Lion The lion is a ruler, a tyrant, or a powerful and very dangerous person, in view of the ferocity and devastating anger of that animal. It also symbolizes the warrior, the swindler, the thief, the treacherous worker, the policeman, the insatiable enemy, and perhaps hardships and death, because he who stares at it turns pale, loses his self-control, and is as good as dead, says Ibn Siren. Furthermore, it represents the ruler who embezzles public funds and commits injustice and the lurking enemy. The lioness symbolizes the daughter of a king. The baby lion (lion’s whelp or cub) is a boy. A man told Ibn Siren, “I dreamed that I was embracing and nursing a baby lion.” When the great seer looked at him, saw his humble appearance and miserable garments, and understood that he could not be eligible for any honour, he said, “What could you possibly have to do with the children of princes?!” and he added, “Is your wife, by chance, breast-feeding the son of a prince?” “Yes,” was the reply. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Glass According to Daniel the Wise, as quoted by Ibn Shaheen, glass symbolizes women. For Ibn Siren, manufactured white glass represents religion and life, especially if the name God is written on or carved in it. Otherwise, it refers to the ephemeral. He also concurs that it is part of the essence of women. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Eyelashes • Having no eyelashes: The dreamer is an outlaw in terms of religion.
• Depilating one’s eyelashes: The dreamer is taking religious advice from his enemy.
• The edge of the eyelids turning white: A disease in the head, the eyes, the ears, or the back teeth. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Carnelian-red Such blessings will manifest in one's work and success in his material as well as spiritual life. A Carnelian-red stone in a dream also represents one's progeny, good religious conduct, good character, while seeing the white variety of this stone has a stronger meaning and a better attribute than the red. (Also see Aqiq canyons; Aqiqah rites) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Milk Seeing milk or the breast that it comes from for both men and women means money. Milking means abundance or, in some cases, wickedness, deceit, or fraud. Such dreams are more likely to come true when the actors are identified. An excellent dream is that involving cow milk, for it represents what the year will bring and it symbolizes honest gains and relief. The milk of milkless beings means aspirations will be fulfilled when least expected or from unexpected sources. The milk of any wild animal symbolizes strong religious faith. That of carrion eaters and biting insects or reptiles means reconciliation with the enemy.
• Milk springing from the soil: The emergence of tyranny.
• A woman who does not have milk in her breast dreaming that she is breast-feeding a child, a man, or a woman whom she knows: All doors (or means of living) will be slammed in her face and theirs.
• Sucking the breast of a woman and getting milk out of it: Money and profits.
• Sucking one’s own breast: Treason.
• Drinking mare milk: (1) Will be loved by the ruler and receive gifts from him. (2) Will have a good name. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Clothes A man told Ibn Siren, “I dreamed that I bought an ornamented cloth of the best silk, which was folded up. When I unfolded and hung it, I found it rotten in the middle.” “Did you buy an Andalusian slave?” asked Ibn Siren. “Yes,” said the man. “Did you have sex with her?” “No,” said the man, “for I have not yet checked her.” “Don’t bother to do so, because her genitals are stinking.” And so it was when the man had his new slave checked by his women.
• New white clothes: A new chance. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Leprosy Leprosy symbolizes: (1) A cloth without ornament. (2) Money. Dreaming of being piebald (black and white) means one will contract leprosy. It is always better to dream of oneself having such dreadful diseases than of others. The logic behind this is that, seen on others, leprosy, scabies, and the like give the dreamer an acute and unpleasant sense of repulsion. 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
Back The back symbolizes the person’s back, support, center of power, sure resort, and value.
• Being bent: (1) Tragedy. (2) Hair will turn white.
• Seeing a friend’s back: He will turn away.
• Seeing the enemy’s back: Will be safe from harm from this enemy.
• Seeing the back of an old woman: Life will not smile on you. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Eye • Dreaming that one’s eyes have been pierced: The dreamer will lose someone or something very dear.
• Seeing something white in or around the pupil of the eye or a kind of screen: Trouble, deep worries, losses, and loss of aspirations.
• An absent relative returning blind: The dreamer will die.
• Having “the black water” (glaucoma) in the eyes and being unable to see anything: The dreamer is shameless because, says Ibn Siren, the eye is the center of decency and shame. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Ali Ibn Abi Taleb • Seeing Ali alive: Will be envied by others, but God will save him from their evil eye and give him power. He will also follow the Prophet’s Tradition.
• Seeing Ali as an old man carrying a weapon: Will be in touch with the ruler and benefit from such a relationship.
• Seeing Ali in his forties: Will consolidate your grip.
• A wise man seeing Ali with white hair and beard: Knowledge will dwindle.
• Ali seen in a place where people are prostrating themselves before him or carrying him on their shoulders: Those people will become dissidents (Shia) and come together to sow the seeds of dissension.19 Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Salt Salt has controversial interpretations. Ibn Siren did not like dreams involving salt. Some say white salt represents asceticism coupled with welfare and blessings. Cooking salt means worries, trouble, and disease or money earned the hard way and bringing about many problems.
• Finding salt: Hardships and a severe ailment.
• Eating bread and salt: Contentment.
• A saltbox: A pretty girl. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Veil The veil symbolizes the dreamer’s religion and the woman’s husband, decency, ornament, and welfare or her chief.
• A pure veil: The husband or chief has plenty of money.
• A white veil: The husband or chief is religious and prestigious.
• A black veil: The husband is stupid and poor. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Turkish bath If one sees himself as the attendant of a Turkish bath facility or a bathhouse, and if he stood by and did not serve the customers in the dream, it means that he is a pimp and a bastard who brings benefits to no one but rather wrath. If one sees himself wearing a white uniform and serving people in a dream, it means that he washes people's hearts and dispels their trouble. Public bath in itself denotes many meanings. (Also see Toilet) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Sheep Sheep are a booty. Black sheep are Arabs; white ones are aliens. The ewe, or female sheep, is a well-off or rather wealthy woman. The billy goat is an awesome man or, on the contrary, a slave, a Negro, or even an ignorant person, to borrow the expression of Ibn Siren. The same interpretation of dreams involving a ram applies to it. The she-goat symbolizes a humble or humiliated woman or a jobless servant, because her body is uncovered where it should not be, like the poor. It also refers to the average year. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Bodyguard (Agent; Escort; Secret service) A bodyguard in a dream represents someone who deceives people and leads them astray. If one sees his house filled with agents wearing white uniforms, it signifies glad tidings of recovering from an illness, or that he will escape from adversities and dispel his fears. If such agents in the dream are dressed in black uniforms, then they mean a sickness, distress or depression, and what they say during that dream also identifies their purpose. (Also see Uniform) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Fasting Fasting the three white days of every month (i.e., the 13th, 14th, and the 15th days of the lunar month) in a dream means repayment of one's debts in instalments or teaching someone how to properly read the Quran or spreading knowledge. Fasting during the tenth day of the lunar month of Muharram in a dream represents asceticism, piety, renouncing the world or attending the pilgrimage to Mecca. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Fortuneteller (Magic practice; Medium; Prophecies) If a Fortuneteller sees himself gathering white sand in his dream, it means profiting from his trade. A Fortuneteller in a dream represents someone who can explain the meaning of things, a man of knowledge, an emissary, a dream interpreter, a treasurer or a supply controller. Seeing a Fortuneteller in a dream also signifies stagnation of businesses, a recession and a slump. Coming before a Fortuneteller to ask about some understanding in a dream denotes distress, burdens or dismay. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Jew • Being a Jew means the dreamer will fail to perform the Muslim rites and, therefore, be punished by God while still alive and experience humiliation because, says Ibn Siren, those Jews who had committed an aggression by fishing on a Saturday (Sabbath day), thus transgressing the injunctions of God, were turned into apes. The story is narrated in chapter VII of the Holy Quran, titled “Al-Aaraf’ (The Heights), verses 163–67.34
• Being called a Jew and resenting that appellation while wearing white clothes means the dreamer is facing hardships and expecting compassion from God and relief from worries. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Silk There are contradictory interpretations about silk, for basically it means illicit money. Red silk is a good dream for women and a bad one for men. It could also mean abstract thinking or total isolation to consider some matter (meditation). White silk is better than colored silk, and colored silk is better than black, which means trouble and worries. As usual, the yellow color refers to disease. According to Al-Kirmani, as quoted by Ibn Shaheen, seeing silk means wealth and piety—in other words, the best of two worlds. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
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