Depends on What the Poetry Says

A man dreamt that someone was saying in the air: The sovereignty of Marwan has diminished. Look and learn and say: Glory be to the One Whose sovereignty never diminishes So their sovereignty diminished. I was in Qafsah, and I was teaching and had no plans to travel. Then I dreamt that I was saying: They left and never bade farewell, and they did not reme mber their homelands. We will travel towards them and not see any man (to bid him farewell). Then I travelled, and I did not bid farewell to anyone. It is narrated that a man was upset about something and became very distressed, then he woke at night sayin g: Perhaps death is a relief for the one who is humiliated. Then that night he dreamt that someone was saying: O you on whom distress has taken its toll, when you feel distressed, think of (the words) " Have We not opened your breast for you? " [Al - Sharh 94:1] For hardship is followed by a twofold ease, so do not worry. It was narrated that Moosa ibn 'Abd Al - Malik said: I was imprisoned, and one night I dreamt that someone was saying: You are still rising in esteem and indeed, good fortune is co ming to you from all directions. Be of good cheer, for you will get what you want and your enemies will be destroyed. They are not given respite and no warning was given to them. Allah does what He wants, So be patient, for patience is something good; be g rateful, for by being grateful you will be given more. He said: It was not long before I was granted relief and released. A man said: Something was worrying me and I was distressed because of it, then I dreamt that someone was saying to me: Show patience i n the face of calamities, for there may come a day when you will never have any worries or distress. He said: I memorized this line of Verse, and woke up repeating it, then soon Allah granted me relief. There are many such examples. In general, one may loo k at what is said in Qur'an, Hadeeth and poetry in order to help one to interpret the dream. O. Interpreting the Wording to See What Other Meanings it May Have, as One Word May Have Two Meanings, or Two Words May Have Similar Meanings, or the Word May Be Used as a Metaphor An example of one word having two meanings is when a person sees himself in a dream digging in a place that is not prepared for water, then he finds a spring of water there. It may be said to him: You will find gold, because the word 'Ayn (spring) may refer to a place where water or gold is found. But if the place is prepared for water and he finds gold there, then it may be said: You will find a spring of water. A man dreamt that his teeth were clear, and his son was in prison for murder. I said to him: The teeth are your relatives, and their clearness indicates the removal of the misfortune that has befallen them. Perhaps your son will come out of prison and your relatives will come together on a happy occasion. Soon after that, he died and I realized that his teeth in the dream were a metaphor for his death, and what was meant by them being clear was being emptied. Another man said to me: I dreamt that I was purified. I said the word Tat-heer (purification) may refer to two things: it refers to the removal of intangible or spiritual impurity, but colloquially it is used to refer to circumcision, and this is what the dreamer wanted. I said: Perhaps you will have some purification that pleases you. Shortly after that, he killed a man and was executed for that, and I realized that what was meant by his purification was that which occurred by means of Qisaas. An example of two words having the same meaning is where animals and trees refer to a person, because the word Haywaan (animal) may include man and other animals by implication, and it also includes trees, because all of them are growing bodies, and it includes the mountains and rocks, because the word body includes everything. A man dreamt that someone said to him: Get up and evacuate the house, because it is going to collapse. He thought that it referred to the house that he was in, so he got up and went into another house, which then collapsed on him. A man dreamt that a prominent man gave him some coins, and he was asking him for help. I said to him: He is not going to help you and he is going to turn you away. And it turned out as I said. The point here is that these coins are called Sarf in Arabic, and this word also means dismissal. Another man dreamt that he gave a lot of coins to some ruler, and that meant that he would be dismissed from his service. A doctor in Qafsah said to me: I dreamt that I was standing on a high place in the outside yard, and this outside yard is where funeral prayers are offered for the deceased. He said: And I was surrounded by people, men and women, and I was preaching, then when I had finished my exhortation I came down and went into the city. I said to him: You are worried about this dream and you think that it most likely refers to your death, because there is a saying: Death is sufficient exhortation, and because the high place is indicative of the bier, and that place is prepared for funeral prayers. The fact that men and women were surrounding you is how things are when there is a death, and your entering the city and going out to the place where the deceased are prayed for means that there will be no harm, if Allah wills, but you have to make a will because death is inevitable sooner or later. He left Feeling upset, and he died eleven months later. Ibn Al-Hanbali, who was in Alexandria working as a market inspector, said to me: I dreamt that this house I am living in rose up in the air. I said: You are going to be raised from your position to a higher position. Then when Allah decreed that I should return to Cairo, I told my Shaykh, Shihaab-ud-Deen, about that and he said to me: He will be demoted and that is on the basis of Al-raf' (meaning to put something out of sight), not on the basis of Al-Rif'ah (lifting). And that is what happened. A man said to him: I dreamt that someone was writing with a pen of gold (Dhahab). He said: He is going to die, because his pen has gone (Dhahaba). And that turned out to be the case. An example of metaphor is a man who dreamt that a lion was fighting him, and it was said that he was a brave man, or he dreamt that he was given a mount, and it was said that a donkey or the like would be given to him. If you think carefully, you will realize that dreams are eithertrue, which is when the dreamer sees something and it turns out as he saw it, as in the case where the meaning is clear or two words have one meaning, or they are metaphors. There are no other categories apart from these. All of these reasons help to give a specific meaning to a dream, and no one understands that except the one who has proper understanding.