doing good work (104).” [al-Kahf: 104]

Rather, even the term “seeing,” though it ordinarily denotes a perception corresponding to reality, may denote one that does not, as in His saying:

“Is one whose evil deeds have been made appealing to him, so that he sees them as good?” [Fātir: 8]

And He says:

“They saw them as twice their number with their own eyes.” [Āl ʿImrān: 13]

Conception and imagination may correspond to reality in one respect but not another. They are therefore true at their own level, even if they are not an exact likeness of the external reality. An example is what people see in their dreams. A person may also see while awake things of the same kind as those he sees in his dreams: he sees forms and actions and hears words. These are likenesses representing external realities. Thus Joseph saw the stars, the sun, and the moon prostrating before him. Undoubtedly, this was represented and pictured within his own mind, while its actual realization was the prostration of his parents and brothers, as he said:

“My father, this is the fulfilment of my earlier dream. My Lord has made it come true.” [Yūsuf: 100]

Likewise, in the king’s dream, which Joseph interpreted, he saw ears of grain—and even cows. He saw these as images imagined and represented within his own mind, while their reality and fulfilment concerned plenty and famine. Such representation and imagination are valid and true at their own level, meaning that they have a sound interpretation that corresponds to them and resembles them in certain respects. For the interpretation of dreams rests on analogy, comparison, resemblance, and correspondence. But whoever believes that what is represented within his mind and imagined in a dream is an exact likeness of what actually exists outside the mind,