The effect of Visions, Dreams and Fantasies on Sharia Rulings

Abstract

There is no doubt that the topic of visions and dreams is an important topic. Any person has encountered a vision or a dream. This is why Sharia was keen to clarify the rulings on visions and dreams, and the way to deal with them.

In this research, I have elucidated an aspect of the topic of visions, which is related to Sharia rulings: does a Mujtahid (=assiduous scholar) or jurist have the right to extract Sharia rulings from visions and dreams? How valid is it among jurists and fundamentalists?

The research focused on extrapolating the dreams found in jurisprudential books, which the authors of these books used as evidence for a legal ruling, or favoring an opinion over another, or detailing something ambiguous.

Then I explained whether this action is valid or not, and I mentioned the opinions of scholars on this particular issue, and I explained the most important reasons that made jurists resort to such dreams.

I concluded this research with a conclusion in which I mentioned the most important results that I reached during the process of writing this research, the most important of which are:

First: it became clear to me that the books of jurisprudence are full of branches of jurisprudence related to visions and dreams, which are much more than what I investigated in this research.

Second: the jurist, fundamentalist, interpreter or hadith scholar is influenced by the belief he/she holds; if he believes in the doctrine of Sufism and those who follow their approach, then he/she - mostly - acknowledges visions as reliable evidence.

Third: jurists and fundamentalists almost agree that visions are not considered reliable evidence.