explain it with a quote from prophet Muhamad(pbuh) he said:

"there is two kinds of prophets that God sends, one is external, and the other is internal, the external Prophets are hand picked men by God from their communities, and the internal Prophet is the 'aql' "

obviously shedding light that the aql is not just calculating or reasoning but the influence and intuitive reasoning when it comes to the choice between good and evil and morals etc and furthermore and to tie in with the last part of the soul, the third part know as the "nafs" of the soul, which means the "self" when literally translated, however the "self" or "nafs" part of the soul is a very "basic" or "driving" force behind the soul, and according to Rumi is the part of the soul that takes "form" , he says beautifully in one of his poems:

I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones, 'To Him we shall return.'

Rumi

Which actually is always "badly" explained by those who try to explain its meaning, and even sometimes cutoff (the part up to the "Man" part) in order to try to explain this poem to mean an early adaptation of evolution, but nevertheless what Rumi was explaining and in order to help you understand the "soul" from an Islamic perspective, I have to further quote another saying of the Prophet or knowledge of the Prophet(pbuh) where he says( and to help you understand this part of the soul)

when God created the Angels he created them with a soul made up only of "aql" , when he created the animals he created their soul made up only of "nafs" or desires i.e they desire to eat to drink to mate to sleep, to be comfortable, etc, but when God created the Human, he said this is the best of my creation and the most perfect of my creation , and He made him of both "aql' and "nafs"

So as you can see what id being described is a continously changing soul made up of the parts and depneding on which parts are "used" or effected result in teh change of the state of the form of the soul, however the drive of the man, is that he is able to "learn", "change" , and "choose" i.e he has free will to be WHATEVER he wants to be hence why the man has the universe inside his heart, and hence why the heart of man can take on the form of ANY of God's creatures, he can become an angel, or he can become an animal, and it all depends on the variations and constructs of the various parts of these three, hence why Rumi in the peom above describes the various states of his "complete soul" and describes how he changes to become that something greater, the final state being an "infinite" or "God-like" state however not "God" because "God" is as we know "unique" but nevertheless a soul in which reaches the "highest state" which can do the greatest "God-like abilites" , such as heal sick people, raise the dead, walk on water, etc stuff like Jesus did, but ALSO stuff that other Prophets and God's elite did, and there is many such people in the history of humankind be it in Christendom, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism who achieved this state, some call it "transcendence" others call it "enlightenment" or in Arabic some call it "fana" which means annihilation of the self into nothingness and other names that are associated with this state.

So to summarize quickly, the soul is central part to our existence and it contains the entire universe in it, it is made up of 'aql' 'nafs' 'qalb' and based on how you treat these three, the "state" of your soul takes on forms which reflect the behaviors or habits which are made up of depending on which of these three you are "putting most of your money in" or which of these three you are "capitalizing" on , and also depending on which one of these three you "feed" most they become stronger and brighter, and start to attain abilities or cause effects on the total system , either by taking on "forms" as Rumi describes, or by becoming inclined or total in some certain inclination, of course this is the overall and nut shell definition of the above introduction, and like any other science there is FAR more detail and construct and sub trees to explore relating to each one and it subsequent parts. There is also another important fact, the qalb is the "perceiver" of the aql and nafs, and the driving force of the human, such as that it causes the persons "reality" to be augmented according to how it is affected, and to give you an example in the Quran God says:

"it is not the eyes that go blind rather it is the hearts(qalb) that go blind(to spiritual matters)

and also God told the Prophet in a revelation know as "hadeeth-qudsi" that there exists 90,000 veils that are applied to this heart, which are between God and us, which i will quote the reference from Islamic theology about this fact

we are told from Jibrail(Gabriel) who told Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) that:

"Jibra'il(Gabriel) continued by saying, "Between Allah and His creations, there exists 90,000 layers of concealment and the closest of creations to Allah are Isra'fil(angel) and myself; and between Allah and us exist four veils: Light, Darkness, Cloud and Water. From Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 18, p. 327,"

and to give you an example to help you understand these "sates" or "form" , a person who constantly eats and is glutenous is putting his "money" into the "nafs" which as i described above is the "only" part of the animal soul, but also a part of the self, this in turn causes veils to be thrown over the heart and the other parts of the soul "qalb" "aql"(angel soul) which block a person from "God" and also shapes the "state" of the person i.e soul of the person and hence he/she has certain inclinations or "scope" of "sight" into the world and worlds, and takes on forms which are reflected in the universe in constant creation such as a "dog or "cat" or "heavenly body"

Two other important facts to mention here , one is that God tells us in the Quran that he created "worlds" not just one world (Alhamdulilah hir rabbil alemeen which means "Praise and Glory be to God lord of the WOLRDS), but plural, and as to the amount of worlds that there is exactly, we dont know, this information is not given, but there are definitely some hints from those who unveiled their hearts and had access to them, and from Prophets and saints that also were given this "knowledge" and told the people information about it , one of those worlds being the "dream" world

Another important fact is that in Islam we are told that EVERYTHING is created from God's "names" which as you might have noticed i mentioned earlier that God taught these "names" to Adam(pbuh) and to further strengthen this part in the Quran again we are told that:

"wherever you turn is the face of your Lord"

meaning that WHATEVER you see is in fact made from one of the "names" of God, and in Islam we have from 99 names to 1000 names mentioned , also another reference from Islamic theology and tradition the same person i already quoted above twice named Imam Ali tells to us in a "dua" or his "soliloquy with God" where he talks to God and says:

And by Your face, which subsists after the annihilation of all things,
And by Your Names, which have filled the foundations of all things;
And by Your knowledge, which encompasses all things;
And by the light of Your face, through which all things are illumined!
O Light! O All-holy!

With the attention towards the second line which says that God's "names" have filled the foundation of all things. Now as you noticed earlier i posted the quote where angel Jibrael(Gabriel) tells us that(in Islamic literature) there are 90,000 veils between us and God, and that God taught Adam(pbuh) all the names, and this is what it refers to, these names of God is what is perceived in these 90,000 levels, and what is perceiving them is the heart.

In the outside world the thing we can see with our physical eyes are also foundations of God's names , and they have certain form, but in the physical world, being the lowest world , they have the most "limited" form, and each one of them belongs to one of these 90,000 levels in what they represent , and their "physical appearance" is actually an reflection also of the spiritual states or forms(remember our soul have the universe inside of it) such as they belong to all worlds, but their intensity and degrees vary

In reality God is imperceptible, but God had given us a keyhole peek into Him through these names, we pray to Him through these names, and we perceive Him through these names, such as "Most Merciful" and to further note, a person can also become "merciful" and become a "proof of God's names or what we call a reflection of God's names" when he strengthens and roots mercy in his heart and soul towards others and hence his soul taking on he form of this gem, but he is not limited to only one of these , he can also be "generous" to the point that generosity is his second nature if he is generous to God creations, and hence coming close to God in this degree etc, with the ultimate form being that a soul has all of these qualities rooted in them(from all of these names of God) and hence becoming "closest' to God by being closest to the "names" of God which is in fact the ultimate Goal of man, in fact we Muslims believe that the reason that Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is the last Prophet is that he was the only man in history to achieve the CLOSEST to God, and attained and perfected ALL of the qualities and names, he was merciful, he was turthful etc and all of the other names etc but thats another topic

"We have created man in the perfect form, and then rendered him to the lowest low, except those who do good..." Quran

So now, how does this all tie in with the dream world?

I will explain below

There is one world in the Quran mentioned which is called the world of "barzakh" which actually translates to "veiled" or "covering" , now this world is actually not a world that is "outside" but rather "inside" and close to you and me just like our thoughts are close to us, or our personal way of thinking is close to us, and also ITS effects affect us and weight down to us the same way physical ailments weight down on us, like i mentioned above, there exists three parts of the soul, there is the 'aql', 'qalb', 'nafs' and just the same way that there exists physical ailments, there also exists "diseases" of each of these three, meaning that we have to keep each one of these healthy or they also can get "diseased" or "sick"

and to quote from the Quran

There is a disease in their hearts, so Allah added to their disease and they shall have a painful chastisement because they lied.

where as you can see how because some people being described where lying, it caused their hearts to become "diseased"

and to cut the long story short, each of the subsequent parts of the three parts of the soul, are affected and take on "forms" or "states" or become "diseased" or "sick" based on the persons actions and morals

now if these parts of the spirit become diseased and sick, they start to change how you view the world around you, they have an immediate and direct effect on even the physical perception of the physical universe as well as how you perceive others and how you treat them

"i died as a mineral and became a plant..."

however like anything else there is levels of this sense perception, there is the level which most people experience daily, and then there is the highest level in which case the visions are shown where the person can see manifestation of this "perception" in their soul and of the barzakh world, we also believe that each Prophet of God is in a certain part of world which reflect one of the names of God

To give you an example anyone that has done some good in their life and felt themselves become overwhelmed by emotion or feeling of bliss, has sensed the barzakh world, anyone that has done evil and immediately felt "heavy" or guilty and "dark" afterwards has sensed also the barzakh world, these are all perceptions which belong to the spiritual world, and they can become more "clearer" or more "darker" until you cannot perceive them, the only difference is that in the spiritual world there is no limit to haw "dark" they can become, and also there is no limit to how "clear and light" they become, but in our physical world there is a limit to darkness and light for example

To give you another "world like" example a blind person in this life or a deaf person in this life, or a person who has no taste, and you apply all the subsequent stimulants to these blind parts, the person can only "feel" so much , such as even though a person may be deaf, they would still have a sense of sound being around them, such as if they see a person holding in instrument they can see that there is something there but they cannot quiet fathom that something , with the same reality applied to the subsequent organs and hence how our souls perceptions operate

However the good thing is that with the other senses of the barzakh world, they can actually be "unveiled" (remember 90,000 veils between God and us) so that eventually a person can perceive more and more until they reach a point in which they can see visions, as if he she is seeing the barzakh world with their own eyes while awake.

Also there is a few shortcuts, sometimes we are given a free card or a peephole into this "barzah" world and this is where dreams come into the story, we have dreams of our own state of the soul or we might see actions or perceive smells or even hear sounds in our dreams when our soul leaves our body to a certain extent, but even this requires to be "unveiled" for the subsequent parts of the perception

Here is the situation right now according to Islamic spirituality, you are building your body in the next life, and the actions you do here is relative and pertain to the body and environment you are building permanently for your self in teh eternal and permanent life.

If you are an ignorant person or sinner and so on and so forth, you are actually causing blindness and deafness and impotence in the other life, and sometimes the effects are so grand that they are even passed onto and effect your body here as i already explained

Such as there is no limit to the blindness you can cause in your eternal body/soul, and there is no limit to the "smallness" you can stunt to your soul, and there is no limit to "darkness" you can cause in the soul world body of yours
Whatever you imagine and more can be applied to your body in the next world, and it goes both ways

In the Quran God says

He is indeed successful who causeth it to grow
And he is indeed a failure who stunteth it.

Every action be it good or evil here has an effect there, so that even if you have 1 defect here in your behavior you can be sure that will turn into something negative which will be a permanent part of your eternal body, unless you purify it before you leave this place(death)

so what you might see in your dreams is the reality of this state of the soul and permanent wolrd, sometimes you might see evil deeds that resulted in evil actions which could become manifestations of your worst fears that would haunt you in the spiritual world of your soul or you might see beautiful environemnts and beautiful people bodies etc which are the good deeds or the purified and unveiled soul

evil may take on the form of a raging sea, and the other evil actions might become hideous beasts that want to attack you in those seas as well as other actions and how they translate to the spiritual world of your soul(made up of the three parts) every evil or good you do will become some manifestation that will be applied to you soul and take on forms which you are familiar with in the physical world , hence why in dreams we see things we are familiar with in the real world

"reap what you sow"

this is the world we are building in the spiritual realm, and when we dream during sleep we can sometimes see these world of ours and how they appear and take form

There is also things in the dream world and soul world which are not "logical" to us here but take que from what we are familiar with in the physical world and to give you and example , in Islamic dream interpretation seeing your teeth in your dreams represent your family members. The closer the teeth to the front teeth, the closer the family members, with the front teeth top and bottom being your father and mother , and next to them siblings and further away further family , and what happens to your teeth in your dream or how they appear in your dream represent something that might happen to them or some other meaning, do bear in mind that for each person there also exists different interpretations, also what needs to be taken into consideration is also the surrounding environment, but anyway i will continue this another time and give some explaining relating to what i have already explained and its relation to the dream world.

Anyway hope you had an interesting read and informative read.

Cheers and see you around.