The second is seeing an image, as when looking into water, a mirror, or the like. This is a qualified form of seeing. Thus, the jurists have said that if someone swears, “I shall not see Zayd,” then sees his image in water or a mirror, he has not broken his oath, because this is not what is understood by seeing without qualification. This is to sight what hearing an echo is to hearing.

When someone wishes to see the people and animals passing behind him, he looks into a mirror facing him, and it reveals to him what is actually behind him. In this kind of vision, he may see reality clearly, or reality may appear to him in a representation that requires verification, just as Gabriel appeared in human form. Likewise, the heart has the capacity to see, for its sight is true sight, and its blindness is true blindness. As Allah Most High says:

“For it is not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts within the breasts.”

At times, the heart sees the thing itself when it is unveiled to it; at other times, it sees the thing represented within itself, serving as its mirror, while also being that which sees. This may occur either in wakefulness or in sleep, as when a man sees something in a dream and then encounters that very thing while awake, without any change.

The heart also has a “third state,” just as the eye has a way of seeing in sleep. This is what most people experience: seeing a dream that presents an illustrative likeness of reality. A person cannot fully grasp the vision of reality itself, either directly or through the mirror of his heart. Rather, he sees something that admits of interpretation and uses it to infer what it signifies. “Dream interpretation” is the passage from a thing to its likeness and counterpart, and this is