Things that Dream Interpreters Pay Attention to

There are eighteen things that dream interpreters pay attention to: A. Likenesses We have seen above that dreams give parallels, so (the interpreter) looks at the similarities between a thing and its parallels, in physical or psychological attributes, in names and letters, in terms of lineage and otherwise. I have listed every scenario that was interpreted and turned out to be true. When I was the one who interpreted it, I have attributed it to myself, and what my Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said, I have attributed it to him. Where it has been proven to me that a dream was interpreted and turned out to be true, I have attributed it to the one who interpreted it. If I do not know who he was, I say "an interpreter said..." What I mention without attributing it is quoted from the book Al-Ishaarah. Then if I found out who interpreted it, I mention it; otherwise I list the dreams and mention what I think the interpretation must be. The interpreters had habits which have changed in our time, so the ruling has to change. For example, the dreams of Yoosuf (May Allah be please with him) refer to the prevalence of the Mutawakkili state. A man said to me in the year 14: I saw Yoosuf (May Allah be please with him) coming to Tunis on a man's ship and I said: Perhaps Tunis will be taken over by a man who has similarities to [Yoosuf (May Allah be please with him)] in many ways, and I thought to myself that it was the ruler of Constantine [Arabic Qusanteenah, in NE Algeria]. I reached this conclusion on the basis of five things: 1. Constantine is like a ship in that it is surrounded by water. 2. Noble descent: the Prophet Yoosuf was a noble man, son of a noble man, descended from noble men, and the ruler of Constantine is a king, son of a king, descended from kings, so they have noble descent in common. 3. The grandfather of Yoosuf (May Allah be please with him) and the grandfather of this king were both called Ibraaheem. 4. Ibraaheem (May Allah be please with him) was tested by means of a disbelieving king whose religion had no basis, and Ibraaheem the grandfather of this king was tested by a king of no known origin. 5. Yoosuf (May Allah be please with him) was of handsome appearance and I have heard that this king is of handsome appearance. Then I heard that the reason why he came to power was a dream, then I came to the city during his time. That confirmed that he was the one referred to in the dream, so there should be something that is going to happen at the end of his life, and his reign would be lengthy. When Ibraaheem entered Tunis and this king took over Constantine, a man saw in his dream that another man, who was known as Abu Bakr Al-Qal'i, had entered Jaami' Al-Zaytoonah with his scarf on his shoulders, and joined a circle of readers. I said: The Emir Abu Yahya will go back to Tunis, and that is what happened, because Abu Bakr was Al-Qal'i, as he was from Qal'at Qustantiniyyah, and the fact that his scarf was on his shoulders was indicative of resolution. Similarly, a man dreamt that he saw this Abu Bakr Al-Qal'i reciting Qur'an at night with a beautiful voice, and Hamzah ibn Abi'l-Layl was listening to him, then he turned to the dreamer, saying: Didn't I tell you that I am the most wise, most powerful? At that time, the king had left to fight another army, so I said: He will be victorious by the Lord of the Ka'bah, because he is wide and powerful. And that is how it happened. Ibraaheem ibn Ahmad, the ruler of Qayrawaan, fell sick and was abou t to die, then he saw in a dream that a coffin was placed in front of him, then that coffin was opened and a young white girl, wearing a white garment, came out and greeted him and then went away. Then a young yellow girl came out and greeted him and then went away. Then a young black girl came out and greeted him and then went away. Then a young red girl, wearing a red garment and holding a fiddle in her hand, came out. She stood there and started to play the fiddle. He told his dream to Shaykh Abu'l - Hasan 'Ali Al - Qayrawaani, and he said: Bring the phlebotomist. The doctors who were present said: If any blood comes out of him, he will die straightaway. He said: There is no alternative. The Emir ordered that the phlebotomist be brought, and when he let his b lood out, he recovered. It was said to him: How did you know that? He said: The coffin represents the body and the four girls represent the humours. The fact that the white one, the yellow one and the black one greeted him and left indicates that he was sa fe from them, but when the red one stayed and played the fiddle, singing blood, blood, I knew that his problem was with the blood. Another king's dream: Shaykh Shihaab - ud - Deen said to me: I was summoned by the king Al - Zaahir, and I found him shaking like a leaf in the wind. He said to me: Are you a Shaykh? I said: Yes, O master. He said: I dreamt that I became a midwife and attended twelve women (in childbirth), and I took the infants from their stomachs. I said: What you have dreamt is good, O master. As you have seen yourself as a woman, this is a sign that you are concealing your secrets and you will go out and conquer twelve fortresses belonging to the Christians. So he saw the resemblance between him and a woman as a sign of goodness and concealment. A nd he saw the wombs of the women as representing the fortresses. He said to me: He went out and conquered twelve fortresses, and when he returned he summoned me and said to me: O Shaykh. I said: Yes, O master. He said: This is the wealth that I seized, and if it is kept with the Amirs (emirs) it will be dangerous, so take half of it and I will take the other half. A man saw in his dream that he stole night and day and sold them. Shaykh Shihaab - ud - Deen said to him: You have stolen a chessboard and sold it. H e said: You are right. The similarity here is that one of the two sides (in chess) is white and the other is black, and one comes after the other. A man dreamt that he bought Jibreel (May Allah be please with him) and put him in a cage, then a cat came and ate him. Shaykh Shihaab - ud - Deen said: You bought a hoopoe and put it in a cage, and the cat ate it. The similarity here is that the hoopoe was the messenger of Sulaymaan (May Allah be please with him) and Jibreel is the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds, may He be blessed and exalted, so they have the title of messenger in common. A woman dreamt that she conquered a Christian fortress, and he said to her: You are a midwife tending to children born as a result of Zina. She said: You are right. A woman dreamt that she turned into Dawood (May Allah be please with him). He said: You have started to do tattooing. She said: You are right The similarity here is that the tool used for tattooing resembles chainmail. A man said to Ibn Sireen: I dreamt that in my hands I had a vessel of dates on which was a pair of scissors. He said to him: Have you decided to travel? He said: Yes. He said: Do not do it, because the scissors look like the word no (La) and it is placed on the dates (Tamr), so from both of them we get the phrase La Tamurr (do not pass). One of them composed a line of verse concerning that: La (no) in words clips the wings of the wish, which is why it (the word la) looks like the clipper. A man saw a hunchback dancing with a rose in his hand, saying, "A rose, a rose and half a rose." An interpreter said to him: Do you have a ship at sea? He said: Yes. He said: It will come to you after one hundred days. And it turned out as he said. The similarity here is that the hunchback was likened to the ship because the hump has a high point and the ship has a high point. Roses last for forty days, so one rose means forty, another rose means forty and half a rose means twenty, adding up to a total of one hundred. The dancing of the hunchback is like the dancing of the ship on the sea. The same dream was seen by another man with reference to a king who went out to fight his enemy. He saw a hunchback on top of the king's pavilion, holding a rose in his hand, dancing and saying, "A rose, a rose and half a rose." The interpreter said: In one hundred days' time, this king will be defeated and will never recover after that, because the hunchback's back is broken and will never recover. And that is how it turned out. A man said: I dreamt that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) had died. It was said to him: The judge will die. The Faqeeh Abu 'Abd-Allah ibn Ya'qoob died straight after that. The Faqeeh Abu Yahya said to me: I dreamt that the Amir (emir) put me in charge of the store of ghee and honey. I said to him: You will become the judge of marriage matters. And that turned out to be so. The similarity here is that ghee represents provision and the judge of marriage matters decides about provision (maintenance, etc). And honey represents marriage. A man dreamt that a man of the common folk was leading the people in prayer in Tunis, when the Qaadi of the people had died, and he resembled Al-Faqeeh Abu Ishaaq ibn 'Abd Al-Rafee' in his eyes. I said: Abu Ishaaq is going to be the Qaadi. And that turned out to be the case. I was in Tunis in the year in which the Faqeeh Ibn Zaytoon - who was sick at that time - died, and I saw myself (in a dream) in Jaami' Al-Zaytoonah and my grandfather moved the larger candelabra for me, then its movement increased and I shouted: Hold it lest it fall, but no one held it, so I panicked and then it fell and some of its lamps broke. Then I saw the smaller candelabra that was placed on the floor beside the Mihraab. I told the Faqeeh Al-Qaadi ibn Al-Ghammaaz: The larger candelabra represents the Shaykh of the Fuqaha', namely Ibn Zaytoon, and the smaller candelabra represents his deputy, the Faqeeh Abu Taahir ibn Saroor. Al-Faqeeh Ibn Zaytoon will die soon and Al-Faqeeh Abu'l-Taahir will remain doing nothing and, moreover, he will be dismissed after Shaykh Ibn Zaytoon dies because some of the lamps were broken. Then I went on a journey to some city, and I asked for permission to enter upon Ibn Zaytoon when it was time to bid him farewell. He said: O my son, nothing prevented me from appointing you except my sickness. I prayed for him and said to myself: This is the movement of the candelabra in my dream, which my grandfather moved, because the grandfather represents good luck. I told Al-Faqeeh Ibn Al-Ghammaaz: He will inevitably die, because if part of the dream happens, all of it will happen. And he died after I reached my own city. A man dreamt that a Jinni possessed him. I said: You will fall sick because of cold weather. And that turned out to be the case The similarity here is that the body shivers when affected by cold like the shivering of one who is possessed. A Jew dreamt that Moosa (May Allah be please with him) was behind him. Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said to him: You memorized part of the Torah and forgot it; you are going to change your religion. And he became a Muslim The similarity here is that if a person forgets something it is said that he put it behind his back. A Samaritan said to him: I dreamt that I ate ten pages of the Torah. Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said to him: You swore an oath by the Ten Commandments falsely because of necessity, as you feared for your life. He said: You are right. A woman saw a palm tree in her house on which were fresh dates and black grapes. Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said to her: From which of them did you eat? She said: The black (grapes). He said to her: You have a black slave, and you were attracted to him and you became pregnant from him. She said: I couldn't help it. He said: Do not do it again. The similarity here is that the palm tree represents a man. There were black grapes on it, and there is pleasure in eating, and she enjoyed pleasure with that black man. A man saw himself eating pomegranates from a tree, and other pomegranates grew on the skin of a pig. Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said to him: You have a wife with a proper marriage and a Christian woman without marriage, and she has become pregnant from you. He said you are right. The similarity here is that the pomegranate represents a woman. Eating it from the right tree means having a woman with a proper marriage contract. As for the other pomegranate growing on the skin of the pig, that indicates the growth of something that is not the way it is usually, namely the relationship with a woman without a marriage contract. The pig indicates that she is a Christian woman and the interpretation of the pregnancy is taken from him eating the pomegranate. A woman dreamt that there was a palm tree in her house, around which were seven small palm trees, on each of which were ripe dates. A dream interpreter said to her: You will be blessed with seven sons, each of whom will marry and his wife will bear him children. A man dreamt that a tailor made a nice cap on his head, and stitched it to the skin of his head, which caused him pain. Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said to him: This man did a marriage contract between you and a woman, and you suffered because of it and you want to get rid of her. He said: You are right. The cap is likened to the woman because the head enters it, like the head of the pen. The tailor is likened to the one who wrote the marriage contract because the needle is like a pen and the stitching is like writing. Stitching the cap to his head caused him pain and led to him not being able to get rid of her. A man of high status dreamt that a king built a high place for him so that he could look out from it, but there was no window in it. Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said to him: He will appoint you to a position that is beyond your capabilities. And the connection is obvious. A man dreamt that his window vanished. He said to him: Do you have a boat? He said: Yes. He said: Its sail will disappear, because both of them catch the wind. A man dreamt that the restroom was blocked with a watermelon. He said: A boil will appear on your backside which will prevent you from defecating, and you will cut it off with a knife. The boil is like a watermelon because of the skin and the fact that it contains water, and the backside is related to man's relieving himself. A man dreamt that he was washing himself in the bathhouse with a star above his head, then that star fell on his head and cut it. Shaykh Shihaab-ud-Deen said to him: One of the vessels in the bathhouse will fall on your head. And that turned out to be the case. The vessel was likened to the star because it is round and shiny. We shall stop here, because these examples of likenesses are sufficient. Whatever similar cases we come across in the following chapters we will point out.