Boreal

FAREWELL POSTINGS

I Dream of Lucette, He Dreamt of a Baby and the Koran 

February 20, 2025

More than five years after her passing I still dream about her all the time. In my dreams she is alive and well, except for last night. In last night’s dream I am looking for her in our old neighbourhood, which in my dreams we have never left. A neighbour shouts “isn’t that her over there?” I walk towards to where she is pointing, a flat surface not unlike like the whiteboard in my home office on which I wrote notes to myself. As I get closer, I notice that someone is pinned to that white surface, it is Lucette. As I struggle to remove her lifeless body from whatever is holding her up, I wake up.

For Muhammad dreams where not only omens but how God in Paradise communicated to him much of the content of His book, the Koran.

The Koran is all over the place as to when it was revealed. In one instance, it is during one night, the night of power (97:1 We have sent it down on the night of Power); in another, it is over an entire month, the month of Ramadan (2:185 The month of Ramadan is the month in which the Qur'an was revealed, providing guidance for mankind, with clear verses to guide and to distinguish...); and in still another instance, it was revealed “piecemeal” (17:106 It is a Qur'an which we have divided into parts that you may recite it with deliberation, and We revealed it piecemeal.)

Nowhere in His Book does Allah mention revealing what He revealed of His Koran in dreams, yet this is how Muhammad’s companions remember him receiving many of God’s communications.

Narrated Safwan bin Ya'la bin Umaiya from his father who said:

"A man came to the Prophet while he was at Ji'rana. The man was wearing a cloak which had traces of Khaluq or Sufra (a kind of perfume). The man asked (the Prophet), 'What do you order me to perform in my Umra (the lesser pilgrimage)?' So, Allah inspired the Prophet divinely and he was screened by a place of cloth.

I wished to see the Prophet being divinely inspired.

Umar said to me, 'Come! Will you be pleased to look at the Prophet while Allah is inspiring him?'

I replied in the affirmative.

Umar lifted one corner of the cloth and I looked at the Prophet who was snoring. (The sub-narrator thought that he said: The snoring was like that of a camel).

When that state was over, the Prophet asked, "Where is the questioner who asked about Umra? Put off your cloak and wash away the traces of Khaluq from your body and clean the Sufra (yellow color) and perform in your Umra what you perform in your Hajj (i.e. the Tawaf round the Ka'ba and the Sa'i between Safa and Marwa)."

Bukhari 27.17

Communications from Paradise sent while Muhammad slept would explain the horrific descriptions of Judgement Day and Hell (see The Islamic Hereafter, Boreal Books), which mere words could not have conveyed.

Aisha remembered her husband receiving “the Divine Inspiration” in what she refers to as “true dreams” while he slept.

Narrated Aisha:

The commencement (of the Divine Inspiration) to Allah's Apostle was in the form of true dreams in his sleep, for he never had a dream but it turned out to be true and clear as the bright daylight. Then he began to like seclusions, so he used to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship Allah continuously for many nights before going back to his family to take the necessary provision (of food) for the stay.

Bukhari 60.478

Dreams, Muhammad explained, convey religious knowledge. What is the Koran, if not religious knowledge?

Narrated Ibn Umar:

I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "While I was sleeping, I was given a bowl full of milk (in a dream), and I drank of it to my fill until I noticed its wetness coming out of my nails, and then I gave the rest of it to Umar."

They (the people) asked, "What have you interpreted (about the dream) O Allah's Apostle?"

He said, "It is Religious) knowledge."

Bukhari 87.134

Why you did not dare wake up a sleeping Muhammad.

Narrated Imran:

Once we were traveling with the Prophet and we carried on traveling till the last part of the night and then we (halted at a place) and slept (deeply). There is nothing sweeter than sleep for a traveler in the last part of the night. So it was only the heat of the sun that made us to wake up and the first to wake up was so and so, then so and so and then so and so (the narrator 'Auf said that Abu Raja' had told him their names but he had forgotten them) and the fourth person to wake up was Umar bin Al-Khattab.

And whenever the Prophet used to sleep, nobody would wake him up till he himself used to get up as we did not know what was happening (being revealed) to him in his sleep.

Bukhari 7.340

It was in a dream that Muhammad was given the keys to the treasures of the Earth.

Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, "I have been given the keys of eloquent speech and given victory with awe (cast into the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping last night, the keys of the treasures of the earth were brought to me till they were put in my hand."

Bukhari 87.127

Another hadith expressing more succinctly what inspires terror in the name of Allah to this day:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror, and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world (the booty) were brought to me and put in my hand."

Bukhari 52.220

In his dreams Muhammad was served food and drink.

Narrated Abu Sa'id:

That he had heard the Prophet saying, "Do not fast continuously (practise Al-Wisal), and if you intend to lengthen your fast, then carry it on only till the Suhur (before the following dawn)."

The people said to him, "But you practice (Al-Wisal), O Allah's Apostle!"

He replied, "I am not similar to you, for during my sleep I have One Who makes me eat and drink."

Bukhari 31.184

It was in dreams that Muhammad was first shown the baby that was destined to be his bride. Aisha was as pretty as a picture. Considering Allah and Muhammad’s aversion to lifelike reproductions of people and animals, the following hadith is quite extraordinary.

Narrated Aisha:

That the Prophet said to her, "You have been shown to me twice in my dream. I saw you pictured on a piece of silk and someone said (to me), 'This is your wife.'

When I uncovered the picture, I saw that it was yours. I said, 'If this is from Allah, it will be done.'"

Bukhari 58.235

In another hadith, it is Aisha in the flesh wrapped in silk, and the disembodied voice has been identified as that of a man.

Narrated Aisha:

Allah's Apostle said (to me), "You were shown to me twice in (my) dream. Behold, a man was carrying you in a silken piece of cloth and said to me, 'She is your wife, so uncover her,' and behold, it was you."

I would then say (to myself), "If this is from Allah, then it must happen."

Bukhari 87.139

The difference between a dream and a nightmare is its source.

Narrated Abu Qatada:

The Prophet said, "A true good dream is from Allah, and a bad dream is from Satan."

Bukhari 87.113

If that is the case, I have to wonder what Satan is trying to tell me by what He showed me last night. If I don’t live to publish Farewell Postings, you will have your answer.