The individual's experience as it applies to the community: An examination of six dream narrations dealing with the Islamic understanding of Death

Abstract

The present article treats the Islamic understanding of death through the examination of six dream narrations. Classical Islam gave special emphasis to dreams, a fact that may explain the central role dreams played in the deciphering of the enigma of death and dying: Through narrations of dreams that deal with day to day events, related in a most unsophisticated way, major questions concerning the process of dying and the nature of the afterworld are examined. Although each dream refers to an individual case and the answers supplied by the deceased are presented as drawn from private experiences, the message is directed to the whole community. While focusing on the edifying nature of the messages delivered, this article shows how the private anecdotes turned into a means of conveying the spirit of the community and, at the same time, establishing the communal spirit.