Dream interpretation

The knowledge that unwraps a dream's symbols into their outcomes; God gave it to Yusuf, who read the king's dream — seven fat cows seven years, seven lean seven years. A door of the unseen granted only to whom it is given.

Interpretation reaches its fullest form in the Qur'an in Joseph's story: he was given of the kingdom and taught of the interpretation of narratives — "the stories of the ancients, which We have sent down to you" — and eloquence in judgment Yusuf 37. He interpreted the two young men's dream in prison 36, then the king saw in sleep "seven fat cows eaten by seven lean ones and seven green ears and seven dry" and asked him: "O king, expound for me my dream, if ye can interpret dreams" Yusuf 43. The king then said: "You have brought me a proof from your Lord" 54, and seeing Joseph he placed him over the treasuries of the land; when he said "make me over the treasuries of the land; I am a knowing guardian" 55, Joseph answered "God has kept me in my absence" 64.

From here the exegetes take Joseph's story as the root of this chapter, holding that what Joseph interpreted was by revelation from God, not by the soul's own effort ¹.

The hadith makes interpretation part of what remained of prophethood: "The good dream of a righteous man is one forty-sixth of prophethood" ² Muwatta 2746; in it, the righteous dream is seen by the man or shown to him, and the Prophet ﷺ would ask after the morning prayer: did any of you see a dream last night? ³ Muwatta 2748.

When the Prophet was asked about dreams he would listen to what was recounted and be reassured by it or show the correct reading — as with Abdullah ibn Zayd's dream of the call to prayer, which he took up and for which the adhan was instituted ⁴ Muwatta 1:172.

The people of knowledge gathered in the books of interpretation these bounds:

• Interpretation by the state: the dreamer's condition is considered — who he is, where he is, and what he was doing — for a dream changes with the change of state ⁵.
• Interpretation by the likely: one dream is not decisive, and no ruling is built on it; a grave matter may appear in sleep as a symbol of good and the reverse, in the view of the exegetes ⁴.
• Only the people of dreams interpret: whoever sees a dream does not dictate it to another save with knowledge, and the condition is that it be a righteous dream, not from Satan nor the soul's talk ^{6 7}.
• The difference between ru'ya and hulm: the righteous dream is interpreted or brings glad tidings, while the bad dream from Satan is neither interpreted nor told ⁷ Muwatta 2750.

The best known in this chapter is Tafsir al-Ahlam attributed to Muhammad ibn Sirin, with chapters on interpreting what people see in sleep of water, sky, earth, animals, kings and more — though its museum card is still a first draft whose sources have not yet been checked on the page ⁸.

In the modern age a debate arose over interpretation from dreams — between those who see in it a door of the unseen and those who warn against attachment to it — which the museum reviews in dream interpretation today and the fatwa dreaming of blasphemy.

No legal ruling is built on a dream; if a person sees in sleep what would entail a hadd, a divorce or a vow, nothing attaches until the cause exists in waking ⁵. What is built on a dream is glad tidings and reassurance, not obligation.

• Ahl al-Sunna: interpretation is a door of the unseen granted to whom it is granted; no attachment to it is made in rulings.
• The people of knowledge: the righteous dream is interpreted by the likely and with caution, and what is not understood is left to God.