Assalaamu
alikum
Alhamdulillah and someone
asked Sh. al-Munajjid about dream interpretation. Below is the
answer.
The
Shaickh said:
Praise be to Allaah.
1.True dreams are a part of
Prophethood, as it was reported that
the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon
him)
said: “True dreams are one of the
forty-six parts of
Prophethood.” (al-Bukhaari,
6472; Muslim, 4201)
2.Dreams marked the onset of Revelation
(al-Bukhaari, 3; Muslim, 231).
3.The truthfulness of the dream
is related to the sincerity of the
dreamer.
Those who have the most truthful dreams are
those
who are the most truthful in speech.
(Muslim, 4200)
4.Towards the end of time, hardly any dreams will
be untrue. The
Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“That
will be because the Prophethood and its effects will be
so
far away in time, so the believers will be
given some
compensation in the form of dreams
which will bring them some
good news or will
help them to be patient and steadfast in their
faith.” (al-Bukhaari, 6499; Muslim, 4200)
The same may be
said of the miracles which appeared after the
time of the Sahaabah. This did not happen during their
time
because they did not need them, due to
their strong faith, but the
people who came
after them needed them (the miracles) because
their faith was weak.
5.Dreams are of three types:
rahmaani (those that come from
Allaah),
nafsaani (psychological, they come from within
a
person) and shaytaani (those that come from
the Shaytaan).
The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him)
said: “Dreams
are of three types: a dream from Allaah, a
dream
which causes distress and which comes
from the Shaytaan, and
a dream which comes
from what a person thinks about when he
is
awake, and he sees it when he is asleep.” (al-Bukhaari,
6499;
Muslim, 4200)
6.The
dreams of the Prophets are wahy (revelation) for they
are
protected from the Shaytaan. The Ummah is
agreed upon this.
This is why Ibraaheem set
out to fulfil the command of Allaah to
sacrifice his son Ismaa’eel when he saw that in a dream;
may
peace be upon them both.
7.The dreams of people other than the Prophets are to
be
examined in the light of the clear Wahy
[i.e., the Qur’aan and
Sunnah]. If they are in
accordance with the Qur’aan and
Sunnah, all
well and good; otherwise, they should not be
acted
upon. This is a very serious matter
indeed, for many of the
innovators among the
Sufis and others have gone astray because
of
this.
8.Whoever wants to have true dreams should strive to
speak
honestly, eat halaal food, adhere to the
commandments of
sharee’ah, avoid that which
Allaah and His Messenger
(peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) have forbidden,
sleep
in a state of complete purity facing the Qiblah,
and
remember Allaah until he feels his eyelids
drooping. If he does
all this, then his dreams
can hardly be untrue.
9.The most truthful of dreams are those
that are seen at the time
of suhoor [just
before dawn], for this is the time when Allaah
descends and when mercy and forgiveness are close. It is
also
the time when the devils are quiet,
unlike the time of darkness
just after sunset,
when the devils and devilish souls spread out.
(See Madaarij
al-Saalikeen, 1/50-52)
Al-Haafiz ibn
Hajar said:
10.All dreams are either of two
types:
1.true dreams. These are the dreams of the Prophets and
of
the righteous
people who follow them. They may
also
happen to
other people, but this is very rare, such as
the
dream of the
kaafir king which was interpreted for him
by
Yoosuf (peace
be upon him). True dreams are those
which
come true
in real life as they were seen in the
dream.
2.Mixed up false dreams,
which warn of something.
These
are of
different types:
a.games of the Shaytaan to make a person distressed,
such
as when he
sees his head cut off and he is following it,
or
he sees
himself falling into a crisis and cannot find
anyone
to save
him from it, and so on.
b.When he
sees some of the angels telling him to
do
something
forbidden, or other things that cannot
possibly
make
sense.
c.When he sees something
that happens to him in real life,
or
he wishes it
would happen, and he sees it very
realistically
in
his dream; or he see what usually happens to him
when
he is awake
or what reflects his mood. These
dreams
usually
speak of the future or the present, rarely of
the
past.
See: Fath al-Baari,
12/352-354
1.Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (may
Allaah be pleased with him) said: the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
said:
“If any one of you sees a dream that he
likes, this is from
Allaah, so let him praise
Allaah for it and talk about it to others.
If
he sees other than that, a dream that he dislikes, this is
from
the Shaytaan, so let him seek refuge with
Allaah from its evil and
not mention it to
anyone, for it will not harm him.” (Narrated
by
al-Bukhaari, 6584, and Muslim,
5862).
2.Abu Qutaadah said: the Prophet (peace and
blessings of
Allaah be upon him) said: “Good
dreams come from Allaah, and
(bad) dreams come
from Shaytaan. Whoever sees something
that he
dislikes, let him spit to his left three times and
seek
refuge with Allaah from the Shaytaan, for
it will not harm him.”
(Narrated by
al-Bukhaari, 6594, and Muslim, 5862). The
“spitting”
referred to here is a soft, dry
spitting with no saliva ejected.
3.It was reported from Jaabir
(may Allaah be pleased with him)
that the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon
him)
said: “If any one of you sees a dream
that he dislikes, let him
spit to his left
three times, and seek refuge with Allaah from
the
Shaytaan three times, and turn over from
the side on which he
was sleeping.” (Narrated
by Muslim, 5864)
Ibn Hajar said: to sum up what has been
said about good dreams, we
may say three things:
1.A person should praise Allaah
for the good dream
2.He should feel happy about
it
3.He should talk about it to those whom he loves but not to
those
whom he dislikes.
To sum up what has been said about bad
dreams, we may say four
things:
1.He should seek refuge with
Allaah from the evil of the dream
2.He should seek refuge with
Allaah from the evil of the Shaytaan
3.He should spit to his
left three times when he wakes up
4.He should not mention it to
anyone at all.
5.In al-Bukhaari, Baab al-Qayd fi’l-Manaam, a
fifth thing was
narrated from Abu Hurayrah,
which is to pray. The wording of
the report
is: whoever sees something he dislikes (in a
dream)
should not tell anyone about it; rather
he should get up and pray.
This was reported
as a Mawsool report by Imaam Muslim in his
Saheeh.
6.Muslim added a sixth thing, which is to turn over from
the side
on which one was lying.
In conclusion, there are six things to
do, the four mentioned above,
plus praying two rak’ahs, for example,
and turning over from the side
on which one was lying to lie on one’s
back, for example.
See Fath al-Baari, 12/370.
1.According to a hadeeth narrated
from Abu Razeen by
al-Tirmidhi, he should not
tell anybody about it except a very
close
friend who loves him very much, or who is very
wise.
According to another report, he should
not talk about it except to
one who is wise or
one who is dear to him. According to another
report, he should not tell of his dream except to a scholar or
one
who will give sincere advice. Al-Qaadi Abu
Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi
said: as for the scholar,
he will interpret it in a good way for him
as
much as he can, and the one who will give him sincere
advice
will teach him something that will be
of benefit to him and will
help him to do
that. The one who is wise is the one who knows
how to interpret it and will tell him only that which will help
him,
otherwise he will keep quiet. The one who
is dear, if he knows
something good he will
say it, and if he does not know or he is in
doubt, he will keep quiet.
See Fath
al-Baari, 12/369
Imaam
al-Baghawi said:
2.Know that the interpretation of
dreams falls into various
categories. Dreams
may be interpreted in the light of the Qur’aan
or in the light of the Sunnah, or by means of the proverbs
that
are current among people, or by names and
metaphors, or in
terms of opposites. (Sharh
al-Sunnah, 12/220)
He gave
examples of this, such as:
Interpretation
in the light of the Qur’aan: such as a rope
meaning
a covenant, because Allaah says
(interpretation of the meaning):
“And hold fast,
all of you together, to the Rope of Allaah…”
[Aal ‘Imraan 3:103]
Interpretation
in the light of the Sunnah: such as the crow
representing an immoral man (faasiq), because the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
called it such.
Interpretation
by means of proverbs: such a digging a hole
meaning a plot, because people say “Whoever digs a hole
will
fall in it.”
Interpretation
by means of names: such as seeing a man called
Raashid meaning wisdom.
Interpretation
by means of opposites: such as fear meaning
safety, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And He will
surely give them in exchange a safe security
after
their fear” [al-Noor 24:55]
3.As for the book “Interpretation
of Dreams” that is attributed to
Ibn Seereen,
many researchers doubt that it can be attributed
to
him at all, so we should be certain that
this book was written by
this prominent
scholar.
Allahumma salli wasallim alaa Nabiyyina
Muhammad. Wasalaam.
Modou Mbye