the soul's rendering of what it has received in another, corresponding form
Distinguish from
taʿbīr (dream interpretation) — ḥikāya is the soul's transforming; taʿbīr is the interpreter's tracing it back.
khayāl (imagination) — khayāl is the faculty; ḥikāya is the operation it performs.
ʿālam al-mithāl (imaginal world) — ʿālam al-mithāl is a rank of reality, not an operation.
General Technical Meaning
In this dream-representational usage, ḥikāya is representation: presenting a likeness of something without claiming identity with the thing represented.
Reader note. Here ḥikāya means representation in the account of dreams. Grammatical, rhetorical, and ordinary narration senses are outside this entry.
In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works
Risālat al-Manāmāt wa-l-Nubuwwāt
representation — definition and use
In the dream analysis, representation is the soul's transformation of what it has received into another form.
Limits of this account
It does not mean ordinary narration, nor does every dream use representation.
al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān
representation by familiar likenesses
Al-Mīzān describes the soul representing what it has witnessed by moving to a likeness or an opposite: a crown is returned to glory, death to life, and darkness to ignorance. This representational operation is what can make a dream require interpretation.
Limits of this account
This explains representation as it operates in dreams. It is not a general definition of ḥikāya, and the surrounding threefold dream account is reported from earlier scholars before its Qurʾānic support is discussed.
Read in context
Open a passage in the edition where this term is linked.