'Dreams in Islam' is a subject which is located in knowledge internally received, and its supreme importance for the believer continually increases as the world grows in godlessness and as the historical process draws to a close. The Prophet (sallalahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said: "When the time (of the end of the world) draws close, the dreams of a believer will hardly fail to come true, and a dream of a believer is one of the forty-six parts of prophethood." One of the signs of the last age, i.e., before the end of the world, is the absence of knowledge (of Truth and, therefore of Islam). Our widespread ignorance of the subject of 'Dreams' and the important place which 'Dreams' occupy in Islam, as well as the widespread ignorance of the subject of the Prohibition of Riba in Islam, is yet another indication that the last age has-arrived! The Sufi epistemology recognizes that knowledge comes from two sources- the first is knowledge that is externally acquired, and the other is knowledge that is internally received. The Sufi epistemology, which was taught by our great teacher, Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari (rahimahullah), at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Karachi, Pakistan, is the epistemology of knowledge internally received, and we hasten to inform the gentle reader that this book is based on that epistemology.
