The Culture of Dream and Charisma of Hadith Scholar (Muhaddith)

Abstract

Books of Rigal/Biography contain some stories of dreams about Hadith Scholars (al-muhaddiths) in addition to the information directly pertained to the Science of Hadith. These dreams have a typical form where a determined structure and style of expression appear and recur. The same dream, sometimes, is told as if it was dreamed by many people or as if it were dreamed about various Hadith Scholars. The dreams are generally ascribed to some unknown men. In spite of such kind of matters, the biography authors believe the authenticity of what are told and present it as a true knowledge for their readers. The dream has a cultural and symbolic meaning in Muslim nation as in the other communities. So, dreams about Hadith Scholars were accepted as a message from God and even from the dead. The dreams, having become more intense in the second and third Islamic centuries, state the competition between Hadith Scholars and the other groups of the ulama. In the dreams, it is stressed that Hadith Scholars are those who were forgiven by god, and who were awarded to heaven and the providence granted through it and who are regarded more superior then innovators. Besides, dreams were written down in the books of biography in a way which affect the trustworthiness or non-trustwothiness of Hadith Scholars. The purpose of such stories was probably to encourage living Hadith Scholars and to threaten those who were not interested in hadith.