Dreams and lies

One of the many ways God inspires or talks to us is through dreams. A hadith of Prophet Muhammad has it that “the good dream of a pious man is the forty-sixth part of a prophecy.” This confirms that dreams are not a hoax after all.

But lately, there have been scores of lies peddled in the innocence of dreams. Those who lead some of these crimes do so by making their victims believe it’s a dream they have had.

In early 2011, a confidant related that he was coming from training, and as he had gotten to the entrance of their house, he chanced upon a cousin talking to his mother. Then, coincidentally, his mother turned in his direction with loads of distress on her face. She summoned him in hesitance. “Son, your cousin says ‘asimesi’s’ daughter, at the family house, had a dream that ‘something was doing you.’” Just by listening to this part of the news, he stopped being himself, not that he went unconscious or started removing his clothes but he felt mentally weak.

That year, he confessed he was facing some difficulties already. He has a trip he was striving hard to make, a scholarship he hadn’t been called yet, and the possibility of writing a referral exam which was a turn-off for him. So, as the dream was broken, it took effect on him instantly. By the end of the year, the trip got canceled. The admission didn’t come off. And he sat for the resit too.

Henceforth, that cousin became an enemy by choice. He hated seeing her face. Because, for him, she was a bad omen. If she had not related that dream, he would perhaps have gotten things easier. Like it’s often said: “when a tree fell in the forest and there’s no one to tweet about it, did it really fall?”

This hatred came to cessation when his cousin’s son died. To my friend, why didn’t a dream of that perdition be had by that “asimesi’s” daughter that her son would die so soon? This was when he started seeing that “asimesi” daughter’s dream can never harm him. Ideally, her cousin just hated the fact that things were going on well for him. So this could be nothing but a psychological game.

Another example apropos to lies being peddled in the name of dreams is seen in relationships off-late. A lady who wants to dump a man she’s no more interested in, would wake up and just claim she had had a bad dream and thus she doesn’t think it would be sound for them to be together. This ends their relationship.

With the men, they normally approach the sisters with the idea that they had seen them in a dream. Some could go a step further using “istikhara” (seeking God’s help in making a choice). They fabricate lies to suit the interests God has revealed to them that a sister is their future wife and whatnot. Due to the gullibility of some sisters, they end up falling prey to these pleasure seekers. He would get what he wants, and eventually dumps the sister. When the sister demands answers, he would say ‘it just didn’t work for us’. By that time the harm had already been caused.

Islam has a solution for these dream orchestrated crimes. There are three types of dreams per the traditions of Prophet Muhammad : a good dream (comes from God), bad dream (it’s from satan), and psychological dream (from person’s own thoughts).

Even when a person sees a good dream, he is required not to relate it to anyone because of the evil eye and hatred, safe a trusted family or confidant. When Prophet Yusuf (as) had the dream, his father advised him not to relate it to his brothers but he went ahead and told them. They grew enmity for him and nearly got him killed.

However, for bad dreams, one is by no means to relate it to anyone. If a bad dream is about an accident, or a lion chasing somebody, the dreamer should keep it a secret and never relate it to the person. This is because when a bad dream is related, the propensity of it happening is very high like the earlier example. Prophet Muhammad said: “When one had a dream which he dislikes, he should spit on his left side thrice, seek refuge with Allāh from its evil, and change the sleeping position. It will never harm him.”

Psychological dreams often manifest this way: maybe before going to bed, one was watching a very naughty movie so he woke up to see that he had spoiled himself with fluid other than water. Then just by that, he concludes that he has a spiritual lover. What the person needs to do is that he must consider the last things he does before falling asleep or going to sleep as taught by Islam.

This is how simply we could eradicate fraudulent dreams. But we need to learn and live by the dictates of Islam. It would assuredly afford us the right to winnow good from evil and not to draw hasty conclusions whenever being confronted with a scary dream.

And for those who use dreams to inherit people over their rights, desist from that, for Prophet Muhammed mentioned that: “Whoever adds lies to his dream or tells of a false dream will be ordered on the Day of Resurrection to make a knot on a barley grain.” Also, “the worst lie is that a person claims to have seen a dream which he has not seen.”