In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and may God’s prayers and peace be upon the most eminent of the Messengers, our Master Muhammad, and upon his pure and immaculate family and his noble chosen Companions.
(Know) – may God guide you – that what a beginner needs to know is that everything he sees in a dream is of two types: one type is from God Almighty, and the other type is from Satan, based on the saying of the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace: “A dream is from God, and a nightmare is from Satan.”
The one attributed to God Almighty of these is the good, even though all of them, whether true or otherwise, are created by God Almighty. The good of these is the truthful one who brings good tidings and warnings, and this is what the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, estimated to be one part out of forty-six parts of prophecy.
And that the unbelievers and the wicked believers may see true dreams.
And that the disliked dream is attributed to Satan, whom the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered to conceal and spit to his left, and promised the one who did that that it would not harm him.
And that the disliked dream is what was frightening or falsely saddening, or a dream that leads to temptation, deception, and jealousy, without warning against sins, alerting against negligence, and deterring from destructive deeds. This is not appropriate for Satan, who commands immorality. Rather, the attribution of false dreams to Satan is based on the fact that he is the one who calls for them.
And that God, glory be to Him, is the Creator of everything seen in a dream, good or evil.
And that the difference in what requires ablution is attributed to Satan. Likewise, what is seen of the self-talk, its hopes, fears, and sorrows, which have no wisdom, indicates what the dreamer will end up with.
And similarly, what overwhelms the heart of the sleeper, whether full of food or empty of it, is like what befalls him from that in wakefulness, as it has no significance or benefit, and nature has no control over it.
There is no ruling on food in it, nor does Satan have any authority over what is added to it. Rather, that is the creation of God Almighty. He has made it customary for Him to create the true vision when the angel assigned to it is present, so it is added to him. And God Almighty creates false dreams when Satan is present, so it is added to him.
A liar about his dream is a slanderer against God Almighty. A person who dreams should not relate his dream except to a scholar, an advisor, or someone with a weak opinion among his family, as narrated in the hadith. It is recommended that the dreamer, upon hearing a dream from the dreamer, and when he refrains from interpreting it due to his dislike and limited knowledge, say, “Good for you and evil for your enemies. Good that you are given and evil that you avoid.” This is if he thinks the dream belongs to the dreamer. If he thinks the dream belongs to the scholar, he should say, “Good for us and evil for our enemy. Good that we are given and evil that we avoid. Good for us and evil for our enemy.”
Expressing the dream in the morning is better, as it brings the understanding of the dreamer and the remembrance of the dreamer, because understanding is more likely to occur in the morning before he is distracted by his concerns and needs. This is in addition to the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) saying, “O God, bless my nation in its early mornings.” Expressing this is based on analogy, consideration, comparison, and conjecture, and it is not to be taken into account or disputed in its essence, except that… In reality, its truthfulness is shown or its proof is seen.
Interpretation is by meaning or by deriving names. A person who is awake should not rely on a warning to warn him, nor should he rely on his hearing or the calculations of astrologers, which he thinks. The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, is not represented in a dream by a devil.
Whoever sees him has truly seen him. A dead person is in the abode of truth, so whatever he says in a dream is true, as long as it is free from temptation and pride. Similarly, a child who does not know how to lie, as well as animals and other dumb animals, when they speak, their words are true, and the words of those who do not speak are signs and wonders.
Every liar in wakefulness, like an astrologer and a soothsayer, is also a liar in a dream. The dreams of a person in a state of ritual impurity, a drunkard, or any of the unsuspecting slave girls and boys may sometimes come true, even if Satan has power over them through dreams at other times. A liar in waking speech may generally lie about his dreams.
The most truthful of people are the most truthful in speech. A person who is awake should only touch upon dreams that are related to good news. Or a warning, a reminder, or a benefit in this world or the hereafter. And everything else is discarded so that it is not a burden or filler attributed to Satan.
The interpreter needs to consider the Qur’an and its examples, and its clear meanings, such as the Almighty’s statement about the rope: {And hold fast, all together, to the rope of Allah}; His statement about women: {protected eggs}; His statement about the hypocrites: {they are as though they were blocks of wood propped up.}; His statement: {Indeed, when kings enter a town, they ruin it}; His statement: {If you seek victory, victory has already come to you}; and His statement: {Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?} He also needs to know the parables of the prophets and wise men.
He also needs to consider the stories of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and his parables in interpretation, such as his saying: “Five evils,” and his mention of the crow, the kite, the scorpion, the mouse, and the rabid dog. He also said about women: “Beware of glass bottles,” and his saying that women were “created from a rib.”
The interpreter also needs common parables, such as Abraham’s (peace be upon him) saying to Ishmael: “Change the threshold of the door,” meaning divorce your wife. Jesus’ (peace be upon him) saying when he entered upon a prostitute to admonish her: “A doctor only enters upon a sick person,” meaning the knowledgeable one, and the sick person the ignorant sinner. Luqman’s saying to his son: “Change your bed,” meaning your wife. Abu Hurairah’s saying when he heard someone say, “The Antichrist has emerged,” he said: “A lie told by the dyers,” meaning the liars.
He also needs, along with rajaz and poetry, to consider their meanings to strengthen the meanings of dream parables, such as the poet’s saying:
He needs to improve his condition, his food and drink, and his sincerity in his actions, so that he can gain a better understanding of people when interpreting dreams.
True dreams are of two types:
A clear, explanatory division that requires no expression or explanation, and a hidden, implicit division in which wisdom and creation are deposited in the essences of its visions.
Whatever has a summer nature and a winter nature, He expresses at every moment in which it is seen by the nature of its time, its essence, and its custom at that time, such as trees, dates, the sea, fire, clothing, dwellings, snakes, and scorpions.
And whatever has a night nature and a day nature, He expresses in a night vision by its nature and in a day vision by its custom, such as the sun, the moon, the planets, the lamp, light, darkness, hedgehogs, bats, and the like.
And whoever has a habit among people: he adheres to it from the visions at all times or at some time of them, without abandoning the habit that his Lord Almighty has accustomed him to.
Like someone who is accustomed to eating meat in a dream: he eats it. And if he sees dirhams: he will receive them and will benefit from the same amount in his waking life.
And if he sees rain: he will see it in his waking life.
Or his habit in that and other things will be contrary to what is in the principles.
And all his wealth in the dream has two aspects, one aspect indicating good and one aspect indicating evil. He will give the one who sees it from the righteous the best of its two aspects, and he will give the one who sees it from the wicked the ugliest of them.
And if that which is seen has aspects.
A clear, explanatory division that requires no expression or explanation, and a hidden, metaphorical division in which wisdom and creation are deposited in the essences of its visions.
Whatever has a summer nature and a winter nature, is expressed at every moment in which it is seen, according to the nature of its time, essence, and habit at that time, such as trees, dates, the sea, fire, clothing, dwellings, snakes, and scorpions.
Whatever has a night nature and a day nature, is expressed in night visions according to its nature and in day visions according to its habit, such as the sun, moon, planets, lamps, light, darkness, hedgehogs, bats, and the like.
And whoever has a habit among people: he adheres to it in all visible things at all times or at some time, without abandoning the habit that his Lord Almighty has taught him.
Like someone who is accustomed to eating meat in a dream: he eats it.
And if he sees dirhams: he will receive them and will benefit from the same amount in his waking life.
And if he sees rain: he will see it in his waking life.
Or his habit in that and other things will be contrary to what is in the principles.
And all his wealth in the dream has two aspects, one aspect indicating good and one aspect indicating evil. He will give the one who sees it from the righteous the best of its two aspects, and he will give the one who sees it from the wicked the ugliest of them.
And if that which is seen has aspects.
If that vision has many different, contradictory, and multifaceted aspects, it will not be possible to choose one aspect over the others except through an additional witness and evidence from the dreamer’s conscience in the dream, or from the evidence of the place in which he saw himself.
And that the vision comes about what has passed, is lost, is neglected, and is over: it reminds him of a neglect of gratitude that has passed, or a sin that has been neglected, or a repentance that has been delayed.
It may come about what a person is in.
It may come about the future: it tells of what will come of good or evil, such as death, rain, wealth and poverty, honor and humiliation, hardship and prosperity.
And that people’s destinies may differ in some interpretations according to their differences in their deficiency in their grandfathers and fortunes. Even if they are equal in vision, no one can interpret that vision that they agree on seeing in a dream except one with broad meanings and various aspects.
Like a pomegranate: perhaps the sultan owns a district that he owns, or a city that he rules over, its peel being its wall or rampart, and its people loving it.
The merchant has his house in which his family is, or his bathhouse, or his hotel, or his ship filled with people and money in the middle of the water, or his shop filled with people, or his book filled with servants, or his bag in which his dirhams and dinars are.
For the scholar or the ascetic worshipper, it may be his book and his Qur’an, its peel his pages, and its seed his book by which he is made righteous. For the bachelor, it may be a wife with her wealth and beauty, or a slave girl with her ring, with whom he takes pleasure when she is deflowered.
For the pregnant woman, it may be a daughter hidden in her placenta, womb, and blood. Perhaps the amounts of wealth included the treasury of the sultan, a purse for the workers, a thousand dinars for the wealthy, a hundred dinars for merchants, ten for the middle class, a dirham for the poor, a carob tree for the needy, or a loaf of bread, a mudd of food, or a pomegranate, as he saw it, because it is a knot of knots that resolves consideration, consideration, and comparison in the proverbs given to people according to their status and race.
Whatever tree has trunks and branches, and is known by both groups, the most honored of them are Arabs. Whatever does not have a trunk, such as a pumpkin and the like, is from the Persians, or one without a lineage, such as the discarded, the pregnant, or the foundling.
Thus, the benefits and returns of the additional things are reached. Perhaps a person sees something and its interpretation refers back to his brother, stepchild, namesake, relative, friend, neighbor, or someone similar in some field. People share in a vision for two reasons: someone who shares a common lineage with him, such as his brother, due to his sharing in fatherhood, lineage, and clan, or someone whose namesake, neighbor, or peer. The company is not valid unless there are two or more faces.
A vision is never transmitted by itself from the person to whom it was seen, unless its meanings are appropriate for him, and it is not possible for someone like him to attain its cause, nor for its evidence to descend upon him, or for his partner in it to be more deserving of it than him, due to evidence seen against him and a witness in wakefulness and observation that exceeds him, such as the indication of death, which is not transmitted from its owner unless he is healthy in his wakefulness and his partner is sick, in which case his sickness is more deserving of it than him, due to his proximity to death and his participation in the interpretation. Therefore, the traveler needs to be, as described, literary, intelligent, perceptive, pure, knowledgeable of people’s conditions, characteristics, destinies, and appearances, observing what his visions change and what his habits change in, in winter when he departs and in summer when it enters, knowledgeable of the times and their rains, their benefits and harms, and the times of sailing and the times of their turbulence, and the custom of countries and their people and their special ones, and what is appropriate for each town and what comes from its direction, such as the saying of a young man about a neighbor, perhaps it indicates the arrival of someone absent from Yemen, because part of his name, Jar al-Wars, does not Except from Yemen, a fortune teller in detailing dreams.
The peculiarity of what a person sees
and the visions that bring together the world and creation in their benefit, such as the sky, the sun, the moon, the planets, rain, wind, mosques, and spacious areas. Whatever he sees in his dream of these things, whether alone or in his home, is his in its particularity.
The ancients said that whoever is overcome by blackness sees events, darkness, horrors, and terrors. If he is overcome by yellowness, he sees fire, lamps, blood, or saffron. If he is overcome by blood, he sees drinks, fragrant herbs, musical instruments, clapping, and flutes.
It has been narrated from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Dreams are of three types: a vision that brings good tidings from God Almighty, a vision from Satan, and a vision that a person tells himself and sees.”
The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “Prophecies have passed away, but good tidings remain.” Some commentators have said regarding God Almighty’s statement, “For them is good tidings in the life of this world,” that it is the righteous dream.
It has been said that when a servant sleeps while prostrating, he says Our Lord Almighty, look at My servant, his soul is with Me and his body is in My obedience.
It was narrated on the authority of Abu Darda’ who said:
When a man sleeps, his soul ascends to the heavens until the Throne is brought to him. If he is pure, it is permitted to prostrate, but if he is ritually impure, it is not permitted to prostrate.
People have differed concerning the soul and the spirit. Some say they are one thing with two names, just as one says “human” and “man,” which are blood, or are connected to the blood, and are both nullified by its loss. The evidence for this is that nothing from the body of a dead person is lost except his blood.
They also cite language as evidence for this, such as the Arabs’ saying, “A woman has had her period and has had her period.” They also cite the word “fetus” when giving birth, referring to the flow of the breath, which is blood. This phrase has sometimes remained popular, such as their saying, “His soul flowed” when someone dies. Aws ibn Hajar said, “I was informed that the Banu Suhaim brought into their houses the blood of al-Mundhir’s soul, and the blood of the blood meant that they killed him. He attributed the blood to the soul because of its connection to it.”
Others said they are two things: the soul is cold and the soul is hot. Therefore, the breathing comes from the soul, which is why you see it cold, unlike the breath from the soul, which is hot.
The most truthful vision is the vision of a king or a slave. Perhaps the nature of a person in his dream does not match a known place he knows, a neighborhood, a house, a man or woman, beautiful or ugly, known or unknown, a bird, an animal, a flag, a voice, food, a drink, a weapon, or the like. Thus, he is fond of it. Whenever he sees it in his dream, he is afflicted with worry, fear, crying, a calamity, a figure, or something else that he dislikes. In other dreams, he is like any other person in its interpretation and similar things.
Perhaps the nature of a person in his dream matches some of what has been described, so he is fond of it. Whenever he sees it in his dream, he is afflicted with good, money, victory, or something else that he likes. In other dreams, he is like any other person in its interpretation. A person may be truthful in his speech, so his vision is true.
He may be a liar in his speech and loves lying, so most of his visions are false. He may be a liar and hate lying from others, so his vision is true. Therefore, night visions are more powerful than day visions. The most truthful hours of visions are early in the morning. If the vision is brief and comprehensive, without excessive or wordy language, it is more effective and more likely to occur.
Beware, beware of distorting a matter from its known interpretation in the fundamentals, or exceeding its known limits out of desire or fear, lest you be deemed a liar and the path of truth be obscured. Rather, you may remain silent if you dislike speaking about it. If you see something in your dream that you dislike, recite the Throne Verse upon awakening from your sleep, then spit to your left and say, “I seek refuge in the Lord of Moses, Jesus, and Abraham, who fulfilled, and Muhammad, the Chosen One, from the evil of the vision that I saw, lest it harm me in my religion, my worldly life, and my livelihood.
His neighbor is mighty, His praise is exalted, and there is no god but Him.” Know the times of the world. If the tree is bearing its fruit, then the vision at that time is strongly hoped for and has a slight delay. If the vision is when the tree’s fruit and benefits are ripe and its affairs are brought together, then the vision at that time is more effective. And it is more effective, more correct, and more appropriate.
If the tree has leafed but its fruits have not appeared, then the dream is less than what was described in strength and permanence, and less than the goal.
If its leaves have fallen and its fruits have disappeared, then the dream is weaker, and the confusion and nightmares in it are more common.
If the dreamer comes to you in the interpretation of his dream about a defect that God has concealed from him, then do not respond to him about it in a way that he would hate for a creature other than himself to know, if he is afflicted and has no means, but it has occurred to him so that he may learn of it, unless he has a way out of it or he is persisting in disobeying God or has intended to do so. In that case, admonish him and conceal it for him, as God Almighty has commanded.
Conceal the interpretation of any dream you receive of the secrets and faults of Muslims, and do not disclose it to anyone except its owner. Do not speak of it to anyone else, do not tell it about him, and do not let him hear it if you mention it.
Do not tell anyone about a dream that contains faults that he dislikes, for if you do, you will be backbiting its owner. Do not issue your opinion on a matter until you have examined it and known its face, its source, its extent, and the differences in natures that have been described to you.
Then you will see what Satan has done to confuse and corrupt it for you and introduce doubts and filler into it. If you purify it of these defects that have been described to you and find what results from correct, upright, and wise interpretation, then that is its correct interpretation. It has reached me that Ibn Sirin used to do the same.
When a dream came to him, he would spend a long time in it asking its owner about his condition, himself, his profession, his people, his livelihood, and about what is known to him from all that he asks him about, as well as what is unknown about it. He would not leave anything that he could use as evidence or proof in the matter except to seek its knowledge. (And know) that your penetration In the science of visions, there are three types of knowledge that you must have:
The first: Memorizing the principles, their aspects, their differences, their strength and weakness, whether for good or evil, so that you can understand the weight of the interpretation of the words, and the weight of the principles in terms of lightness, weight, and documentation regarding the issues that arise, some of which indicate evil and some of which indicate good. Weigh the two matters and principles in your mind, weighing the strength of each principle in the principles of interpretation, then take the most correct and strongest of them in those principles.
The second: Compiling the principles together until you extract a correct statement about the essence of the principles of interpretation, their strength and weakness, and discarding from them the idle talk, wishful thinking, the devil’s associates, and other things that have been described to you, or that you are convinced are not a vision and their interpretation is not coherent, so do not accept them.
The third: Strength, which has been achieved, and your steadfastness in the matter until you know it as it should be known, and you deduce from other principles, the words of the dreamer, his sources and his locations, to summarize and verify it. This is the most intense science of vision interpretation, as they claim. In this is what comes from knowledge of the principles, and through it the traveler extracts and arrives at it. Otherwise, imitation is required. By the past prophets, messengers, and wise men, this is closer to being correct, God willing, so understand.
If you want to understand the weight of the vision’s words in terms of its weight and lightness, then cite a matter that reached me, in which [in it??] Ibn Sirin said that a woman asked him that she saw in her dream a man chained and shackled. He said to her, “This is not the case, because chains represent steadfastness in religion and faith, while shackles represent betrayal and disbelief, and a believer cannot be a disbeliever.” The woman said, “By God, I saw this dream in a good state, and it is as if I see the shackles around his neck in a sago [sago??].” When he heard the mention of the sago, he said to her, “Yes, I recognize now, because the sago is made of wood, and wood in a dream represents hypocrisy in religion.”
There is no type of knowledge attributed to the court that is not needed in the interpretation of dreams, even arithmetic, even the obligatory duties and rulings, and the Arabic language and its strange meanings, names and other things, and what it contains of examples of wisdom and religious laws and rituals and the lawful and the unlawful and prayer and ablution and other knowledge, and the difference in it is measured by it and taken from it. Let the principles of interpretation you have in your possession be more appropriate to you than what the dreamer brings you, to remove it from you, even if he is trustworthy and truthful in your view.
(And know) that nothing has changed in the principles of ancient dreams, but the conditions of people have changed in their aspirations, manners, and their preference for their worldly affairs over their afterlife. Therefore, the principle whose interpretation was the man’s aspirations and desires, and that aspirations were his religion, has been damaged.
So that aspirations were diverted from his religion and his preference for it, and became in his worldly life, its enjoyment and freshness. This is the stronger of the two aspirations among people today, except for the people of religion and asceticism in this world. The companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would see dates and interpret them as the sweetness of their religion, and they would see honey and interpret it as reading the Qur’an, knowledge, righteousness, and the sweetness of that in their hearts. So today, that sweetness and aspirations have become in the religion and freshness of the common people, except for a few of those described.
And the unbeliever may see a true dream as an argument from Allah against him. Do you not see that Pharaoh and Joseph saw seven cows, as Allah the Most High has informed us in His Book, and they were true? His vision, and Nebuchadnezzar saw the end of his kingdom and the great afflictions he would be afflicted with, so his vision came true according to what Daniel the Wise had interpreted for him. And Khosrow saw the end of his kingdom, so his vision came true. So know this course of interpretation and consider it and you will be guided, God willing.