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The Ishā Prayer is a specific programme devised to introduce one to
the unseen world and to unite one with Allah. The reason being that at night
time one enters the senses of the night. This is the reason that the lessons,
religious recitations (Wird) and invocations practised in spiritual education
and development are practised after the Ishā Prayer. This is due to the fact
that when one enters into the senses of the night one subconsciously and
spiritually becomes very close to the unseen world, and one’s supplications and
requests are accepted. The Ishā Prayer is the thanking of Allah of the fact
that Allah has granted one deliverance from the senses of the wakeful state and
made one enter the life in which Adam existed before committing disobedience in
Heaven. It is through these senses that one observes dreams and through which
the relevant information regarding safeguard from forthcoming problems, issues
and diseases is disclosed. By the interpretation of dreams one remains secure from
problems yet to occur in the future. After offering the Ishā Prayer if one goes
to sleep, the whole night is subconsciously spent in worship and Allah's
blessings descend upon one. The dreams of such a person are based on truth and
divine inspiration.
Half
of our life is spent in the dreaming state; this tells us that there are such
senses operating within man through which the unseen can be disclosed to him.
When
one is in the dreaming state or functioning in the senses of the night one is
not a toy in the hands of time and space, instead
time
and space become a toy for one. Because the restrictions of time and space do
not exist, one witnesses the affairs of the world where time and space do not
exist: the unseen world.
All
the books that have come to this world through revelation contain verses
regarding dreams that reveal future events to us, and invite us to reflect upon
them. According to the teachings of the Holy Quran the revelation of the unseen
does not only come upon the prophets, instead each and every one of us is
capable of benefiting from it.
The
pages of history narrate to us many incidences of dreams in which future events
have been revealed. Dreams do not only reveal future events concerning the
observer of the dream, rather sometimes the dream concerns a whole society.
Dreams that have revealed future events have been mentioned in the
Holy Quran. Sūrah Yusuf states:- Yusuf said, ‘Oh father! In my dream I saw that
there are eleven stars, the sun and the moon.
I observed that they are all
prostrating to me’.
Hażrat Yusuf’s father Hażrat Yaqūb said
in reply:-
‘My son! Do not mention this dream
in front of your brothers’.
The
interpretation of the dream revealed to Hażrat Yaqūb that Yusuf's brothers
would become his worst enemies.
Hażrat
Yusuf was imprisoned in Egypt. Two prisoners, one of which was the king’s guard
and the other, the king’s cook, were caught plotting to poison the king. They
both narrated their dreams to Hazrat Yusuf.
One
told:-
‘I
saw in my dream that I am squeezing grapes’.
The
other related:-
‘I saw that I am carrying bread on
my head and birds are feeding upon it’.
Hażrat
Yusuf interpreted these dreams as: ‘the one squeezing the grapes will be
released and will be entrusted with the duty of a guard again. The other will
be hung to death and flesh-eating animals will eat his meat’.
It
is related in the Holy Quran that the king of Egypt gathered all the courtiers
and explained:- ‘I saw in my dream that there are seven fat healthy cows and
seven thin cows are eating them. I also saw that there are seven ripe granules
and seven dry granules’.
The
people present at the king’s court assumed that this was the outcome of the
troubled mind of the king and ignored it, except for Hażrat Yusuf. He
interpreted the dream as:- ‘for seven years you will grow crop. During these
seven years there will be an abundance of crop. After these seven years will
come troubles and a severe famine. Not even a grain will come from outside. In
those seven years only that crop will come in use which was stored in the last
seven years’.
The
remarkable fact worthy of contemplation is that out of these four dreams
related from the Holy Quran, only one is a prophet’s dream, and three are the
dreams of ordinary people.
KHWAJA SHAMSUDDIN AZEEMI
Mehrāj means to enter the world of the unseen. When a believer attains Mehrāj through prayer, Angels appear in front of him. He travels through the Heavens, and through the blessings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) he comes to know his Lord.
