To proceed

During the early stages of my life, I was not doing anything useful and I experienced ongoing pain and distress. Then I travelled to Egypt to seek knowledge and was very enthusiastic about doing so. There I met a number of senior scholars and virtuous and noble people. I studied with them Sharee'ah and other branches of knowledge, and I learned a great deal from them. One branch of knowledge that I was interested in was dream interpretation, because it is part of the knowledge of the Prophets, and the true dream is based on what one is going through and describes man's present and foretells what he is going to face in the future. How can it be otherwise when dreams are one of the forty-six parts of Prophethood? Abu Hurayrah (May Allah be please with him) narrated that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: "Towards the end of time, hardly any dream of a Muslim will be false. The ones who have the truest dreams will be those who are truest in speech. The dream of a Muslim is one of the forty-six parts of Prophethood." 'Aa'ishah (May Allah be please with her) narrated that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: "After I am gone, nothing will be left (that could tell what will happen in the future) except news which gladdens the heart." They said: O Messenger of Allah, what is news that gladdens the heart? He said: "A good dream that a man sees or that someone else sees for him." In Cairo I met Shaykh Al-Saalih Shihaab-ud-Deen ibn Ni'mah Al-Maqdisi Al-Hanbali, who was a leader to be followed in this branch of knowledge and a man whose opinion was to be sought concerning its subtleties. I studied with him the book Al-Badr Al-Muneer fi 'Ilm At-Ta'beer, and he granted me Jaazah to teach it. Then I stayed close to him for some time and made my heart like a vessel for everything I heard from him (i.e., tried to memorize everything I heard from him). I memorized a great deal from him and drank many times from the fount of his knowledge. I hope that Allah will enable me to follow his example, even though I cannot attain his level of knowledge. When Allah blessed me with the ability to write books about the knowledge I had acquired - nearly sixty small volumes - I wanted to write about this branch of knowledge, in the hope of acquiring a drop of the knowledge of the prophets and following in the footsteps of those who follow the path of the Awliya' [close friends of Allah]. So I wrote this summary and included in it all that has reached me from my Shaykh, Shihaab-ud-Deen, and what was included in his book Al-Badr Al-Muneer , and the notes that he wrote in the margins. I have also included issues discussed in Al-Ishaarah fi 'Ilm Al-'Ibaarah by Al-Neesaboori (2 vols.), as well as what I have learned from prominent scholars in this field. I have also tried to include dreams that were interpreted and which materialised as interpreted, or dreams which appear to mean something but have other subtle meanings that I have pointed out, and I have added my views on the subtle matters. I have called this book Al-Martabah Al-'Ulya fi Ta'beer Al-Ru'ya (The Ultimate in Dream Interpretation) so that the title would suit the nature of the book and reflect its content. Whoever has similar knowledge and experience to mine will see the amazing things that I have come up with and will realise the depth of my knowledge in this field. I pray to Allah to protect us from deviation, error and shortcomings, and to make this work sincerely for His sake and seeking His pleasure. Aameen. I have organized the material into an introduction and several chapters, as follows.