YOUR DREAMS AND THE SHARI'AH

By 

Ibn Abdillah As-sudaisiy Al-Iloori

It is part of human nature for someone to dream when he sleeps. Going by the shari'ah, dreams occur in three (3) different ways. It may be in form of seeing some scary things which shaitan uses to scare someone or cause someone to grief. For instance, someone may dream that he is being chased by someone with one or more dangerous weapons. Dream may also occur in form of seeing things that someone keeps himself busy with during the day or before sleeping at night, and he sees those things in his dream. For instance, someone who watched a horror movie during the day or at night before going to bed is most likely to dream with it. And lastly, a dream may constitute a part of the forty-six parts of Prophecy. This classification of different kinds of dreams is based on the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, narrated by 'Awf Bin Maalik رضي الله عنه and reported in Sunan Ibn Maajah.

In a very similar hadith narrated by Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه and reported in Saheeh Muslim, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gave a solution to the problem of having bad dream to the effect that the person who had a bad dream should get up to pray and must not tell anyone. It is unfortunate that today, when some people dream about something, instead of praying over it and keep it to themselves, they go about telling people. This practice is against the Sunnah. In another hadith, Abu Qutaadah narrated that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said

"Good dreams come from Allah and bad dreams come from the Shaitan. If anyone sees a bad dream that scares him, let him spit drily to his left and seek refuge with Allah from its evil, then it will not harm him.” [Reported in Saheeh Bukhari]

A wise Muslim would stick to this solution proffered by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and would not do anything else. He would not take his dreams to jalabi Alfas or soothsayers who would compound his problems for him. The problem of having a bad dream is a small one if the above hadith is properly applied. But if care is not taken, visits to soothsayers may lead to nullification of the prayer of a Muslim for 40 days or even take him out of Islam if he believes in what the soothsayers say. This is based on clear hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.

May Allaah protect us against all evils.