Dreams of Insight from Futuh al-Ghaib

In his famous sufi manuscript, Futuh al-Ghaib (Revelation of the Unseen) Saint of saints Shaikh Muhiuddin Abdul Qadir Gilani, may God sanctify his station and benefit us from his perfumed soul, the great saint used few of his visions / dreams of his own, as well as that of other saints in a number of discourses.

1.

I saw in a dream as if I were in a place like a mosque in which there were some people who kept aloof from the rest of humanity. I said to myself, "If so and so were present here he could have disciplined these people and given them proper guidance, etc.," and I thought of a certain man of virtue.

These people gathered round me and one of them said to me, "What is the matter with you? Why do you not speak?" I said, "If you are pleased with me, I will." 

Then I said: "When you have stood aloof from the people for the sake of truth, do not ask people for anything with your tongue. And when you have stopped asking so, do not ask from them anything in your minds either, because asking in the mind is as good as asking with the tongue. Then know that God is every day in a new state of glory, in changing and altering and raising and lowering (people). Thus He raises some people to the highest of heaven and He lowers others to the lowest depth of degradation. Then He threatens those He has raised to the highest of Heavens that He may lower them down to the lowest depth of degradation and gives them the hope that He will keep them and preserve them in the same state of exaltation, whereas He threatens those whom He has thrown to the lowest depth of degradation that He may leave them to abide in their abasement and holds out the hope to them that He may raise them to the highest of heavens." 

Then I woke up.

2.

I saw Satan, the accursed, in a dream as if I were in a big crowd and I intended to kill him. 

He said to me, "Why are you going to kill me and what is my sin? If Providence sets the evil in motion I have no power to change it and transform it into good. And if Providence sets the good in motion I have no power to change and transform it into evil. And what is there in my hand? 

And I found his appearance resembling that of a eunuch, soft in speech, a line of hairs fringing his chin, miserable looking and ugly-faced, as if he was smiling before me, full of shame and fear.  

And this was on the night of Sunday twelfth Dhul Hijjah in the year 401 of Hijrah.

3.

I had a dream in which an old man asked me: "What makes a servant of God near to God"?

I said: "This process has a beginning and an end; so the beginning of it is piety and Godliness and its end is to be pleased with God and to surrender oneself to His way and to rely on Him entirely."

4.

I saw in a dream as if I was saying: "O you (self)! (you are) ascribing partnership to your Lord in your mind by your own self, and in your outward conduct by His creation, and in your actions by your desires!"

At this a man who was by my side, said: "What is this statement?"

So I said: "It is a kind of spiritual knowledge.."

5.

And there is a famous incident related of Abu Yazid Bustami that when he saw God the Almighty in his dream, he asked Him, "How is one to get to You?"

God said, "Discard yourself and come to Me."

"Then," continues the Saint, "I got out of my self as a snake gets out of its slough."

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