Had A Dream? What Does It Mean?

Do our dreams have a meaning or not? Every night we see dreams. Like we mentioned, we see three to five dreams that last about 2 hours every night, if we sleep 8 hours, let us say. But do our dreams have a meaning? Should I try to discover what is the meaning? Or should I just leave it because there is absolutely no meaning?

Now when you come to for example psychology, as many of you have already read. Freud for example, he believes that our dreams are nonsense. And this is taught in universities today. Any psychology class you will take, they will tell you. Freud has many opinions and theories about our dreams. And amongst the things that he says is that our dreams are nonsense. They do not have a true meaning behind it. In fact, he says indeed that our dreams are a way in which we express our deep emotions, desires and anxieties. How so?

In that Freud says that many of us, we have certain desires that we want to express but we can't in the society. Why? Because it is a taboo. Because we are ashamed. Because it is unaccepted in the society. So there is an obstacle from me expressing a certain desire or anxiety. So where can I freely express that? In my dreams. In your dreams you are free, you can do whatever you want. That is why we do so many weird and crazy things in our dreams.

So he says it is the realm where you can express your deep anxieties and desires and no one will tell you this is wrong, this is 'ayb, this is shameful, don't do that. No, you can do whatever you want. There is absolutely no limits. So there is no real true meaning to your dreams.

But when we come to Islam, my dear brothers and sisters, our ahadith, they tell us no, this is not correct. In that yes, there are certain dreams that do not have a meaning. But on the contrary, there are many dreams that we see when we sleep, which have a meaning.

So when we come to the Ahadith, the Holy Prophets and the Imams, they divide our dreams into three types. They say there are three types of dreams. So we can not generalize and say all dreams do not have a meaning or we can not generalize and say all dreams do have a meaning. There is three types.

The first type of dream that we see are, the Ahadith call it 'Al-ru'ya al-sadiqah' or 'al-ru'ya al-salihah'. According to the Ahadith, these are the true dreams. The dreams that have a meaning behind it, that there is for example a message that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is sending to you. It could be a message of glad tidings. Allah could tell you something about the future, or tell you something about your life, tell you something about a mystery. There could be a mystery in your life that you do not know how to solve. Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala can show you a dream which has a true meaning behind it.

And that is why in the Holy Qur'an, Allah says: "lahum al-bushra fi al-hayat ad-dunya" (10:64), 'certain individuals they receive glad tidings, good news.' The Holy Prophet, he gave the tafsir[exegesis], according to one hadith of this verse, he said Allah is speaking about dreams. Allah many times, He gives us good news through our dreams. So this dream will have an interpretation.

And in one hadith, the Holy Prophet said: "la Nubuwwata ba'di'"-'there is absolutely no prophecies, no prophets after me. I am the last Prophet.' And then he said except, he made an exception. He said, 'illa al-mubashshirat', there is only one exception. What is that exception? He said, 'al-mubashshirat'-the good news. So they asked him to Ashab, the companions. What are the Mubashshirat? He told them, 'al-ru'ya al-sadiqah'[the true dream].

The only connection we have now with Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala because there is no messenger, he died, Rasul Allah departed this world. The only connection we can have with Allah is what is through our dreams. That specific type of dream where it is called, 'al-ru'yah al-sadiqha'. Where Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala can tell me something. Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, like we mentioned, He could send me a warning so that I stopped from doing something haram or He can send me a message of good news or glad tidings, or any other information that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, can give me.

So this is the first type of dreams that we see: al-ru'yah al-sadiqah'. And these, my dear brothers and sisters, these are the dreams that are the Prophets of Allah see. Because the Prophets of Allah, the Messengers of Allah, when they see a dream, it is revelation from Allah. It is 'ru'yah al-sadiqah'. It is a true dream. And that is why you see we have many instances in history, in the Qur'an, in the ahadith, Prophets that saw dreams that had a meaning behind it.

The second type of dream, the Ahadith of Ahl ul-Bayt tell us, they call it, 'al-Ahlam'. 'al-Ahlam', according to the Ahadith, are the nightmares, the ones where you are frightened, where you see, for example, someone bothering you, you are imprisoned somewhere, or you are running for your life, or you are in a plane and the plane is about to crash, or you get into a car crash, or for example, you go to the airport and you miss your flight, something bad happens in your dream. These, according to the ahadith, are called 'al ahlam'.

And the second type of dreams, the Ahadith, tell us that they are the work of whom? Allah? No, the first one, we said Allah directly. It is a direct link between Allah and that servant. The 'Ahlam, the nightmares, the ahadith tell us they are from the work of the devils. Allah has given the devils the Shayatin [devils] authority and the ability to interfere with our dreams. When they interfere, they are able to make you see a nightmare. These are what the Ahadith tell us. This is the second type of dream.

And the third type of dream, according to the Ahadith, are the 'afgathu ahlam', 'afgath, the ones where they have no meaning, they are nonsense. And these, usually they happen because you were thinking too much about something before you slept. You were stressing out. That is, for example, when you have an exam, you see, when you have an exam and you are very stressed about it, that night, you constantly see dreams about that exam. And you go into the hall, not prepared, or you go late, or whatever. Or if you think about someone, or sometimes if you eat certain foods, you may see certain dreams. And these dreams of 'afgath ahlam', they have no meaning. They are just for you to enjoy it and there is no interpretation to it.

So this is the first point, my dear brother sisters, that there are three types of dreams: the true dreams, the nightmares and the dreams that are nonsense. Now, there are a few points here. I will mention some of them tonight and I will continue insha'Allah with the others tomorrow.

Point number one, my dear brothers and sisters: the hadith of Imam al-Sadiq 'alayhi as-salam, he tells one of his companions, Al-Mufadhdhal Ibn 'Umar, he tells them after he tells him there are three types of dreams and he speaks about them. He tells him, 'and know that most of the dreams that average ordinary human beings like us see, are from the third category. They are nonsense. In that the Imam is telling us that it is very rare for us to see a true dream, al-ru'yah al-sadiqah'.

Unfortunately, many individuals I have seen, every night they see a dream, they think it is revelation from Allah. They have to go door to door, scholar to scholar, Mawlana to Mawlana. Mawlana, Shaykna, I saw this dream, I was on a boat and then it fell, and then whatever. What is the interpretation? Will I become rich? Will something bad happen to me? Is there someone that has done magic against me? And all this nonsense.

And usually when I am asked by those people, first of all, right away I tell them I do not interpret dreams. Why? I will mention that tomorrow. And number two, the first question, just like when you go to the doctor, he asks you many questions. I asked him, what did you eat last night? Did you eat a bean burrito? Did you eat shawarma? Did you eat, for example, ash rashteh, what did you eat? So the food that they ate could have had an effect on them.

So we have to beware brothers and sisters, that most of the dreams, I would say, according to my opinion, my understanding, maybe 90% to 95% or even I would say up to 98 or 99% of the dreams we see are not 'ru'ya al-sadiqah'. Allah is not trying to tell you anything. Trust me, no earthquake will happen that you can stop. No one is about to die that Allah wants you to stop through your dreams.

Because you know why? The Imams, they closed the door to dreams. In one hadith, Imam as-Sadiq, he says, 'inna din Allah a'az min an yuraa fi' an-nawm' - 'the religion of Allah is more sanctified and glorious and greater than to send you messages about faith and about your teachings in dreams.' No, Allah will do it in real life, why in dreams? 'inna din Allah a'az min an yuraa fi' an-nawm'.

Because if the Imams would have opened this door. I could come to you tonight. Know what I can tell you? Brothers, sisters, last night I saw Fatimat uz-Zahra in my dream. You know what she told me? She told me every single one of you has to give me $500 or you are going to Hell. How would you reply to me? It is a dream, I saw Fatimah. The obvious answer would be what? The obvious answer would be dreams are not Hujjah -they have no legal weight. You can not use a dream, of course, to prove anything.

There is a beautiful story about this and we will end with this and continue tomorrow.

There is one of our 'Ulama by the name of Al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli. He lived 7-800 years ago. One of our greatest Maraji' back then. Up to now, we read his books in the Hawzah. Al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli, when there is a Hukm, there is a riwayah from Imam 'Ali that says do not let insane people, those that are too wild and insane, that are not controllable, do not let them come to the masjid.

Now, obviously why? Because they will distract the people praying. If a person is too insane and too mentally retarded, then do not bring them to the masjid. Because this is a place of prostration, and du'a, and salah, and he will distract everyone. So do not let him in. Put him somewhere else. This is the hadith. So that is why it is Makruh. It is not haram. It is Makruh, unrecommended to let someone like that come to the masjid.

One night, al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli, he says I saw in the dream Imam 'Ali or someone that I suppose was Imam 'Ali. He comes and he tells me tomorrow a majnun, a retarded person, will come to the masjid, let him in. The next day, that retarded person comes, Muhaqqiq he tells him you cannot come in. So the second night he sees in the dream, he tells him didn't I tell you? Let him in. Why did you not let him in? Tomorrow he is going to come again. Let him in.

The second day, he also rejects him. He goes against what Imam 'Ali told him in the dream. Three times he came to Imam 'Ali, in the dream, he told him, [don't] let him in. But he did not listen until the fourth night. The story says that Imam 'Ali came to his dream and he told him, you truly are a Muhaqqiq. His name was al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli.

Al-Muhaqqiq means the researcher, the 'Alim, the scholar, the expert. He told him, you truly are an expert. The Imam was trying to test him, because we know the Imams told us when they were alive, not in dreams that do not rely on dreams. He wanted to see will Muhaqqiq rely on this dream? You cannot rely, there is a hadith from the Imam when he was alive, he said it is makruh, I can not come and say, oh, I saw in my dream that it is not makruh. No, this has absolutely no legal weight.

So he told him: you truly are a Muhaqqiq. Because you know it is difficult that you are seeing the Imam in your dream, and you think you should do it, and you think you are going against the will of the Imam. But it is the right thing to do, because he knew that we had a hadith from the Imam that says it is makruh. So he told him you truly are a scholar. You truly are a Muhaqqiq and he was testing him.