MEDIA ARTICLES
[1] See:
http://www.fountainmagazine.com/articles.php?SIN=62ba2d7a36&k=526&1047772365&show=part1
[2] See:
http://www.theasiannews.co.uk/community/heritage/s/491/491169_in_my_dreams_i_find_allah.html
[3]
THE DREAM DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW
RAEES KHAN speaks candidly with Islamic dream expert Dr Umar Azam about his Website, latest projects and messages from an unseen force.
From: Asian Leader, Rochdale, Lancs, UK:
Edition: 1st May – 14 May 2004 p. 9 [Edited by Dr Umar Azam]
Lying in your bed when all around you is still can be a moving experience. As your eyelids slowly close, your unconscious mind starts to wander. It escapes to faraway worlds, conjuring images of wonderment and disbelief. Often you’re shaken to your core and, as you wake, breathing uncontrollably and coated in a cold sweat, you wander what had set your flamboyant mind’s eye into such irrepressible overdrive.
Dr Umar Azam has been wondering the very same thing for many years. Ever since he dreamt of receiving a medal on which the image of Jimmy Connors (the famous US tennis champion of the 1970s), as a child of about nine, he has been fascinated by the world of dreams and their true, yet unexplained, role in the life of today's Islamic community.
Dr Azam said: "As a child, I dream of a medal with tennis player Jimmy Connors on it. When I looked closer at it, it was inscibed with the word 'Scholar'. By the grace of Allah, it has turned out to be true.' (Now Dr Azam has scholarly, Islamic articles on his Websites as well as numerous website awards from various countries.)
The doctor received a Ph.D degree from an institution in California, USA in 1991. He went on to say: You see there's a higher power involved, a being who has more knowledge and that being is Allah.'
Dr Azam's book Dreams in Islam was published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA in November 1992 (see Amazon.com). However, he has now come to the conclusion that he needs to reach more people. Utilising the extreme power of internet technology, Dr Azam has set up his own award-winning Islamic website incorporating not only his textual work, but also a gallery of Islamic miraculous images, a guest book, poetry and pieces on the Islamic interpretation of dreams.
The doctor went on to explain,: "I have had dreams and messages from Allah about Jannat (Paradise). There is a prayer which, when read, the Prophet [Pbuh] said that you can have a dream of your house in Jannat. I read it and I did receive such dreams [see Practical Islamic Advice on www.dr-umar-azam.com to read these dreams]. That's when I thought, 'Why not put this in a book?' "
Dr Azam's Website is not necessarily a new innovation; in fact, the Site was created in the summer of 2001. However, the Site itself has been slowly developing for the past few years to its current state of outstanding achievement in regards to content.
Dr Azam was born in Pakistan in 1961; in 1966, at the age of just five, he moved his life and his dreams to England. Here he had his education and here he was shaped into what he is today.
He told the Asian Leader: "My parents were not overwhelmingly strict about Islam, but what really got me to reaffirm my faith in Islam was the lovely dreams I began to witness. I thought these must mean something - they were like messages."
The doctor's thesis, Dreams in Islam, for which he received his Ph.D, and other works are available online at his web page.
The Internet has helped Dr Azam to, in his own words, "defeat the publishers." He explained his constant struggle to gain a publishing contract for his work [publishers acknowledged the high quality of his work but regretted that there would not be a sustainable market to justify publication].
Many common beliefs are that the concepts of science and religion run in complete opposing directions to each other; however, Dr Azam claims the two are in complete parallel: "We've seen the pictures of scientific phenomena, as if by miracle forming Allah's Name - see Aspects of Islam 2 on www.dr-umar-azam.co.uk , for example.
He says, "Freud said that, if you've been painting a room, you might have a dream that you're painting your room - that it's just a suggestion of your mind.
"Now Islam doesn't go against that. Islam says there are three types of dream: evil dreams, the suggestion of your own mind, and good dreams."
He goes on to explain: "When one dies, that is their main death, so to speak: the Ruh Al-Hayyah [the Soul of Life] exits the body. However, there is also the Ruh Al-Yakzah [the Soul of Consciousness], in the brain and, when you sleep, it is this 'experiencing soul'which floats around.
"So sleep is the brother of death; sleep is a form of death. When you die, your Ruh goes to Allah and, similarly, when you sleep, your Ruh also goes to Allah. So you can't say dreams are nonsense; they do mean something.
Dr Azam's www.dr-umar-azam.com Site has won a number of esteemed awards from the web community, such as the 4Arabs Award from Jordan. He has also received accolades from Pakistan, Britain, Canada, America and elswhere.
He says: " When you're at school, college or University, you have a teacher or mentor to inspire you. I have no supervisor because, after gaining my B.A. [Hons.] degree from the University of Manchester, I have been fully independent. So Allah is my teacher. Allah is my supervisor."