Vessel • Being in a ship at the bottom of the sea: The dreamer will be in the hands of the people he fears most, and his eventual death will come as a relief for him. • A ship being shattered and seeing its wreck and planks floating here and there: A tragedy will befall those whom the dreamer cherishes most. Holding an oar: The dreamer will acquire knowledge or obtain money from a thorny individual. • Holding the ship’s ropes: The dreamer is religious and will befriend pious and virtuous persons in view of the Quranic verse: “And hold fast, all of you together, to the cable of Allah …” (“Al-Imran” [The Imran Family], verse 103.) Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Flour Wheat or corn flour symbolizes whatever money the dreamer has amassed. It also refers to his children and other persons he supports. • Baking wheat or corn flour: Will visit relatives abroad. • Baking barley flour: The dreamer is a true believer, will triumph over enemies and will earn a fortune and a high post. • Flour paste: Honest and quick business gains if it fermented. If it does not, it means corruption or that things will go wrong and the dreamer will experience financial hardships. If it turns sour, the subject is about to lose everything. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Slave • Buying a yellow slave girl (Asian): (1) Hurdles. (2) Disease. • Buying a black slave girl: Will escape trouble and worries. • Selling a slave girl of any race: (1) Poverty and need. (2) Will sell one’s house. (3) Will sell a household utensil. • A smiling and nice-looking slave girl coming to the dreamer: (1) Benefits. (2) The chief will accede to the dreamer’s demands. (3) The return of an absent one. • An ugly slave girl coming to the dreamer: Something undesirable will happen. • A slave girl chasing the public and inciting them to bloodshed: Intrigue will break out. • A slave girl beating people or beating drums: Great welfare for the people, commensurate with her beauty. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Bread • Seeing plenty of loaves without eating any of them: Will meet one’s brothers very soon. • Seeing a brown bread loaf in one’s hand: Nice living but medium religious faith. • A barley bread loaf: A life of sorrow and fear. • A dry loaf: Tight living. • Being given a piece of bread and eating it: The dreamer will either die or live nicely. • Taking a piece of bread: The dreamer is cupid. • Hot bread: Hypocrisy and prohibitions. • A loaf of bread hanging on the dreamer’s forefront: He is poor. • Rotten bread (with green bacteria on it): Plenty of money that is of no use to its owner and from which no religious dues are paid. • Bread cooked on embers or hot sand: Hard living, for only the needy bake that kind of bread. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Market • Stealing or cheating in buying and selling: Will indulge in the worst kind of theft, like that involving people’s bread. If a mujahid—involved in Jihad—will be caught and chained. If a pilgrim, will conquer the heart of a woman and enjoy making love to her. If a scholar, will give bad counsel, will pray the wrong way, will prostrate himself before the imam does, et cetera. • Seeing a specific market full of people but with fire in it or a spring in its midst or seeing a nice breeze blowing in it or its shops filled with chopped straw: Good earnings for the merchants, but hypocrisy as well. • The market looking empty and its people dead or the merchants feeling sleepy or looking dormant or the shops closed and cobwebs appearing here and there, even on the commodities: Stagnation and recession. • Seeing a quiet market: Unemployment for its people. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Snake Killing a snake in a dream and staining one's hands with its blood means destroying one's enemy. A snake in one's dream also represents a rich enemy, for its poison means money. If one sees snakes being killed in the streets in a dream, it means a war. A small snake in a dream represents a little child. Hunting snakes in a dream means tricking or deceiving one's enemies. A black snake in a dream represents a strong enemy. A white snake in a dream represents a weak enemy. If one sees a snake talking to him and saying nice words to him in a dream, it means enjoying pleasant moments with one's adversary, or benefiting at the hands of one's enemy. If the snake talks harshly to him in a dream, it means suffering from tyranny and oppression caused by one's enemy. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Planet The planets symbolize rulers, scholars, notables, and noble or rich people. Small planets that emit a weak light represent the slaves, nannies, and public. Planets associated with winter mean trouble and worries. Summer planets herald welfare and nice living. • Bright planets assembled at the dreamer’s house: Leaders will meet at his place. • Dull planets assembled at the dreamer’s house: Nobles will meet at the dreamer’s place for some tragic matter. • Seeing plenty of planets at one’s place: The dreamer will have plenty of children. • Seeing a bright and shining planet: Joy and happiness, and people will turn to the dreamer for help. • Planets coming together to shed light: The dreamer will travel and earn money or return from a trip in high spirits. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Fish Fishing in a well means homosexuality, or it could represent someone who tries to tempt his servant or his assistant to indulge in a loathsome act. If one sees himself fishing in murky waters in a dream, it conveys evil, sorrows, or distress however it may happen. If one sees himself fishing in clear waters in a dream, it means money or hearing nice words or conceiving a son, while fishing in salty waters in a dream means difficulties. If one sees himself fishing with a fishhook in a dream, it means excitement, pleasure or losing benefits. A soft skin fish in a dream means benefits for someone intending to trick or to swindle people's money. Mostly fishing with a pole and a fishhook in a dream means difficulties or slow coming benefits, or a slow and loose business. Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Tree The tree symbolizes religion and sects in view of the allegory in the Holy Quran of the good tree (date palm) and the good words: “Seest thou not how Allah coineth a similitude: A goodly saying, as a goodly tree, its roots set firm, branches reaching into Heaven.” (“Ibrahim” [Abraham], verse 24.) Likewise, the Muslims Holy Prophet likened the good tree to the Muslim. The one he saw himself holding in a spiritual odyssey,52 he said, was the duty of praying, which he had brought to his followers. Ancient Arab dream interpreters said that whereas the tree referred to the man’s deeds, religion, or ego, its leaves symbolizes his character, its beauty his nice shape and clothing, its branches his brothers, relatives, folk, and beliefs, its heart his hidden essence and his secrets, its bark his appearance, skin, and all that he uses to adorn himself with, and its semen his faith, piety, assets, and life. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Egg For medical doctors, gifted persons, and poultry farmers, eggs mean welfare. For the rest, few eggs mean benefits; many eggs means deep worries. Big eggs refer to boys and small ones to girls. For bachelors, eggs often symbolize marriage. For married people, eggs are the forerunners of childbirth. Eggs also represent hidden things. • Eggs in a container: Slave or maiden girls, in view of the Quranic expression “[Pure] as they were hidden eggs [of the ostrich].” (“Al-Saffat” [Those Who Set the Ranks], verse 49.) • The dreamer’s hen having laid an egg: Will be blessed with a male child. • Cooked eggs without shells: Blessed gifts and benefits. • Eating raw eggs: (1) Will accept dirty money. (2) Will be plagued by many worries. (3) Will commit a sin. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Yusuf The prophet Yusuf (Joseph) talking to the dreamer or giving him something: Will become an expert in the interpretation of dreams, as well as history and its chronology. • Seeing Yusuf: (1) The science of dream interpretation. (2) Kingship and succession. (3) The loss of one’s family, children, and other relatives. (4) A machination against the dreamer. (5) Drought and high prices, as was the case in his time.63 (6) Prison and release from prison. (7) Luck with women, as Yusuf is said to have been of an unequalled beauty. (8) Victory over the enemy, followed by a pardon. (9) An allusion to seas, rivers, and drainage facilities. (10) The transportation of the remains of dead persons from one country to another. (11) An outstanding miracle such as the one that happened to Yusuf’s father when he recovered his eyesight and he received the shirt sent to him by his son. (12) Will be the least lucky among his brothers, who will be so wicked as to let him go to jail, but he will then be saved by God, his brothers, will submit to his authority, and he will forgive them along with other enemies. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Crow • Seeing a crow at the king’s gate: Will commit a crime and will feel sorry or will kill one’s brother, then repent in view of a verse in the Holy Quran about Cain and Abel: “Then Allah sent a crow scratching up the ground, to show him how to hide his brother’s naked corpse. He said: Woe unto me! Am I not able to be as this raven and so hide my brother’s naked corpse? And he became repentant.” (“Al-Maidah” [The Table Spread], verse 31.) • Being scratched by crows: (1) Will freeze to death. (2) Will be slandered by unscrupulous persons and suffer tremendously. • A crow standing on the Kabah, the Muslims holiest shrine in Mecca (Makkah): A debauchee will marry an honest woman. • Seeing a crow in one’s house: (1) A man is betraying the dreamer by sleeping with his wife. (2) The ruler or one of his men will enter the dreamer’s house against his will or storm it. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Tooth • The upper teeth falling on one’s knees: A male child will be born. • Teeth falling on the ground: Death. • Teeth growing in the heart: Death. • Catching a falling tooth and refraining from burying it: Will give advice to whomever that tooth refers to. • All the teeth of healthy, free persons, or travellers falling: (1) Long disease. (2) Troubles of all kinds but no death, because the teeth of those who die do not fall. Therefore, the same dream is a good one for those who are already ill. It means that they will recover fast. (3) For travelling merchants the dream means that their luggage or cargo is light, especially if the teeth were seen moving. • All the teeth falling, but catching them up in one’s sleeve or seeing them falling on the knees: Will live long, till all the teeth fall, and will have a large family at home. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Tree The tree also represents the female kind, for it is irrigated; it bears (fruits) and delivers. It also refers to various places and persons associated with food, money, and wealth, like shops, warehouses, banquets, slaves, servants, and cattle. A specific number of trees alludes to men showing similitude's with such trees. Giant trees like the cypress tree or life tree or juniper tree or the Oriental plane tree are huge, rigid, and evil men. The good smell of a tree is the good reputation of the man whom the tree alludes to. The tree overladen with fruit symbolizes a man known for his largesse. Trees could also symbolize a quarrel or a fight, in view of their Arabic name, shagar, which is homonym for those words. Here, like in all trees involving plants, the season in which the tree is dreamed of plays an important role in the interpretation. • Seeing many date palms in an unusual place: Will command as many men. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Dog All kinds of dogs refer to wicked persons. • Taking a dog: Will befriend a servant and love him very much. • Taking or befriending a dog: Deviation, work stoppage, and the squandering of money. • Being bitten or scratched by one’s dog: (1) Will encounter disaster sustain harm, and face hardships caused by a friend or a servant. (2) Will be harmed by one’s enemy as much as there was pain. (3) The dreamer might fall ill. • A dog tearing one’s clothes: A silly individual is backbiting you. If no barking was heard, it means that an enemy has silently laid a trap. • A female dog (or bitch): (1) A proliferative woman keen on preserving her husband; (2) A mean woman of low origin whose folks are troublemakers. • A puppy is a beloved son. If he is white, it means the boy is a genuine worshiper. If black, he will prevail over his folk. In other interpretations: A puppy is the waif of a profligate or the product of adultery that the dreamer will find and raise. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Dog The dog is also a harbinger of fever, in view of the terrible disease Al-Shiira Al-Yamaneyyah (literally translated, it means the Yemeni hair; probably hirsutism or hypertrichosis, more popularly known as the werewolf phenomenon, which had a correlation not with the full moon, but with Al-Shiira Al-Yamaneyyah, which was also the name of Sirius, a star of the constellation called the Greater Dog, or Canis Major, which is the brightest star in the heavens). It could also be a sign of apostasy, atheism, or despair in God’s mercy and scepticism about His messages. All dogs, in general, symbolize the worldly persons (perhaps because, in Arabic, whereas the word kalb means “dog,” takalub means “to rush madly upon; to contend for”), as well as the humble, submissive people, the beggars, or the lads who go from door to door. In abstract terms, dogs are the incarnation of meanness, lowliness, villainy, and humiliation or humility with everlasting affection for the master and care for the latter’s money and children or in-laws. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Archangels Radwan (the Custodian of Paradise) • Seeing Radwan: (1) Felicity, lasting happiness. (2) The fulfilment of promises. (3) The fulfilment of wishes. (3) Achievements. (5) Reconciliation and return of the good favours of the authority, especially if Radwan has given the dreamer a fruit or a cloth from Paradise or has been smiling at him. (6) God’s blessing, prosperity. (7) Nice living. (8) The end of all worries. • Radwan appearing happy with the dreamer or treating him cordially: God is pleased with the subject and will shower His overt and covert blessings on him. Siddiqoon, Alias Nuriai, Alias Ruhail. (The Archangel of Dreams and Adages Based on the “Guarded Tablets.”)21 Siddiqoon symbolizes excellence, the science of probing and unveiling secrets, the interpreter who translates for kings and knows their secrets, and the erudite. • Seeing Siddiqoon: (1) Good augury, good tidings. (2) Avid reading in tablets and books, as is the case with those working in the fields of education and writing. (3) Joy. (4) The fulfilment of promises. (5) Life and death. (6) Governing. (7) Marriage and children. (8) Travel and return. (9) Glory and defeat. • Siddiqoon telling or giving something to the dreamer: It will be so. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Painter The characteristics of such a person in the dream may be that of a hypocrite in wakefulness, or an ostentatious person, a toadying person, a hypocrite, a panegyrist, or a lauding person, though he mostly looks as a good, sincere and a hard working person. The value of his paintings varies depending on the subject treated. A painter in a dream also represents a person who loves flattery, self-adulation, an eloquently speaking person, a liar, one who fails his promises, or he could represent strength and authority. (Also see Architect; Artist; Paintings; Weaver) Dream Interpreter: Ibn Sirin
Honey Honey symbolizes legally inherited money, war spoils, or money from a partnership. For religious-minded persons it means the merits of piety, the beauty of religion, the reading of the Holy Quran, and philanthropy. For earthly individuals it means that they will obtain something without effort or some benefit (not much) by toiling. According to the Muslims Holy Prophet, honey refers to the sweetness of sex (Arabic ’osayla from asal, which is the word for honey). Certain interpreters say that it represents worries, unhappiness, and those who envy others for what they have and cast an evil eye on them, since honey attracts flies, wasps, and ants. Honey filtered by a process involving fire means relief from hardships, delivery of a child after the full duration of pregnancy, marriage after the legal delay following a previous marriage or the death of a previous spouse, money that has been purified through the payment of zakat (Muslim religious dues), knowledge devoid of heresy and doubts, or wisdom after aberration. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
Flesh According to Ibn Siren, it makes no difference whether the eaten person is a man or a woman, but the younger the subject, the more likely the dream will come true. • Eating another person’s flesh raw: Will slander that person or backbite one of his relatives. • Eating another person’s flesh cooked or grilled: Will swallow the other’s capital. • Biting and snatching one’s own flesh and spitting it on the ground: The dreamer is an evil person and a slanderer. Dream Interpreter: Various Islamic Scholars
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