What is the difference in awareness between sleeping and waking?

I said before that dreaming is a special type of awareness experienced during sleeping hours, which is the opposite to the normal awareness experienced during waking hours through the five senses.

So, what could be the main points of difference between these types of awareness; sleeping and waking?

1. Awareness in sleeping is out of the dreamer’s control. One have no choice of what they might experience in a dream, while awareness in waking could be controlled or chosen by doing or not doing.
2. Awareness in sleeping has a wider range and ability than awareness in waking. During a dream, one can experience everything that could happen during waking in addition to other unusual and unachievable things too such as talking to people who died long time ago or flying with own body very high in the sky.

3. Awareness in waking has no interpretation except itself. For example, in one’s waking hours, a car in the street does not mean anything beyond being a car in the street. On the contrary, in a true dream experience from Allah (God), a car might be symbolic and could have another meaning beyond just being a car as viewed in a dream.

4. Allah (God) does not question the person or punish them for whatever they experience during a dream (because they have no choice of it), while everyone is accountable for their deeds in waking.

This article is written originally by Jamal Hussein. All rights reserved for the author.