Dreams & Divine Revelation
The night vision and dream as channels for divine communication and prophetic insight.
Genesis 28:12-15
“He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: 'I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.'”
Jacob's ladder as cosmological vision
Genesis 37:5-7
“Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, 'Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.'”
Joseph's prophetic dreams
Quran 17:1
“Exalted is the one who took his servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings we have blessed, to show him of our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing.”
Isra wal-Miraj (Night Journey) of Prophet Muhammad
Anguttara Nikaya 5:196
“Before his enlightenment, the Buddha had a series of auspicious dreams. In one dream, the great earth became level, and a tremendous light appeared throughout the world. These visions prepared him for the ultimate awakening.”
Buddha's pre-enlightenment dreams
Daniel 7:1-3
“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. Daniel said: 'In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.'”
Daniel's apocalyptic visions
Bhagavad Gita 11:5-8
“Arjuna saw the Universal Form of the Lord, infinite in all directions, with countless faces, eyes, mouths, and arms. The entire cosmos was contained within his body. It was so brilliant and magnificent that Arjuna trembled with awe and fell at Krishna's feet.”
Arjuna's vision of Krishna's divine form