"THE DREAMS & THE DREAMERS" _خواب اور خوابیدہ

17 Rules of Islamic Dream Interpretations

17 Rules of Dream Interpretations

Ibn Qutaybah ad-Dinawari رحمه الله says in his book about dream interpretations, “There is nothing in which people deal with from the different sciences that is more obscure, delicate, exalted, noble, difficult and problematic than dreams because they are a type of revelation and type of Prophethood.”

Narrated Anas bin Malik رضي الله عنهAllah’s Messenger صلى الله عليه و سلمsaid, “A good dream (that comes true) of a righteous man is one of forty-six parts of prophet hood.” [Sahih al-Bukhari]

Some scholars tried to give explanation to this ratio of 1:46. We have no way to find out that if their explanation is correct or not. Prophet hood of Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم extended from 40 to 63 years meaning for 23 years. We know from Seerah that six months before becoming a Prophet, Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه و سلمwas seeing dreams that would come out to be true on a very frequent basis so much so that he would see a dream one night and it would come to be true the next morning. So the ratio of 6 months to 23 years is 1:46.

1) There are 3 types of dreams: Imam at-Tirmidhi رحمه الله narrates from Muhammad Ibn Sirin رحمه الله who narrates from Abu Hurairah رضي الله تعالى عنه that Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “There are three types of dreams: 1) True Dreams 2) A dream in which a person is speaking to himself (i.e. whatever you were thinking about in the day time, you see at night) 3) A dream from shaytaan in which he wants to make you sad ”

In one hadith it is mentioned that one should stand up and pray and in another the he should not mention it to anyone.

Abu Salamah رضي الله عنه once said, “Sometimes I would see a dream that would be heavier on me than carrying a mountain. But since I heard this hadith I wouldn’t care about the bad dream I would see.”

Narrated Abu Sa‘id Al-Khudri رضي الله عنه: The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said, “If anyone of you sees a dream that he likes, then it is from Allah, and he should thank Allah for it and narrate it to others; but if he sees something else, i.e., a dream that he dislikes, then it is from Satan, and he should seek refuge with Allah from its evil, and he should not mention it to anybody, for it will not harm him.” [Sahih Muslim]

Q1) A question arises, is every dream that a believer sees good?

A1) Al Muhallab رحمه الله says, “Most of the dreams of the righteous people are good dreams because sometimes a righteous person could see a dream that is meaningless but that is not very frequent because shaytaan’s control on them is very weak. And the opposite is true with other people because shaytaan has a stronger grasp over them. People are of the categories:

1) The Prophets: all of their dreams are truthful and but sometimes they need interpretation. The good dream is divided into 2 categories:
a) Direct dream: something one would see in a dream and the exact scene repeats itself in day-time when you are awake and this dream does not need interpretation.
b) A dream the comes in symbols and it needs to be interpreted.

2) The righteous: most of the time their dreams are truthful (most of them need to interpreted) and sometimes their dream are direct.

3) Rest of the people: most of their dreams are not true but some of them could be true.” [Fath al-Bari bi Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari]

2) Do not mention the dream for interpretation except to a scholar or a person who would advise you sincerely.

Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said, “You should not mention this dream to an envious person…”