ROMANTIC DREAMS

DR UMAR AZAM BA PHD DCL DIP.FJ DIP.IM

MANCHESTER, UK

JANUARY 2003

  INTRODUCTION

             The fact that beautiful, holy dreams can be Messages of reward from Allah Most High has already been explained elsewhere [please see DREAMS IN ISLAM, VISIONS OF PARADISE and DREAMS OF REWARD IN PARADISE on this site].  This paper presents romantic dreams and seeks to show that Allah Almighty will bestow loving dreams on the one who believes and does good deeds.  In the selection of dreams below, for example, the following good deeds led to romantic dreams [this is not a complete list of all categories of good deeds, just a sample]: 

 using technology for the cause of Islam [Dream No1]

 Islamic scholarship and research [2, 8, 11, 16, 23, 26]

 caring for the family [4]

 compassion for children [5]

 distributing Islamic literature [7, 14, 19]

 kindness to wives [18]

 tutoring pupils with dedication [20, 21]

 sacrificing romantic love [22]

 giving for charity [32]

              Those who believe know that everyone is being tested by God in this life.  When they believe and work righteousness, the will get feedback from God in the form of loving dreams [in contrast to nightmares!], which confirm that Allah Most High is pleased with them and that they will gain the Reward of Love in the life Hereafter.

DREAM NO 1               DATE NOT RECORDED

I had a dream in which I saw the image of a most beautiful and unknown wife on the screen of a computer monitor.  The dream gave me the message that she has 'lips of claret'.

CONTEXT

I had used my computer to list the addresses of readers who had received a free copy of my work PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE [now on this website]. 

DREAM NO 2                 JANUARY 1997

I dreamt that the Bodleian Library [University of Oxford] is haunted by ghosts.  I saw the apparition of an elegant lady who looked like Anne Boleyn [one of King Henry VIII's wives] floating downwards above a modern escalator in the Library.  She was wearing a lengthy, white dress and, despite being a spectre, looked very pretty!  I was sure that other ghosts were present in the Library, though I didn't see them!

CONTEXT

My writings are part of the Bodleian Library stock.  I had framed a letter from Library staff which informed me of the cataloguing details of my manuscripts: title, class number and date of addition. Sometimes, at night, before falling asleep, I used to look at this particular letter, and others too, for inspiration to initiate more academic work.

DREAM NO 3                DATE NOT RECORDED

i]      I was playing croquet with an unknown wife.

ii]       I was playing an unknown game, with an unknown wife, which entailed sliding a ball, very fast, across a kind of machine.

CONTEXT

I was always working: tutoring pupils, writing Islamic books and working on the computer.  Dreams such as this relieved some of my stress!

DREAM NO 4                  SATURDAY 7 DECEMBER 1996

I was in the company of an unknown wife, beside a cosy open fire.  We were 'in the middle of nowhere': in some kind of wood. [1,3]  It was dark and we were camping outdoors, like Robin Hood and his merry men. [2]  She was cooking whole sacks of foodstuffs in front of the fire! In fact, she was burning her cooking: she didn't just burn the corners of one sack of foodstuff, but the sack itself!  I chided her by shouting at her not to overdo the task!

[In the next scene] she gave me a piece of paper with historical, English, calligraphic writing on it. [3]  It was a list of various foodstuffs and the vitamins that they contained. [4]  Ithought the paper looked as ifs contents were very compassionate and important.  I had decided to photocopy [5] both sides of this paper, then the dream finished.

 CONTEXT

[1, 3]    I got the feeling when I awoke that this dream had been set in the Middle Ages, England [also conveyed by calligraphy].

[2]  We were in the wood with our own troop, just like Robin Hood!

[4]  My brother, Zaheer, used to encourage me to think of the family as a whole [rather than just of myself!] and to buy fruit and vegetables from the wholesale market from my own money.  He used to say that I had spent my money well because of the nutritious value of the produce.  God is Happy if you help your loved ones.

[5]  I used to photocopy my Islamic documents regularly.

DREAM NO 5                 1996

I dreamt that a Hindu girl gave me an amorous and extremely passionate kiss without her parents knowing!  It was a very inventive and sophisticated kiss: she touched my nose with her index finger temptingly first, and then sensitively touched my face with that same index finger, before giving that kiss.  This happened in her own family's house.

CONTEXT

Polytheists are, of course, destined for Hell.  I had taught a Hindu girl named Setal.  I liked Setal and her innocence, and did not want her to go to Hell in the Hereafter.  So I explained to her about Islam, and gave her my book DREAMS IN ISLAM to read.

DREAM NO 6                 WEDNESDAY 18 DECEMBER 1996

I was climbing a ladder and so, too, was my unknown wife.  She was actually higher than I, and I saw her shoe's heel above my head!

INTERPRETATION

'Ascending: Seeing oneself ascending ordinarily [as in real life] means one will attain honour, dignity and an elevated position.  Such ascension is indeed an enviable one.  In general, ascension or climbing represents one's honour or dignity in worldly and religious matters.  At other times, climbing a mountain or tree suggests that the dreamer will be granted protection against calamities of all sorts'.  IBN SIREEN, p.42

'Climbing the Upper Portions of a House:  If a person sees himself entering an unknown house [and climbing its upper portions], it means he will marry some woman who will be a means of prosperity for him'.  IBN SIREEN, p.44-45

DREAM NO 7                            SUNDAY 8 DECEMBER 1996

I saw a group of college students.  One of them was my beautiful, unknown wife.  I asked her, 'Are you pure [clean]?'

 CONTEXT

One or two students at Preston College had been criticising me for handing out my PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE booklets [now on this site] to all the College's students, whether they were in a state of wudhu or not.  I argued that if I didn't give the booklets out at random in the College, then they would't be given out at all, as I did not know the addresses of the students!

DREAM NO 8                                      TUESDAY 7 APRIL 1998

I dreamt that I was teaching a [beautiful and intelligent] girl in her room at her girls-only boarding school, in Lahore, Pakistan!  Her little brother was in the room with her, and also her caring auntie came to meet me.  Her aunt, who respected me very much, looked just like her!

 DREAM NO 10                                            DATE NOT RECORDED

My beautiful, unknown wife had just returned from Glasgow.  She was sitting a little distance away from me on a settee, and she had turned her body and face sideways towards my mother, who was seated on an adjacent settee, and to whom she was talking in confidence and with great emotion.  The wife had brought worrying and terrible news from that city.    She revealed that some of the [Pakistani] Muslim men of Glasgow were severe, evil characters who were being extremely cruel to their wives.  In one case, she revealed, a bloodthirsty husband had been so cruel to his wife that he had cut off his sister-in-law's leg below the knee. *  My wife had a very compassionate and caring face, and she was genuinely touched and concerned. 

  INTERPRETATION

Any dream whose content involves the cutting off of a limb means severing relations.  Hence, the husbands must be forbidding their wives from meeting their sisters and other loved ones.  Allah is angry with those husbands who violate the rights of their wives.  Marrying a woman does not mean separating her from her own kith and kin!

 DREAM NO 11                                                  THURSDAY 24 JULY 1997

I was sound asleep in my flat, but was awakened by the ringing of the door-bell. I was so sleepy that I wondered whether I should get up and open the door!  But my youngest sister had already opened the door!  A very attractive lady, an unknown wife, stood on the doorstep.  She said, "I just called to see who had written [the book] DREAMS IN ISLAM [what he looked like]"  My sister asked her to come in.  I had got up by then and I also asked her in.  But she was very shy!  She went on her way.  I shouted at her in frustration, "Now that you've woken me up, you might as well come in!"  But she didn't obey me!

                      DREAM NO 12                                                                1996

There was an attractive lady who was with a clergyman.  They were both husband and wife.  She absolutely understood my radio interview.   

  CONTEXT

This dream seemed to have a historical context: judging from the way the couple were dressed, it was set in England in Victorian times.  This suggests that the clergy in that period were very efficient at propagating religion.  I had been wondering if my performances on radio were any good and this dream gave me the accurate answer I needed.

  DREAM NO 13                                         WEDNESDAY 15 JANUARY 2003

I dreamt that all the girls I have ever been in love with * now feel, after being separated from me, that that phase of their lives of which I was a part was a dream - they had dreamt of meeting me and being with me.

* Pure love - we did not do anything contrary to Islam

INTERPRETATION

Their lives are not as pleasant, or ideal, now as they were when I was a part of their lives! 

 DREAM NO 14                                           TUESDAY 21 JANUARY 2003

I dreamt that while I was giving out advertisements promoting my website in the Oxford Road Building of THE JOHN RYLANDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MANCHESTER [JRULM], one of the proposed female student recipients and I automatically hugged each other - naturally and impulsively!

 CONTEXT

In January 2003, I really did distribute my adverts in the JRULM and some of the girl students were somewhat flustered to see me.  When I first approached them, they thought I was romantically interested in them.  Only after seeing my sheets did they realise that I was doing Islamic work! 

  DREAM NO 15                                        WEDNESDAY 22 MARCH 1995

I was tutoring a pupil named Aisha and she was answering certain questions in a complicated exercise.  Then I asked her to read the TRANSLATION OF THE ISLAMIC WEDDING SERMON in my booklet PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE [now on this site], copy it all out and then to sign her name underneath it!  I was licking my lips and rubbing my hands and saying, "When I have your signature, you will become lawful to me: you will be my wife, and then I will kiss you!"  But Aisha tricked me by doing my signature after writing out the Wedding Sermon and I pretended to sound disappointed [though I was happy and joking!] and I said to her: "Ow, what did you do my signature for?"  Aisha was smiling and looked happy that she had tricked me!

 Note:   To read the English translation of the ISLAMIC WEDDING SERMON, please see the introduction to the 'POETRY' section of this website.

   DREAM NO 16                                      WEDNESDAY 29 FEBRUARY 1997

I was coming down the steps of a college building and a beautiful, young lady [my unknown wife] was standing on ground level, behind me.  She gazed at me with a romantic gaze, as if filled with awe, love and admiration for me.  I seemed to be making my way out after giving an Islamic Lecture.  The college seemed to exude an air of importance.  It was 'home-time': one or two students were 'milling about', on their way home.

  DREAM NO 17                                               SATURDAY 3 AUGUST 1997

I saw a packet of foodstuffs manufactured by the 'KP' Company, like a large box of 'Kellogs' cereal.  On the back of the box, there was writing, split into two sections.  The first section was a promise by KP to produce ' vegetarian'  brands, suitable for the Muslim community.  The second piece was a comprehensive paragraph of advice about weddings generally, and aimed at me specifically!  It was exhorting me to think of marrying some wife, and confirming that a wedding was the most appropriate action for me to take.  Although both pieces of writing were in full colour pleasing to the eye, the colour of the wedding advice was superior.  Also, it was written in beautiful writing!

 CONTEXT

I had been writing to leading manufacturers of confectionary and foodstuffs, including: MARS, GOLDEN WONDER, WALKERS, NESTLE, BRITISH BAKERIES, TREBOR BASSETT, KP and WARNER LAMBERT.  I had also talked about the subject of halal and haram foodstuffs on BBC RADIO LANCASHIRE, BBC RADIO GMR and BBC RADIO DERBY, and had produced a report entitled something like+: 'PRODUCTS SUITABLE FOR A HALAL DIET', which I distributed to individual Muslims.  But it  quickly became out of date!  However, a number of people congratulated me on my efforts, saying that my correspondence illustrated the need for Muslims to check whether what they are eating is halal or haram.

  DREAM NO 18                                                                        JUNE 1997

I saw my beautiful, unknown wife.  She and I were intimate.  Then the word 'orange' was mentioned.

  CONTEXT

My father had become very ill and he was admitted to a ward in hospital in the 'orange zone' [colours being used for admistrative purposes].  I visited him regularly and took him milk, tea, meals and newspapers.  I also gave money a few times. 

  DREAM NO 19                                           DATE NOT RECORDED             

I dreamt that I called at a house to collect a comment on my PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE booklet from a reader and my beautiful, unknown wife answered the door!  [I had forgotten the rest of the dream when I woke up!]

  DREAM NO 20                                    THURSDAY 23 JANUARY 2003

I dreamt of a beautiful, unknown wife whose face resembled that of my former tuition pupil, Zobia Choudry.  There was plenty of friction between me and this wife in the dream!  One of the things she did wrong was to throw my GCSE maths text book under my car while the car was stationary in traffic!  I chided her for this reckless action!  [She did something else wrong too, but I forgot what this was when I woke up.] In another scene, we were in a queue with a youth who did not tell me who he was, but I guessed that it was her brother.  I was going to buy three cups of tea for us.  I said to him, "She's like this because her dad has spoiled her!"

 CONTEXT

I used to photocopy pages from this book for pupils' exercises, but didn't charge them for the expense.  The pupils' parents kindly provided tea [and even meals] for me during lessons.  I have had rows with my tuition pupils and their parents.  In this dream, I was rowing with this wife as well! 

  DREAM NO 21                                                           DECEMBER 1991

I saw my beautiful, unknown wife who looked very pleasing to me.  She was walking in the street, a little distance away from me.  [In the next scene] she was actually my wife and we were both intimate.  [In a fresh scene] I saw a copy of an English comprehension book.

  CONTEXT

I had bought many copies of this comprehension book entitled: 'I Find Out'.  I lent these out to pupils and, soon, I didn't even have one copy left!  But I reckoned that, even if the pupils did keep the book, this could only do them good!  I made do with other resources.  This dream suggests that Allah Almighty acknowledged that my act of educational charity was a benevolent deed.

  DREAM NO 22                                                                     1984

I saw the head and shoulders of a fellow student at the University of Manchester, a beautiful woman. 

This was a real-life miracle: when I awoke, there was mehndi [henna] on the palms of both my hands!  It was a pale-yellow shade and partially covered the Mount of Venus, and the Mount of Mars, on my palms.  I actually washed off the mehndi in the sink!  It actually washed off, so it was real !   It smelt of the mehndi powder found in shops too! I was 23 years old at the time of this first incident.  The mehndi actually came on again in 1985, but this time there was only half of the quantity covering my palms.  

  CONTEXT

I wanted to marry this woman but my wedding to her was not destined because my parents forced me into an arranged marriage which was to be a complete failure.

  DREAM NO 23                                  17 JANUARY 1997 * 7 RAMADHAN 1416 A.H.

The kafirs were very powerful and they made a film which mocked the Islamic fact that any believer who visits the Prophet's [PBUM] City of Medina will have his or her sins forgiven.  There was another untruth which misrepresented Islam perpetrated by the film.  The film itself was advertised on a roadside billboard.  But I climbed a ladder and, in great secret, changed one of the kafir misrepresentations.  I was apprehensive that the kafirs would find out what Ihad done.  [In the next scene] I was attending a seminar at University.  Quite a few woman students were in the room.  I planted a passionate kiss on the soft and tender cheek of one of these lady students:  my beautiful, unknown wife!  Her skin was so tender that I wished I could hold the kiss for several minutes!  But I was afraid that the other students would disapprove of what I was doing [even though what I was doing had a subtle authority and correctness about it!]. 

   DREAM NO 24                          SUNDAY 4 MAY 1997

I dreamt that one of the readers of PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE [on this site] found the booklet so emotional that she began to weep while reading it.  I myself have found the booklet that Ihave often cried too.  The dream recommended our marriage and informed me that the reader lives in Birmingham.

  CONTEXT

A reader named Rahima Islam told me when I visited Fielden Park College, West Didsbury, Manchester that my booklet had made her weep.  Booklets were distributed in Birmingham and must have had a profound effect on some readers.  One such reader must have been the most suitable person for me to marry, because of her pious character, but unfortunately it was not to be.

  DREAM NO 25                                           MONDAY 5 MAY 1997

I dreamt that I appeared on BBC Television * and some female viewer commented on my looks and remarked, "You are beautiful!"

* To talk about Islam and its aspects

 INTERPRETATION

This dream suggests beauty of character as well as beauty of physical looks, Masha'Allah.  This dream is telling the future and informing me that I will be coming on. 

  DREAM NO 26                                     SATURDAY 7 DECEMBER 1996

I was walking in an area which was very unfamiliar.  I noticed a path which looked quite forbidding because I didn't know what it would lead to.  [In the next scene] I saw a magnificent, palatial, important building.  This is what the path led to - it was a private school for girls, and its architecture was superb.  Outside this building, I met a beautiful pupil of this School: my unknown wife!  She was very intelligent and capable and had an aura of respectibility and superiority about her.  I asked her why she wanted to journey by train to the School when her home was so very near.  [She wanted to 'fit in' with the other pupils.]  She became angry when she heard this, and her indignation was powerful!  While giving some unsatisfactory answer to me, she actually swore [not at me; to give vent to her frustration] and I found that I was unable to argue with her!

 CONTEXT

I had this dream in the days when I was helping my brother, Zaheer, prepare his work VISION OF PARADISE [now on this site] for publication.

  DREAM NO 27                                         DATE NOT RECORDED

I dreamt that I went to the garden of my pupil, Kamran Khan's, house and smelled a flower.

 INTERPRETATION

'If fragrant flowers such as roses, jasmine, narcissus, marigold, daisies etc. are seen detached from their stem, it means the dreamer will lose his accumulated wealth.  But if they are not, it is a harbinger of a righteous son who will be good, honest and righteous.  How righteous he will be depends on the intensity of the fragrance given off by such a flower."  IBN SIREEN, p.51

  DREAM NO 28                                             DATE NOT RECORDED

My most beautiful, mysterious and aristocratic wife was wearing a sparkling,dark- blue, luxurious dress, made of raindrops!  She was in a library of some kind and was very angry about something.  She moved across the library with determination and in a mood of great fury.

  CONTEXT

On my visit to Huddersfield College on 14 November 1996, a student attempted to interfere with my Islamic work.  He urged fellow students not to fill in the comments forms for PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE [now on this site].  This made me very cross.

  DREAM NO 29                                       TUESDAY 13 MAY 1997

I called at a certain house to collect readers' comments on PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE [now on this site].  Two nineteen year-olds lived there.  I gave one girl a form to write her comments on.  When it came to giving the other one a form, I noticed that I had run out of forms.  I had to walk back to my car to fetch more forms.  She decided to come with me. Also in the car were framed certificates - genuine and pleasing comments from my readers testifying that PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE had been invaluable to them.  But we found that the car's bonnet had been covered with dirty streaks made by the malicious workers from a nearby factory [I had carelessly parked the car on waste grassland close to the factory].  When I opened the boot, I got another shock - this time the supervisor had smeared dirty streaks on two of my certificates [they were in the boot because I was going to file copies in my Archive].  The supervisor and workers had taken a certain pleasure from this defilement!  The young lady who was with me took the two certificates away to clean them.  I was astonished that she cared to do so.  I realised that she must be of pious character, and felt that she was the right kind of person to marry.  I had decided to marry her when the dream finished!

  DREAM NO 30                             SATURDAY 4 APRIL 1998

I dreamt that I was being tested by an elderly, wise, Arabic-speaking man.  He had a secretary, or assistant, with him - my unknown wife.  She was about twenty years old, and her mother tongue was also Arabic.  I gave him a fact of Islam and he asked me the source of it within Islam: it was a hadith [tradition] and I said it could be from Bukhari [R.A] [he asked what number], or from Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah [R.A.] and so forth.  Whatever the source, he wanted the exact information and I seemed unable to provide it!  Then I recited the following verses from Surah YaSin * to him:

           "INNA ASHAABAL JANNATIL YAUMA FI SHUGHULIN FAAQIHOON, HUM WA AZWAJOHUM....."  (1)

Here I stopped, but actually the verses carry on as follows:

"FI ZILAALIN ALAL ARAAAIKI MUTTAQEEOON LA HUM FIHA FAAQIHATONWA LA HUM MAA YADDAOON  SALAAMUN QAULUM-MIR-RABBI RAHEEM".  (2)

Translation:   "THOSE WHO ENTER THE GARDEN ARE EMPLOYED IN MERRY-MAKING; THEY AND THEIR WIVES  [1]

RECLINE ON THRONES RAISED HIGH; ON THEM THERE IS NO FEAR, NOR DO THEY GRIEVE; THE WORD FROM A MERCIFUL LORD IS 'PEACE' ."  [2]

Then the elderly man and I had something to eat together [as if to bless the entire DHIKR [Remembrance of Allah Most High & The Hereafter].

   CONTEXT

(1)  As if to emphasise what will happen to them and their wives [in Paradise].

(2) This is the very passage that I read, at times, before going to sleep.

 DREAM NO 31                                                           25 SEPTEMBER 1997

I dreamt that there was a wedding at the house of one of my pupils.

  INTERPRETATION

"Marriage.  Cure from all diseases and ailments." IBN SIREEN p.139

 DREAM NO 32                                    SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 1997

First I went into a charity shop [such as 'Scope'].  Then [in the next scene] I was giving out my booklet PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE on the street to my beautiful unknown wife.  She was of mixed lineage - half Nepalese and half some other nationality [I can't recall what].  She had the same lineage as a leading Bollywood film actress and was just as good looking!  I took her to the charity shop to buy her a wonderul head-scarf.  The shop assistant, a man, asked for an extraordinarily high price for the scarf: �8!  I gave the unknown wife the money secretly, and she paid without embarrassment.  Then, once outside, I replaced the money she had spent.  She wore the scarf and then looked both beautiful and religious.  Although the head-scarf covered her head and shoulders, it looked very holy, yet fashionable, on her!

                       --------  --------

CONCLUSION

"God is Love and Love is God": this is a well-known defintion of 'love'.  It is a definition exemplified by romantic dreams. A person cannot choose what he or she will dream about: dreaming is a natural phenomenon.  So if a person is fortunate enough to benefit from romantic dreams, then Allah Most High must be thanked and praised for bestowing such loving dreams as a sample of the Divine Mercy which the blessed will experience in the life Hereafter. 

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

- THE MEANING OF THE GLORIOUS QURAN

     Translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali

-  DREAMS AND INTERPRETATIONS

        Ibn Sireen

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank the following for comments and suggestions:  Taimur Zahid, Zaheer Azam, Asim Gafar, and Falaq Sher..