Home 
Contact 
Profile 
Videos 
Lecture to 2nd year medical students at the Kulliyah of Medicine, International Islamic University, Kuantan, Malaysia on Saturday 20th March 1999 by Prof Dr Omar Hasan Kasule, Sr.
Occurrence of dreams: All people dream in both REM and non-REM sleep. Dreams during REM are forgotten. It is only dreams in non-REM sleep that are remembered. Remembering of dreams is not perfect. Dreaming during day-time, popularly known as day-dreaming, is possible. It may occur during sleep or without deep sleep. The Prophet (PBUH) is reported to have dreamt in his sleep during the day (MB# 2181).
Content of dreams: Dreams may be review of actual day-time activities. Thus people dream about persons, objects, and events that are of immediate concern to them. There is considerable distortion of the reality. Because of the highly developed faculty of the human mind to be imaginative and creative, some dreams may be very sophisticated and it may prove difficult to relate them to the daily activities or concerns of an individual. Dreams also have a tendency to fantasy. Incidents in dreams last as long as they would in normal life. In general contents of dreams even if well remembered can not be taken to be true facts on which action can be based.
Dreaming in the Qur’an and the sunnat : Dreaming during sleep, ru'uyat manamiyat, has been described by the Qur'an (8:43, 12:4-6, 12:36, 12:43-44, 12:100, 21:5, 37:102, 37:105, 48:27, 52:32). Similarly many hadiths have been related about dreams and dreaming (KS 254-256)
Good and bad dreams: Good dreams are from Allah (MB #2177). Bad frightening dreams are from shaitan (KS 50, Muslim #5613, 5616, 5618, 5619, 5620, 5621, 5623, 5627, 5629, 5632). Bad dreams should not be reported (Muslim #5639, 5640, 5641, 5642). It is an offense to lie when reporting a dream. The offense may be a simple exaggeration or changing the content of a dream from bad to good or vice versa. Because of memory distortion and forgetting that occurs, a dreamer may not be able to piece together a coherent story and may be inclined to confabulate in order to cover up for memory defects. This is strictly forbidden. It would rather be better not to report the dream at all.
Dreams of prophets and righteous people: Dreams of prophets are always true and are part of revelation, wahy (MB #2176). Ibrahim did not hesitate when he dreamt about slaughtering his son Ismail (KS 47). The dreams of prophet Yusuf turned out to be true (p. 1356 12:4-5). The Prophet Muhammad dreamt about hudaybiyat and followed the dream. There is a hadith that seeing the Prophet in a dream is true because shaitan does not come in his similitude (Muslim #5635, 5636, 5637, 5638). Dreams of righteous people are a type of prophethood (MB#2176, MB #2178, MB#2182). We however can never tell for certain who is a righteous person because as humans we judge from outside appearances and only Allah knows what is inside humans.
Interpretation of dreams: The Qur'an described the interpretation of dreams, ta'awil al ru'uyat (12:6, 12:21, 12:36-37, 12:44-49, 12:100-101). Only dreams of prophets can be interpreted correctly. Only prophets can interpret people's dreams correctly. Prophet Yusuf interpreted dreams very effectively (p. 1355 12:6, 12:21, 12:36, 12:4, 12:44-49, 12:100-101). The Prophet Muhammad interpreted many dreams. Interpretation of dreams of ordinary humans who are not prophets by non-prophets should be discouraged.