Intellectual inertia within the Islamic world hindered the advancement of dream interpretation, despite Ibn Sireen’s contributions.
In my dream came Ibn Sireen:
The sun shone on the terrene.
The physician, with the remedy;
The merchant, with his goods.
How could I miss
A chance such:
Gold so near,
How to refrain touch?
I put forward
My honest ignorance.
For a moment,
I put aside my arrogance.
My cup was empty;
I was full of noise.
My veins charged
With curiosity.
For old questions,
I sought new answers.
“Why Time gave us not
Like you any?
No child like you born
To mother any?
Interpret
My question.
Take pity
On my condition.”
Ibn Sireen replied so
For the dream I saw:
“Your world is lost
In imitation.
Brains wasted
In replication.
With no fresh efforts put,
Who will crack the hard nut?
All want
The easy way out.
Not a drop of sweat
To solve their doubt.
They carry a book
Called Quran,
Yet their eyes
Never made a turn.
This is the reason why
From my path, they shy.
Therefore go back
To sleep, Jaihoon.
Your day and night
Are equally steep.
The old among you
Are in their youth.
They have no time
To think of the truth.
Men of wisdom,
Aged and hair gray,
Yet from fresh thought
They are stray.”
July 10 2010
The Islamic world has hardly seen a true dream interpreter as original and popular as Ibn Sireen (Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Sirin Al-Ansari (33-110H; a.d. 653–728). In this poem, the poet is told that it was the intellectual lethargy which arrested the growth of the domain of dream interpretation.
