This book on the subject, ‘Dreams in Islam’, is published in the Ansari Memorial Series in honor of my teacher and Shaikh of blessed memory, Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari Al-Qaderi (1914-1974). Had we not acquired the authentic Sufi epistemology from that great teacher at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Karachi, Pakistan, we could not have written this book. Let me at the very outset hasten to make an important distinction, which Iqbal also made, between authentic Sufism and the many forms of pseudo-Sufism that have lately emerged. In all our references in this book to Sufism we identify with the Sufism of men like Ghous al-‘Azam, Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (who was Iqbal’s mentor), Shaikh al-Akbar, Muhiuddin Ibn ‘Arabi, Imam al- Ghazzali, Imam Ibn Taimiyyah and others.
‘Dreams in Islam’ is a subject whose supreme importance for the believer continues to increase as the world becomes increasingly godless and as the historical process draws to a close. The Prophet sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said:
“When the time (of the end of the world) draws close, the dreams of a believer will hardly fail to come true, and a dream of a believer is one of the forty-six parts of prophethood.”
(Bukhari)
