::Roundtable:: Evidence for the Laity but not the Courts: Dreams and Blasphemy in Contemporary Pakistan

February 19, 2026 adminsr

In late 2010, many Pakistani ʿulamā’ publicly declared that Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s largest province, had insulted the Prophet Muḥammad and Islam.[1] In January 2011, Governor Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, who reported being inspired by the ʿulamā’s statements. Regarding his killing of Taseer, Qadri announced: “I have no repentance, and I did it for Tahafuz-i-Namoos-i-Rasool (protecting the honor of the Prophet)…. I was justified to kill him.”[2] Condemning the murder charges leveled against Qadri, the ʿulamā’ argued that the sharī‘a permits an ordinary individual to kill someone who insults the Prophet Muhammad. Elsewhere, I have examined the ʿulamā’s engagement with textual sources in formulating their pro-Qadri stance.[3] Here, I examine a different genre of evidence that they marshal in support of Qadri: dreams.

As the anthropologist Amira Mittermaier reminds us, dreams matter.[4] Especially important are dreams featuring Muḥammad. Their significance hinges on the ḥadīth stating, “Whoever has seen me in a dream has seen me in truth, for Satan cannot imitate me in a dream.”[5] Reflecting on what this ḥadīth does in practice, Leah Kinberg explains that since seeing Muḥammad in a dream is the same as seeing him when awake, a Prophetic dream can determine a community’s everyday life in the same way as a ḥadīth.[6] Nile Green, commenting on the importance of Prophetic dreams, states, “In practice, this sometimes came to mean that dreams of the prophet could form a legally waterproof means of legitimating all kinds of arguments, persons or policies.”[7] Below, I focus on the Pakistani Barelwi ‘ālim (religious scholar, pl. ʿulamā’) Mufti Hanif Qureshi, a teacher at Jamia Rizwia Zia-ul-Uloom in Rawalpindi whose sermons incited Qadri to open fire on Taseer.[8] I examine how Qureshi employs prophetic dreams as evidence to support Taseer’s killing.[9]

In one riveting, animated mosque sermon from 2011 attended by hundreds, Qureshi narrates a series of dreams attesting to the religious merits Qadri earned through killing Taseer.[10] In a recording of the sermon posted online, Qureshi details how a Sufi ‘ālim in the Karachi metropolis dreamt of luminescent holy figures hurrying past his home bearing wondrous gifts. The ‘ālim addressed the leader of these figures, inviting the party to his house. They declined, explaining that they were in a hurry since they were in the service of Muḥammad. The ‘ālim inquired, “What is the service? What is the hurry? Where are you taking these beautiful presents?”[11] They replied that they were delivering Muḥammad’s presents to Qadri.[12] Qureshi avers that dozens of Pakistani mystics—who are elevated to the spiritual level of visiting Muḥammad and Muḥammad’s cousin ʿAlī in their dreams—have seen Qadri seated in the Muḥammad’s presence. Others have seen Qadri in the presence of ʿAlī.[13] Qureshi asserts that such dreams testify to Qadri’s innocence and religious esteem. Centering oneiric evidence, Qureshi asks for Taseer’s alleged innocence to also be proven through this very medium, i.e., via dreams. With a smirk on his face, he puts forth a challenge: “Present just one person who has seen Salman Taseer [in a dream].”[14] The challenge is clearly rhetorical. No one has dreamt of Taseer, let alone in the presence of the Prophet.[15] The medium of dreams reveals Taseer’s guilt.

Dreams also animate Qureshi’s writings. He has authored two books that mount a thorough defense of Qadri’s extra-judicial killing of Taseer. A dedicated section on ‘true dreams’ features in both works. This section—which is the same in both works—commences with broad reflections on the importance of dreams. Qureshi writes that through dreams, God reveals the future and strengthens believers’ faith.[16] Leaving no doubt about the importance of Prophetic dreams, Qureshi states that it is necessary to carry out whatever the oneiric Muḥammad commands the dreamer or a third-party in the dream to do.[17] Echoing his sermons, Qureshi writes that “numerous individuals” have seen “innumerable” divinely inspired dreams regarding Qadri. A handful, Qureshi explains, are narrated in the book; approximately ten dreams then follow.[18] Some showcase Qadri in an exalted state, surrounded by renowned religious personalities including Sufi saints, the four rightly guided caliphs and the Prophet himself. Crucially, nowhere in his written works does Qureshi note that that dreams do not count as legal evidence. The impression that one receives from both of Qureshi’s books is that dreams matter. The same is true for his many recorded sermons and speeches, which never state that dreams do not count as legal evidence. To the contrary, Qureshi asked for Taseer’s innocence to be proven via a dream!

In July 2015, I had the opportunity to converse with Qureshi at length at his home in Rawalpindi. In person, he robustly defended the religious significance of dreams by citing ḥadīths, providing examples of the Prophet’s companions seeing him in dreams, and noting the long history of renowned Muslim intellectuals specializing in dream interpretation.[19] In our conversation, Qureshi narrated several dreams showcasing Qadri’s esteemed religious status. He repeated his claim that while Prophetic dreams regarding Qadri proliferate, no one has dreamt of Governor Taseer. Then, contrary to the impression one might glean from his speeches and writings, Qureshi informed me:

Now for us, it is not that the dreams are proof (dalīl) that Mumtaz Qadri’s action was correct. This is a “related source, support”[20] … dreams are “just a support.” We have the real proofs of the Qur’an, sunna and sharī‘a, that prove Mumtaz Qadri’s act’s correctness…[21]

A little later, he added, “The dream is there to elevate certainty (yaqīn).”[22] I prodded, “Why isn’t the dream considered evidence?” Qureshi responded, “A person cannot be killed based on a khabar wāḥid, nor can lawfulness (ḥalāl) or unlawfulness (ḥarām) be proven.”[23] The term khabar wāḥid is most frequently invoked in scholarship on the authenticity of ḥadīth. Ḥadīth specialists view a khabar wāḥid, i.e. a ḥadīth with limited transmitters, as less credible than a ḥadīth with many narrators.[24] Applying the term khabar wāḥid to the evidentiary status of dreams allows Qureshi to subsume dreams within more conventional discussions regarding authenticity and evidence. Qureshi attributed the limited evidentiary status of dreams to their unverifiability, amongst other reasons.[25] Reiterating the function of dreams, he stated: dreams can provide tranquility (iṭmiʾnān) and certainty (yaqīn), but the dream is not a proof (dalīl), since it is limited to the dreamer.[26]

Qureshi’s writings and speeches give the impression that dreams count as evidence, yet when I asked him pointedly whether dreams can count as evidence of criminality or innocence, he stated otherwise. How should we understand this discrepancy? A range of answers can be offered, including a lack of sincerity on his part and that his stance changes based on his audience. Without dismissing these possibilities entirely, I argue that Qureshi’s writings and speeches also elucidate the liminal status of dreams: they are evidence but not legal evidence. I suggest that Qureshi’s writings, speeches, and sermons present dreams as evidence in the colloquial sense, particularly to Muslim laity. However, as Qureshi asserts, dreams are not admissible as evidence per the sharī‘a, i.e., they are not legally admissible evidence.

The chasm between evidence in the people’s court, that is, in the eyes of the laity, and the assessment of fuqahā’ is not novel. The understandings of the fuqahā’ with respect to evidence have, at times, been more stringent than the laity’s.[27] Similarly, there have always been standards by which evidence is deemed admissible or inadmissible in various Islamic courts. Both by the rules of evidence in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s courts, as well as the overarching stance of Sunnī fuqahā, dreams do not make the cut.

If dreams are not evidence for the fuqahā or in the courts of the Islamic Republic in which Mumtaz Qadri was tried, then for whom are they evidence? Why are they at times favored over other evidentiary sources, and what does the evidentiary status of dreams reveal about the ‘ulamā’s inner states and their assessment of the masses? I take up these questions in depth in my manuscript-in-progress, tentatively titled, Quotidian ‘Ulama: The Lived Islam of Pakistan’s Religious Elite.

For the moment, I simply suggest that Qureshi’s centering of dreams divulges the degree to which, in his appraisal, the laity might understand God’s directives on blasphemy through different evidentiary methods. While Shahab Ahmed rightly identifies the sharī‘a as theoretically accessible and available to the masses,[28] I suggest that Qureshi might at times view even the sharī‘a as too obtuse for the laity. So, he recounts dreams instead, or in addition to, legal arguments. I propose that dreams render the blasphemy issue and Qadri’s innocence legible to the public in a way that shar‘ī arguments do not. The legibility of dreams—even for the unlettered —makes them universally accessible. Dreams circumvent not just the need for religious training but even the need for text and literacy when narrated orally. They are evidence for the masses—visceral, tangible, their vessel (the dreamer) even standing amongst them.[29] While dreams are not admissible in the language and grammar of the courts, in the people’s courts—they matter.

Notes:

[1] Mashal Saif, The ‘Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan: Contesting and Cultivating an Islamic Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2020), 78–80.

[2] Criminal Appeals No. 210 and 211 of 2015, Supreme Court of Pakistan (2015), 6.

[3] Saif, The ‘Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan, Chapter 2.

[4] Amira Mittermaier, Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination (University of California Press, 2011), 20 and passim.

[5] John C. Lamoreaux, “An Early Muslim Autobiographical Dream Narrative: Abu Ja‘far al-Qayini and His Dream of the Prophet Muhammad,” in Dreaming across Boundaries: The Interpretation of Dreams in Islamic Lands, ed. Louise Marlow (Ilex Foundation and Center of Hellenic Studies Trustees for Harvard University, 2008), 79.

[6] Leah Kinberg, “Literal Dreams and Prophetic Ḥadīṯs in Classical Islam: A Comparison of Two Ways of Legitimation,” Der Islam 70 (1993): 286.

[7] Nile Green, “The Religious and Cultural Roles of Dreams and Visions in Islam,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 13, no. 3 (2003): 291. Italics mine.

[8] For Mumtaz Qadri’s own account of how Hanif Qureshi’s speeches inspired the killing, see Mufti Muhammad Hanif Qureshi, Muhafiz-i Namus-i Risalat: Ghazi Mumtaz Hussain Qadri (Shabab-i Islami Pakistan, 2012), 56–61.

[9] For more on dreams as evidence, see: I. Goldziher, “The Appearance of the Prophet in Dreams,” The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (April 1912): 503–6. Also see: Or Amir, “’Is fiqh now Determined based on Dreams?!’: The Debate Over the Legal Value of Dreams and the Question of Religious Authority in Sunni Islam,” Islamic Law and Society 32, no. 3 (2025): 173–202.

[10] “Mufti Hanif Qureshi Reply to Tahirul Qadri on Who is Blasphemous Part 3/4 Shababeislami 21/10/2011,” posted October 21, 2011 by muwais0, Youtube, [04:38-07:48 and 08:15-10:20], accessed November 27, 2025, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEHrD51MaDw.

[11] “Mufti Hanif Qureshi Reply,” [05:43-05:49].

[12] “Mufti Hanif Qureshi Reply,” [05:50-05:56].

[13] “Mufti Hanif Qureshi Reply,” [05:57-06:28].

[14] “Mufti Hanif Qureshi Reply,” [07:49-07:55].

[15] At least, there are no reports of anyone doing so.

[16] Qureshi, Muhafiz-i Namus-i Risalat, 394.

[17] Qureshi, Muhafiz-i Namus-i Risalat, 394.

[18] Qureshi, Muhafiz-i Namus-i Risalat, 394.

[19] Hanif Qureshi, interview by author, Islamabad, Pakistan, July 2015.

[20] Most of his comments were in Urdu. However, he used the English words, “related source, support.”

[21] Hanif Qureshi, interview, July 2015.

[22] Hanif Qureshi, interview, July 2015.

[23] Hanif Qureshi, interview, July 2015.

[24] For an overview of khabar wāḥid see Stijn Aerts, “Khabar al-wāḥid,” Encyclopaedia of Islam Three Online, eds. Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, and Devin J. Stewart (Brill, 2022).

[25] Qureshi’s eschewing of dreams as evidence here resonates with the established Sunnī view on this subject. See: Amir, “Is fiqh now Determined based on Dreams?!,” 179–93.

[26] Hanif Qureshi, interview, July 2015.

[27] For example, for the fuqahā’, adultery and fornication are definitively proven by the very high legal standard of four male Muslim eyewitnesses of reputable character seeing the act of penetration. Similarly, it was common legal doctrine amongst the fuquhā’ and qāḍīs to reject the testimony of an illegitimately born individual. Muhammad Khalid Masud, Rudolph Peters, and David Stephan Powers, “Qadis and their Courts: An Historical Survey,” in Dispensing Justice in Islam: Qadis and Their Judgements, eds. Muhammad Khalid Masud, Rudolph Peters, and David Stephan Powers (Brill, 2006), 26.

[28] Shahab Ahmed, What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic (Princeton University Press, 2016), 372–73.

[29] “Mufti Hanif Qureshi Reply,” [06:31-07:37].

Suggested Bluebook citation: Mashal Saif, Evidence for the Laity but not the Courts: Dreams and Blasphemy in Contemporary Pakistan, Islamic Law Blog (Feb. 19, 2026), https://islamiclaw.blog/2026/02/19/roundtable-evidence-for-the-laity-but-not-the-courts-dreams-and-blasphemy-in-contemporary-pakistan/.

Suggested Chicago citation: Mashal Saif, “Evidence for the Laity but not the Courts: Dreams and Blasphemy in Contemporary Pakistan,” Islamic Law Blog, February 19, 2026, https://islamiclaw.blog/2026/02/19/roundtable-evidence-for-the-laity-but-not-the-courts-dreams-and-blasphemy-in-contemporary-pakistan/.