Fusus al-Hikam The Seals of Wisdom by Shaykh al ... - ImagoMundi

Everything reported of this nature is called the world of the imagination (khayal), and
for this reason, there must be interpretation: the matter which has a form in itself
appears in a form other than it. The interpreter passes from these forms which the
sleeper sees to the form upon which the matter is based. If he is correct, as in knowledge
appearing in the form of milk, then he interprets the source of the form of knowledge
from the form of milk, He discovers the source and says, "This form of milk refers to
the form of knowledge."
When the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, received revelation, he
was taken from the ordinary sensory world. He was covered and withdrew from those
who were present with him. When that left him, he returned, and he only received
revelation in the "presence of the imagination", although it could not be said of him that
he had been asleep.
It was the same when the angel appeared to him as a man. That was also from the
presence of the imagination, for it was not a man, but rather an angel who had entered
into the form of a man. The gnostic onlooker interpreted it until he reached its form in
reality. Then he said, "This is Jibril who came to teach you your deen." (2) He told
them, "Answer the greeting of the man," so he called him a man in respect to the form
in which he appeared to them. Then he said, "This is Jibril," and he looked at the form
to which this imaginary man would return. He spoke the truth both times, with the truth
of the vision of the physical eye, and the truth in that this was Jibril without a doubt.
Yusuf, peace be upon him, said, "I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon prostrate
themselves in front of me." (12:4) He saw his brothers in the form of the stars and his
father and mother in the form of the sun and moon. This is from the point of view of
Yusuf. Had it been from the point of view of what was seen, the appearance of his
brothers in the form of stars and the appearance of his father and mother in the form of
the sun and moon would have been from their volition. Since they had no knowledge of
what he saw, that which Yusuf perceived was in the repository of his imagination.
Ya'qub knew that when he related it to him, so he said, "O my son, do not tell your
vision to your brothers in case they should devisse some scheme to injure you." (12:5)
Then he absolved his sons of deceit and ascribed it to Shaytan, who is the source of
deceit. He said, "In truth, Shaytan is a clear-cut enemy to man," i.e. he manifests
enmity. Then Yusuf said at the end of the affair, "This is now the interpretation of the
dream that I had. My Lord has made it all come true," (12:100) that is, that He
manifested it in the world of senses after it was in the form of the imagination.
The Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said about it,
"People are asleep". Yusuf spoke of what his Lord had rendered true in the status of one
who dreams that he has awakened from his dream and interprets it, and does not know
that he is still asleep. Then later when he wakes up, he says, "I dreamt such-and-such a
thing, and then I dreamt that I woke up and interpreted in such-and-such a way." This is
similar to that. Look at how great the difference of perception is between Muhammad,
peace be upon him, and Yusuf, peace be upon him, at the end of the affair when Yusuf
said, "This is the interpretation of my dream of long ago which my Lord has rendered
true," that is, made sensory or sensed. It was aways sensed, since the imagination only
gives out sensed things, and it has nothing other than that. See how noble is the