When you sit and just let your thoughts pour in from all directions, where do they take you? Is there always one thing in your life that you think and dream about; do you sit and imagine what it would be like? Our dreams may be beneficial or harmful, but they serve to tell us where we are in life.

Dreams usually take us back into the past or hurl us forward into the unknown future. But the dreams we dream tell us what we think is important and how far we wish we could go.

The question is, when is enough, enough? When should we stop dreaming and start living? When we dream, we are in control; we can choose the characters, the scenario, and the outcomes. We can be the hero and enjoy all the emotions that life doesn't always deal out. What about life, though?

Often we feel locked into relationships and situations that have invisible bars. Oftentimes, life leaves us feeling powerless. When we dream, we imagine ways to escape and to change. Dreams can be very beneficial if we make them act as a catalyst of change. We can inspire ourselves and live our dreams. This does not necessarily mean that we can make all the characters and scenarios behave as they do in our dreams, because such things are not under our control. We can, however, translate the inspiration and motivation of dreams into real life.

Isn't it strange that in our dreams we usually enjoy peace, strength, honor, and respect, and that we are loved and valued? All the things we ever want can be fulfilled in dreams. The transition between a dream and real life is when we take the enlightenment and motivation into everyday life and bolster it along with the flavor of dreams, knowing that things can be better and can change.

Mature thinking acknowledges that there is only total rest and peace in Paradise and that the nature of life, the journey we are all on, is one of hard work and striving. Allah tells us, "Verily, We have created man in toil" (Al-Balad 90:4).

Allah also created mankind with the ability to dream and rise above the mundane, often miserable, conditions of life and develop a vision of a better world; a better you.

Our dreams tell us about ourselves and guide us to know how to translate our work in life into success. A carpenter would likely dream of finely carved furniture and the tools of his trade. A fisherman would likely dream of a fine fishing boat and a place in the market where he could sell his fish. A young mother would likely dream of a moment's peace; a time and place in which she can dream her dreams for herself and her young ones. Politicians dream of power, businessmen dream of money, prisoners dream of freedom, and young people usually dream of the future.

The tendency in dreams is usually to either step out of the present and revisit the past, turning sad scenarios into pleasant ones, or to move forward toward the future and become successful, loved, and appreciated.

Therein lies the dilemma. Dreams take us back in time or forward, whereas life happens now, at the present! In dreams, we lose the present as we dabble in the unseen of the future and the unchangeable past.

The challenge, then, is to put dreams into their proper place in life. To live in a dream-like fantasy state would be to cheat ourselves of the present. To deny ourselves the ability to dream would be to lose sight of the stars we are reaching for. We reveal ourselves, not just in what emanates from us, but in the things around us, just like a star in the sky.