Title: Khwab ki Haqquqat By: Dr Ghulam Qadir Lone Publisher: Al-Qalm Publications Price: Rs 160. “The world is a dream and we are awakened at the time of death.” This tradition is interpretable at many levels including the one with which Sufis begin their discourse. I invite readers to Izatsu’s classic account in the beginning of his great work on Ibn Arabi’s Fusoos-ul-Hikm for an account of how the world is a dream and needs interpretation. How many of us can interpret the dream that phenomenal world is? This is the primary question explorers of consciousness including dreaming consciousness ask. Man’s spiritual journey is fundamentally an attempt at increasingly refined modes of interpretation of this dream. Dreams are channels for communicating with the world of spirit. Dreams are the royal road to higher consciousness according to traditional teachings. The book I am reading – Khwab ki Haqeeqat: Tahkik ki Roshni mai – stops short of very lofty treatment that deeper science of symbolism of dreams and metaphysical implications of the faculty called creative imagination explored in traditional works on pneumatology and Sufi classics presents but nevertheless presents much that is of immense value to all classes of readers that our author upholds. The book is a guide to dream world. It explains which dreams need to be interpreted in opposite sense, which dreams have no meaning and which dreams could have a therapeutic value or are messages from the other world. The book is an insightful critique of Freud’s famous Interpretation of Dreams and makes a daring suggestion that he has said hardly anything new. The book makes interesting digressions on materialist philosophies and interesting anthropological data about dreams. It is a good survey of dreaming phenomenon in almost all its hues. Why do we dream, what religious traditions have to say on dreams, science and myths regarding interpretation of dreams, relevance of timing of dreams to interpretation, and uses we can make of dreams – everything we ordinarily want to know about dreams finds here a place. The book succeeds in making us interest about our dreams and watchful about higher meanings they may ordinarily conceal. It forcefully shows how important and powerful dreams can be. Exploring ideas of world cultures and strange superstitions and myths current in certain communities regarding dreams the book guides us through the jungle of contradictions that popular science of dream interpretation presents. The book introduces readers to things they may have never dreamt of could be there. From the phenomena of mutual dreams (people dreaming or induced to dream almost similar dreams) to the havoc caused by taking dreams literally as if they can be used as evidence against criminals or unfaithful partners we find such a wealth of interesting information besides a very scholarly analysis from a religious perspective of common notions about dreams and special dreams. The book illustrates how dreams have guided major decisions in history and key turns in science. Dreams, the book shows, can be powerful media for influencing people, for healing, for torture, for solving certain problems, for creative work. Most of us see nightmares as we are caught in the misty world of desires that can never be fulfilled and have yet to recognize darker forces within. Jung once said that he need not believe in God as he had seen Him – in dreams. In fact God is a structure of consciousness, a mandala for him though he stops short of the genuine spiritual realm and confuses psychic with the spiritual. We have here dream sellers and hardly any qualified interpreters. Dr Lone has solved our problem to a great deal. He shows how to be critical towards claims of dreams that pseudo-sufis and other traders of dreams bombard us with. The book in focus today is a book that everyone can relish. It deserves to be in every good library in Urdu speaking world. It is written for all kinds of readers and quite lucidly. The great virtue of objectivity that a genuine scholar must have is evident from almost every page. He has not let his personal views colour his descriptions. The book is a small encyclopedic work that addresses almost every aspect of dream world. It approaches the issue from historical, theological, scientific, socio-cultural perspectives. It is a goldmine of information collected from diverse sources showing how great a reader our author has been to be able to access them. Man is a dreaming animal. He spends six hours daily in day dreaming – what a colossal loss of resources and disrespect for the present moment in which we are commanded to live by religions and mystics. Sufis, many creative people get most of their special messages in the dreams, a fact Dr Lone notes but downplays in his other works on Sufism. The book is not another book on dubious clues to interpretation we find abundantly in market but a well researched, well documented scholarly work written for popular consumption in a lucid style. On many accounts it is a valuable addition to scholarly academic works in Urdu and should prove a success. The author has given his best to this absorbing work and sums up much of the best that is available in contemporary literature on dreams that average educated person can easily understand. The book illustrates richness of our traditional scholarship on dreams and brilliant insights developed by our forefathers. Taking cues from the book may help all of us who are worried or puzzled about correct interpretation of their dreams. The Prophet (S.A.W) helped companions to interpret their dreams. We have hardly anyone to bank upon. The book promises to help. Now something about the author of the book. Iqbal left professorship for a more independent private job of a lawyer. Dr Lone is amongst the very few scholars in Kashmir who has not chosen to be a professor despite a high quality research work for his PhD that has become a permanent contribution to studies on Sufism. Perhaps he may have personal reasons for this choice but for me this is an enviable choice. The freedom of spirit and leisure one enjoys may get translated into good scholarly works. And that has been the great fortune and treasure of Dr Lone. From the land of Geelani Sahib and Ahad Bab we have another personality – a scholar and critic of mysticism this time – to reckon with. Dr Lone is by all appearances a Sufi munsh otherworldly oriented person (in ethics if not in doctrinal terms) who has written books that will survive, a distinction that only a small percentage of writers can claim. He may not be very profound or philosophically disposed but he is very meticulous researcher from whom we can learn a lot. He commands respect. I am sure his magnum opus Mutalayi Tasawwuf : Quran-o-Sunnat ki Roshni me will continue to be quoted and useful for generations despite some key methodological problems that any legalistically-theologically oriented work on essentially metaphysical subject that Sufi doctrine attempts to give expression. Though his other works like Qurooni Wusta kay muslmanu kae saiynisi Karnamae, Iqbal Ka Jahani Adam-o-Iblees etc. have been well received in certain academic circles, in my view the hard labour of great researcher that Dr Lone could be put to better use if he chooses to focus on more demanding and timely themes. Dr Lone has many distinctions as a scholar. He is amongst the very few distinguished scholars of Sufism who has been recognized by major Muslim scholars like Javid Ghamdhi (the famous scholar who has written very insightfully on a number of issues like zakat and whose lectures on purdah and music and beard have been very popular for many modern educated Muslims and whose critical view of Islamic State poses a significant challenge to Moududian paradigm). He has written on universally important and relevant topics like dreaming. He is not a philosopher or a trained theologian or mystic but has deftly used tools of traditional scholarship to argue some important theses. I wish the author gifts us with another major book, the like of Mutaliai Tasawuf. I hope Idara Fallahi Darein workers continues to patronize book length projects of serious scholars in our Valley, an endeavour that other NGOs or charity based institutions need to emulate. The publisher deserves special thanks from readers as it has been their effort to bring the valuable book that can be enjoyed by all and sundry back from dusty corridors in which the manuscript had been long back almost abandoned by the carefree author.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 03:28:51 +0000