In a dream we see without eyes and travel without moving our feet. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá takes that ordinary strangeness seriously, distinguishing the visions of the Prophets from confused dreaming and describing a spirit that operates with or without bodily instruments. Bahá’u’lláh calls sleep a world among the divine worlds, evidence of a realm without beginning or end, and allows that it may be named the world of similitudes between spirit and matter, where whatever exists in heaven or on earth has its counterpart. Later Sufi philosophers mapped that intermediate region as a barzakh of luminous substance, neither body nor pure intellect, with cities of its own; modern scholars read their accounts with care, and these voices should be kept distinct from the Bahá’í texts. Plato’s divided line, with its visible figures that help the mind think beyond them, offers a different way of asking what an image can do [1]. The path continues into the importance of dreams and visions, the power of imagination, and the isthmus that joins and separates the worlds.
In like manner, spiritual disclosures are of two kinds. One is the visions of the Prophets and the spiritual disclosures of the chosen ones of God. The visions of the Prophets are not dreams but true spiritual disclosures. Thus when they say, "I saw someone in such a form, and I spoke such words, and he gave such a reply", this vision takes place in a state of wakefulness and not in the realm of sleep. It is a spiritual discovery that is expressed in the form of a vision.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 71, Spiritual Discoveries, 1904-Oct ca. -- AB00482)
02
The other operation is without instruments, as in the world of dreams where one sees without eyes, hears without ears, speaks without tongue, and travels without moving the feet. All spiritual powers manifest without bodily means in the world of dreams. Thus it becomes evident that the spirit has two modes of operation: one through bodily instruments like eyes and ears and such, and one without instruments.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken in Paris, 1911-Nov-09 -- ABU0114)
03
Likewise, a question was asked concerning sleep. It is a special world among the divine worlds and is indicative of infinite matters. Among other things, it is evidence of a realm wherein no beginning or end, no first or last, can be witnessed. Thus, something is observed in sleep, and after a number of years that very same thing is witnessed. If it be said that this is the world of similitudes between the two worlds - which some consider to be a semi-spiritual realm between the worlds of spirit and matter - this would be correct. … Sleep sometimes varies according to the differences in souls, thoughts, food and drink. In the dreams of holy souls there hath been and is no variation, for they are pure wakefulness.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Commentary on a verse from the Qayyumu'l-Asma, ca. 1289-1290?, to Asad -- BH00135)
04
An observant traveller passing along a way will certainly recall his discoveries to mind, unless some accident befall him and efface the memory.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1904-Feb-08, to Edwin C Anderson -- AB02947)
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05
When man desires help and communication from holy souls, he puts himself in a condition of self-unconsciousness and becomes submerged in the sea of meditation, then a spiritual state, which is sanctified from matter and all material things, becomes visible and apparent to him.... Man beholds in the world of vision various images, communicates with them, and receives benefits, and in that world of vision he thinks they are physical temples and material bodies, while they are purely immaterial.
(Daily Lessons Received at Akka, p. 87, from a Tablet to Ella Cooper)
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06
The meaning of the Kingdom (malakut) in its primary sense and degree is the scene of His transcendent glory. In another sense it is the world of similitudes ('alam-i-mithal) which existeth between the Dominion on high (jabarut) and this mortal realm (nasut); whatever is in the heavens or on the earth hath its counterpart in that world. Whilst a thing remaineth hidden and concealed within the power of utterance it is said to be of the Dominion (jabarut), and this is the first stage of its substantiation (taqyid). Whenever it becometh manifest it is said to be of the Kingdom (malakut).
(Baha'u'llah, provisional translation, Tablet to Varqa, in "Relativism: A Basis for Baha'i Metaphysics", MA1.018)
The 'world of Images' ('alam al-mithal) is ontologically an intermediate domain of contact between the purely sensible world and the purely spiritual, i.e. non-material world. It is, as Affifi defines it, 'a really existent world in which are found the forms of the things in a manner that stands between fineness and coarseness, that is, between pure spirituality and pure materiality'.
(Izutzu, in Sufism and Taoism, p. 13)
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08
Know that the 'alam-i-mithal is a spiritual universe of luminous substance; on the one hand it has an affinity with material substance, in that it is the object of perception and possesses extent; on the other hand, it has an affinity with separate intelligible substance, in that its nature is that of pure light. It is neither a compound material body, nor a separate intelligible substance, because it is a barzakh, that is, an interworld, a limit, which separates the one from the other.
(Da'ud Qaysari [d. 1350], in Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, p. 144)
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09
So here we have a threefold universe: an intelligible universe, a sensory universe, and between the two a universe for which it is difficult in our language to find a satisfactory term.... So this is a universe which symbolizes both with corporeal substance, because it possesses shape, dimensions, and extent - and with separated or intelligible substance, because it is essentially made of light (nurani). It is both immaterial matter and the incorporeal corporealized. It is the limit which separates and at the same time unites them.
(Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, pp. 78-79. See also A. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, pp. 50-54, for analysis of the views of Shaykh Ahmad on this subject)
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10
Sometimes, however, the 'world of Images' ['alam-i-mithal] appears as it really is, without deformation, in the consciousness even of an ordinary man. The most conspicuous case of this is seen in the veridical dream. The 'world of Images' is eternally existent and it is at every moment acting upon human consciousness. But man, on his part, is not usually aware of it while he is awake, because his mind in that state is impeded and distracted by the material forces of the external world. Only when he is asleep, the physical faculties of his mind being in abeyance, can the faculty of imagination operate in the proper way. And veridical dreams are produced.
(Izutzu on Ibn 'Arabi, in Sufism and Taoism, p. 13)
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