Dog According to Ibn Siren, dream interpreters disagree on what a dog represents in dreams. Some of them regard it as a slave or a servant, others as a despot, a terrible person, and a slanderer, if it barks. The black dog is an Arab. On the other hand, a dog could also mean a weak enemy with little chivalry, if any. The she-dog is a mean woman. If she bites, such a woman would harm the dreamer. If a dog tears the dreamer’s clothes, it would mean that a low man would backbite him. For Al-Nabulsi, the dog symbolizes a policeman of low rank, a gate-man, or a guardian, a niggardly person, a weak enemy, and a stupid, profligate, and aggressive man who never hesitates to commit foolish or criminal acts, especially if it barks; it would mean that he has an awful temper, that he is terrible. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Medicine Inserting a suppository into the rectum in a dream means spying or eavesdropping. To take a laxative in a dream means attempting to correct one's religious devotion, or it could mean washing one's body from impurities. The success of one's attempt depends on the potency of his medicine. Seeking good health in a dream means trying to amend one's life for the better. The same meaning applies if one sees himself using an ointment for his eyes. A yellow colored medicine in a dream means illness. A laxative in a dream means a cure for a sick person and a warning for a healthy person to correct himself. A bad tasting medicine in a dream means a fever followed by a chill. Good tasting medicine in a dream is beneficial for rich people, though bad for poor people. Interpreting a cure with a medicine in a dream is not like interpreting recovering without a medicine. (Also see Grapes) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Almond The almond tree symbolizes a stranger or a strange person. Almond means money. Eating it means money will come from a dispute. Sweet almonds refer to the dreamer’s beautiful faith. Bitter almonds represent frank or truthful statements. • Picking almonds from a tree: Will obtain money from a miser. • Almond peel falling on the dreamer: Will obtain clothes. Conversely, dry peels mean wrath and disfavour. They could also mean that the dreamer will be reprimanded, in view of the harsh sound they produce. Sorrow is another possibility. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Gold • Giving away a big piece of gold: Will become a ruler or authority will be enhanced. • Finding broken gold or solid gold coins: Will meet the ruler and return safe and sound. • Gold turning into silver: Decaying situation in terms of women, money, children, and servants. • Silver turing into gold: A change for the better. • Clothes for the upper part of the body ornamented with gold, such as lady’s masks, veils, et cetera: She who wears them will come closer to God. But if she just owns them, she will undergo a bitter experience. God will test her mettle. • Pure gold (or silver) symbolizes candid intentions, truthfulness, and the fulfilment of promises. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Meat Beef in a dream means hardships, toiling and lack of work. Holding a mutton inside one's house in a dream means meeting with a new person, accepting an invitation, or inviting a person one has never met or known to share a meal. Seeing a whole skinned but uncut mutton inside one's house in a dream means a sudden adversity, loss, calamity, or death. If the mutton is fat, it means that one may receive an inheritance from a will which is left by a deceased relative. If it is skinny, it means that one will inherit nothing from him. Eating broiled beef in a dream means standing before a judge or a ruler. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Shroud Or Mortuary Winding Sheet • Dreaming of being wrapped in a shroud like the dead, except for the head and feet, which remain uncovered: Religious corruption or simply things will go wrong. • Weaving a shroud for a dead person: The dreamer will do something good in memory of the deceased or in favour of his offspring as much as the winding sheet was big, beautiful, or valuable. • Weaving a shroud for a living person known to the dreamer: Hardships and trouble for the latter. • Weaving a shroud for a person dreamed of as unknown but alive: Good augury. • Snatching a shroud from a dead person whom the dreamer used to know: The dreamer will follow the example of that late person. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Peacock The peacock symbolizes smiling people, sight of whom in the morning with their good mood is a nice augury. But dreaming of a peacock sometimes gives rise to opposing interpretations. To some it refers to a crown, nice clothes, and jewels, the aesthetic sense, the admiration of and passion for beauty, the pleasurable husband or wife, and the good children. To others it means speaking ill of others, vanity, resorting to one’s enemies, the termination of blessings, and the forthcoming absence of prosperity and ease to experience poverty or hardly manage to subsist. • Seeing a peahen: A reference to a non-Muslim foreign lady jinxed but pretty and rich inasmuch as the peahen’s color and feathers seemed beautiful. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Exhume (Dig up a grave; Unearth) Exhuming the body of a deceased person and finding him alive in his grave in a dream means pursuing his tradition, knowledge, wisdom, trade or practices. It also means acquiring lawful money. If one finds him dead in his grave, then there is no benefit in his striving. A grave robber or a body snatcher in a dream represents a deliberate and a premeditated scheme to unravel a mystery, or forming an expedition to search for a hidden treasure. Digging the grave of a renowned scholar in a dream means studying his school of thought and the restoration of his studies, life, traditions and prominence. (Also see Grave digger; Grave) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Dwellings If one sees his dwellings crumbling or caving in on him in a dream, it means that he will receive an inheritance from the belongings of a deceased relative. Building a dwelling for oneself or for others in a dream means the death of a relative or of one's child, or it could mean divorcing one's wife. Dwellings in a dream also represent a transient station. If the dwelling is built from an unsuitable construction material in the dream, it means that one's source of income is unlawful. One's dwellings in a dream also represent his physical form, carnal self and substance. Demolishing a new home in a dream means evil and adversities. (Also see Cage; Glass house; House) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Mental hospital If a deceased person is seen in a mental hospital in a dream, it means that he is dwelling in hell-fire, for a mental hospital sometime uses force with its patients and ties them up, or imprisons them. If one sees himself in a mental hospital in a dream, it means that he might go to jail for a crime he committed. Mixing with lunatics and insane people in a dream also means imprisonment and mixing with criminals, or it could mean falling sick, or dying from a terminal illness. If a poor person sees himself inside a mental hospital in a dream, it means financial success, receiving outside help, comfort and joy in his life. (Also see Insanity) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Cemetery If a sick person walks into a funeral procession in a dream, it means that his illness will culminate in his death. If he is not sick and then during that procession he weeps or prays for the deceased person in the dream, it means that he will repent of his sins, join spiritual study circles and serves the people of knowledge. Such a person also may attain a blessed spiritual station and benefit from what he hears and sees. If one sees himself walking in a funeral procession and neglecting respect and contemplation, and instead laughs and jokes, it means that he will befriend evildoers and accept their evil conduct as a standard norm of behavior. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Aba As-Sa'ib Dying Righteously Narrated Kharija bin Zaid bin Thabit: Um Al-'Ala an Ansari woman who had given the Pledge of allegiance to Allah's Apostle said, "'Uthman bin Maz'un came in our share when the Ansars drew lots to distribute the emigrants (to dwell) among themselves, He became sick and we looked after (nursed) him till he died. Then we shrouded him in his clothes. Allah's Apostle (Sallallaahu-Alayhi-wasallam) came to us, I (addressing the dead body) said, "May Allah's Mercy be on you, O Aba As-Sa'ib! I testify that Allah has honored you." The Prophet said, 'How do you know that?' I replied, 'I do not know, by Allah.' He said, 'As for him, death has come to him and I wish him all good from Allah. By Allah, though I am Allah's Apostle, I neither know what will happen to me, nor to you.'" Um Al-'Ala said, "By Allah, I will never attest the righteousness of anybody after that." She added, "Later I saw in a dream, a flowing spring for 'Uthman. So I went to Allah's Apostle and mentioned that to him. He said, 'That is (the symbol of) his good deeds (the reward for) which is going on for him.' " (Bukhari) Dream Interpreter: Imam Bukhari
Asylum The asylum, or mental institution, symbolizes frequent travel, asceticism, the heeding of God and reading of the Holy Quran, the stoppage of income, the end of wedlock, the abandoning of children, repentances, the return of religious faith, relief from worries, and sometimes diphtheria (the suffocation disease, to borrow the expression of Al-Nabulsi). It could also represent the bathroom, as madness was believed by the ancient Arabs to be associated with demons and because, like the bathroom, the mental institution is a place where people take off their clothes, show their private parts, and exhibit repulsive manners. For some interpreters, the madhouse refers to the school, because, there, the inpatients were educated by force, in ancient times, and taught to read and write and know the Quran. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Funeral A funeral crossing a marketplace in a dream means liquidation of merchandise. Paying tribute to a funeral in a dream means bidding farewell or paying respect to a travelling friend. Paying tribute to a passing funeral procession in a dream represents one's concern for his own comfort. If the deceased in the coffin points at the person seeing the dream, it means that the latter will conduct his funeral, and he will receive a reward for his service. If he serves that funeral till the burial and the closing of the grave in a dream, it means that he will receive double that reward, the value of which reward is known only to Allah Almighty. (Also see Cemetery; Death; Funeral prayers) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Death Death symbolizes the loss of religious faith and divorce as well as poverty, most probably on the spiritual plane. It also means regret and repentance for a great sin. Likewise, it alludes to imminent marriage, because the bridegroom or the married person, like the dead, enjoys special care, such as washing, incense, et cetera. • Seeing one’s corpse carried on a bier or in a coffin amid tears and sobbing after all mortuary rituals have been accomplished: Weakening faith and debauchery along with dignity and power in this world. If, furthermore, the body had been buried, it would mean that the dreamer will be completely immersed in worldly matters and lost spiritually and will die without repentance. If he comes out of the grave, he will repent. In any case, the hero of such a dream will have absolute mastery and will almost enslave or humiliate as many people as were seen carrying his bier over their necks and shoulders. He might also rule over his province or state. But for a slave burial means that he will be set free. For the custodian of something it means that whatever he is entrusted to keep will be snatched from him. • Sudden death: Unexpected troubles and worries. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Quran • Stealing a Holy Quran: The dreamer will forget prayer. • Holding a book or a Mushaf and opening it to find its pages blank: Appearances are deceitful or tricky. • Eating a Mushaf or the pages of a Mushaf: The dreamer is taking money to transcribe the pages of the Holy Book, which is an illicit or immoral gain. • Kissing the Mushaf: No shortcomings in discharging the dreamer’s duties. • Writing Quranic texts in porcelain or mother-of-pearl or on a dress: The dreamer is interpreting the Quran the way he likes. • Writing the Quran on the ground: The dreamer is an atheist. • Reading the Quran without clothes: The dreamer is whimsical. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
The Honor of Aba As-Sa'ib Narrated Kharija bin Zaid bin Thabit: Um Al-'Ala an Ansari woman who had given a pledge of allegiance to Allah's Apostle (Sallallaahu-Alayhi-wasallam) told me:, "The Muhajirln (emigrants) were distributed amongst us by drawing lots, and we got 'Uthman bin Maz'un in our share. We made him stay with us in our house. Then he suffered from a disease which proved fatal. When he died and was given a bath and was shrouded in his clothes. Allah's Apostle came, I said, (addressing the dead body), 'O Aba As-Sa'ib! May Allah be Merciful to you! I testify that Allah has honored you.' Allah's Apostle said, 'How do you know that Allah has honored him?" I replied, 'Let my father be sacrificed for you, O Allah's Apostle! On whom else shall Allah bestow. His honor?' Allah's Apostle said, 'As for him, by Allah, death has come to him. By Allah, I wish him all good (from Allah). By Allah, in spite of the fact that I am Allah's Apostle, I do not know what Allah will do to me.", Um Al-'Ala added, "By Allah, I will never attest the righteousness of anybody after that." (Bukhari) Dream Interpreter: Imam Bukhari
Lesbianism • Seeing one’s wife with a beard: She will never become pregnant. If she already has a boy, the latter will prevail over his family. • A woman dreaming that she is disguised, looks like, or behaves like a man: Good or bad fortune and fear, depending on the condition of her clothes. • A woman dreaming that she has a penis (or a beard): (1) If married, she will divorce. (2) More power for whoever is supporting her. (3) She is dominating her husband and retaliates to any reproach on his part, especially if in the dream she is dressed like a man. (4) If pregnant, she will give birth to a male child. (5) If she is not pregnant but already has a boy, the latter will become the master of his folk. (6) If she is neither pregnant nor the mother of a boy, she will never have children in view of her masculinity. (7) It could also indicate that she is a lesbian who uses her clitoris as men do their phallus in making love to the opposite sex. (8) If she is not a lesbian, is not married, and has never conceived, she will get married. • A pregnant woman introducing her penis in her anus: Will have an abortion. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Home The distinction is very vague in Arabic between the words dar and bayt, both meaning “house” or “home.” But after consulting a knowledgeable colleague (a Moroccan ambassador and man of letters), the author assumes that dar is more likely to mean a house as a structure or an apartment block and bayt a room, an apartment, or simply home. However, in the ancient Arab texts the writer often jumps from one meaning to another, and I have taken real pain trying to disentangle them, as usual. Home symbolizes the man’s wife sheltered under his roof and to whom he goes, whence the expression “He went home.” Therefore, home and wife are synonyms. The door is her vagina or her face, the closet or the safe a maiden, like the dreamer’s daughter, whom he does not penetrate, as they are covered or hidden places in which he does not sleep. The servants quarters symbolize the servant (s). The place where cereals are stored is the mother, who used to keep the dreamer alive and let him grow by feeding him milk. The toilet represents those servants who are in charge of cleaning and washing or the dreamer’s wife, whom he embraces and penetrates when isolated, i.e., away from his children and the rest of the household. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Funeral If one sees himself lifted and placed in a coffin in a dream, it means that people will appoint him to a leadership position. If one sees a group of people performing a funeral prayers and crying over the loss of the deceased in a dream, it means that the conclusion of his life will be commendable. Otherwise, if they express no sorrow for his loss or cry over him, but instead criticize him in the dream, it means that the conclusion of his life will be contemptible. If a merchant, a governor or a leader sees himself sitting over a coffin that is moving freely by itself in the dream, it means taking a trip by sea. If one sees the coffin flying in a dream, it means that a great man of knowledge will die in that town and people will not know of it, or that a known person will die in a foreign land or on the way to or back from a pilgrimage. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
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