Dream and Knowledge

Knowledge of dreams has different aspects such as ontological, ethical, psychological and epistemological and etc. Only one epistemological question is answered in this writing: can dreams be considered as a source of knowledge for some events which are beyond human's body and psyche? The answer to this question is positive according to Quran's verses and tradition and reason. The conduct of religious scholars and followers has always been to trust some dreams. Its Quranic reasons are the eight dreams mentioned and affirmed by the Holy Quran and its traditional reasons are plenty of narrations which prove the validity of dreams on the one hand, and stress on the necessity of paying attention to the dreams we may trust on the other hand. Its rational reason is human's experience in the occurrence of such dreams which has been argued by Ibn-Sina. This claim can also be proved using modern epistemological terms and expressions. This article will try to prove the possibility of cognitivity of some dreams based on Quranic, traditional and rational reasons; but a couple of discussions are not meant in this article including the domain of useful teachings obtained in dreams and the relation between the knowledge which are based on dreams and the ones which are based on other sources of knowledge