Dreams in Islamic Perspective

stp7stp : dalam Islam mimpi itu gimana, Bung?

bung2kong : mimpi = bunga tidur

mimpi merupakan "pengejawantahan" dr keinginan alam bawah sadar kita, Nyu.

stp7stp : ho'oh, kan ada do'anya tuh kalo dpt mimpi baik & mimpi buruk

bung2kong : klo deep down inside kita pengen sesuatu (*terutama strong desires), bisa jadi nantinya masuk ke mimpi kita

stp7stp : tp kan katanya itu jg bisa sbg pesan......

________________________________________________________

Let's roll, Nyu^^.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Dreams are of three types: a dream from Allah, a dream which causes distress and which comes from the Shaytaan, and a dream which comes from what a person thinks about when he is awake, and he sees it when he is asleep.” (al-Bukhaari, 6499; Muslim, 4200)

Dreams can be classified into two, which are the true and the false.

The true dreams are the one that happens when someone is on a stable physicological conditions. They never initiated with the thoughts and desires in something that later on hoped can be seen in the dreams. While the false dreams are occur by the desires, passions and strong hopes. That kinda dreams cannot be interpreted.

According to Al-Haafiz ibn Hajar, dreams are either of two types :

1. True dreams. These are the dreams of the Prophets and of the righteous people who follow them. They may also happen to other people, but this is very rare, such as the dream of the kaafir king which was interpreted for him by Yusuf (peace be upon him). True dreams are those which come true in real life as they were seen in the dream.

2. Mixed up false dreams, which warn of something. These are of different types:

• Games of the Shaytaan to make a person distressed, such as when he sees his head cut off and he is following it, or he sees himself falling into a crisis and cannot find anyone to save him from it, and so on.
• When he sees some of the angels telling him to do something forbidden, or other things that cannot possibly make sense.
• When he sees something that happens to him in real life, or he wishes it would happen, and he sees it very realistically in his dream; or he see what usually happens to him when he is awake or what reflects his mood. These dreams usually speak of the future or the present, rarely of the past. See: Fath al-Baari , 12/352-354
  
  

So, what are the signs of a "good"/"real" dream?

1. it has to be freed from the empty-meaningless dreams, and the scary-anxious hazy things.
2. it can be understood once we wake up.
3. we have a "high-quality" sleep. Clear minds, not burdened by any problems.
4. it can be interpreted as in Lauh Mahfuz.
   
   

(Khalid al-Anbari)

How far we can believe our dreams?

Hmmm...some dreams really have meanings and contain some information. But some merely our mixed thoughts or strong desires that end up as a dream. The true dreams can only be read and understood by the "dreams interpreter".

What can we do to avoid ourselves from having the false dreams?

Remember that in order to get ourselves dreaming, we have to sleep first. Hehehe (*of course^^). And in Islam, there's sleeping etiquette. Well, as long as we keep that etiquette, Insya Alloh we will not gonna encountering false dreams.

Here some explanations about sleeping etiquette by dunno who^^.

The state of the mind before going to bed and the cleanness of the sleeping surroundings may have effect on the kind of the dream one will have. Our beloved prophet Muhammad (PBUH) taught Muslims sleeping etiquette, which include lying down on the right side and praying while on bed before sleeping. It is a medical fact that the heart is closer to the left hand side of the body. So, lying on the left side may obstruct breathing. In Islam, sleep is considered as a temporary death.

For the complete etiquette, check out here.

All in all, dreams can be the "signs" from Alloh to us, as a matter of good news or bad news. But dreams also can come from shaytaan. So, be careful in "understanding" it.

NOTE : read here, here and here also for the details.

Ames Test

Ames test is a widely used test for determining if a chemical is a mutagen. In other words, it is a test used to see whether certain thing caused mutations. The test was developed in 1975 by Bruce Ames and his colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley. The Ames test is based on the assumption that substances that are mutagenic for a strain of bacterium (Salmonella typhimurium) might also be carcinogenic in man. Some substances that cause cancer in laboratory a animals (e.g. dioxin) do not give a positive Ames test (and vice versa). But However, the test is rather cheap and easily performed, and has proved extremely useful in rapidly screening substances in our environment for possible carcinogenicity.

The bacterium used in Ames test carries a gene mutation making it unable to synthesize the essential acid histidine from the culture medium. However, this mutation can be reversed, a back mutation, with the gene regaining its function. These revertants are able to grow on a medium lacking histidine. If cultures of these bacteria are exposed to mutagenic chemicals then increased numbers of bacteria might regain the ability to grow without histidine, forming visible colonies (above those spontaneously reverting in control dishes). Many chemicals are not mutagenic (or carcinogenic) by themselves, but become converted into mutagens (and carcinogens) as they are metabolized by the body. In this reason the Ames test includes a mixture of liver enzymes. The Ames test yield a number, specifically the number of growing bacterial colonies, which is a measure of the mutagenic activity (potency) of a treatment chemical. This value is often expressed as the number of revertants per microgram of a pure chemical (mutagen) or per gram of food containing that mutagen.

Btw, in some Ames assays an S-9 mix is added. The S-9 mix contains liver enzymes, generally from a rat. These enzymes can metabolize the agent being tested in order to predict the mutagenic properties within a living system, specifically the source of the S-9 enzymes.

Here's the standard procedures of Ames Test :

Read this journal for the details of Ames test.

Read here also for some additional infos/procedures about Ames test : 1, 2, 3.

An application for the usage of Ames test can be seen (read : explained) in this video.

"Unless they're mutated, they wouldn't survive". (they refers to: bacteria grown on petridishes)

"If you eat natural foods do it because you like the flavor, don't do it because you think you're avoiding carcinogens, if anything it's just the opposite."

Anyhow, there's also some cons regarding to the application of Ames test, especially in the usage of Salmonella. Some people think that Salmonella is not a perfect model for human body. So, some also developed another test using animals as their object. Read here for details.

Whew! DJing…..

Yesterday, I was vaguely asking my father whether today he can spare me some time on our regular-private online class or not (*read : “todong”-style^^). Then, he said that would be great doing it by the morning. But all of the sudden, i have an idea to “broaden" our private online class. Hmmm…why don’t try to make it as Radio FORMMIT Selatan PaSerSan (Pagi Serius Santai) ^^?! Well, it ended up like that….

Today is my first time being a DJ. Well, this is not my first attempt actually. Before, I have tried a few times to run a radio. But still....hehehe. Having my father as a narasumber, made my job easier. Yet, because this is my first broadcasting on FORMMIT Radio, nervous is all I have.

The hardest part of being a moderator on your father's lecture is to keep your mouth so you wouldn’t call him “Dad…”. Hehehe. Well, for me, it sounds awkward to call my father by his name. “Ya, Pak Rizal…terima kasih…”. Hahaha, even just think about it makes me giggling.

All in all, i have to learn even harder to be a good DJ and moderator. I'm sure some other time, i'll end up doing this thingy again. So...better be prepared :).