Ta'bir al-Ru'ya تعبير الرؤيا
Dream interpretation in Islam, with the sources shown.
A dictionary of 125 symbols, the dreams the Prophet ﷺ himself interpreted, and private tools for your own dreams. Every Qur'an verse and hadith we cite is checked against the source text.
Not sure what kind of dream it was? Try the dream guide
Ru'ya: the true vision The Sunnah names three kinds of dreams, and only one carries a message. Start with how to tell them apart.
1
Understand your dream
Three short questions: what kind of dream it was likely to be, what the Sunnah says to do now, and which symbols from your dream the dictionary covers.
Open the dream guide 2Look up a symbol
125 entries. Each one shows what the Qur'an and Sunnah say about the image, how the classical dictionaries read it, and how the reading changes with the dreamer.
Browse A to Z 3Learn how it works
Who Ibn Sirin was, how to tell a true dream from the rest, what to do after a good or a bad one, and what the tradition refuses to claim.
Start the foundationsDreams the Prophet ﷺ interpreted
The best examples of the method are the dreams recorded in Bukhari and Muslim. We go through them one by one, with the hadith numbers.
Bukhari 7006 The milk the Prophet ﷺ gave to Umar In a dream the Prophet ﷺ drank milk until it seemed to flow from his nails, then gave what was left to Umar. Asked how he interpreted it, he said: knowledge. It is the clearest reading of a symbol the Sunnah gives. Bukhari 7008 Umar's trailing shirt: the dream of the people in shirts The Prophet ﷺ saw people shown to him in shirts, some reaching only the chest and some lower, and Umar in a shirt he dragged. Asked for the meaning, he said: the religion. The length of the cloth is the measure. Bukhari 7019 The well, the bucket, Abu Bakr and Umar The Prophet ﷺ saw himself at a well giving people water, then Abu Bakr drawing a little with weakness, then the bucket becoming huge in Umar's hand until everyone was satisfied. The hadith gives no interpretation, so the usual reading is the commentators'. Bukhari 7034 The two gold bracelets and the two liars In a dream two gold bracelets were put on the Prophet's arms. He disliked them, was told to blow, and they flew away. He read them as two liars who would arise, and one narration names them by the lands they ruled: Sana'a and Yamama.
Most looked-up symbols
Animals A snake No verse or hadith interprets a dreamed snake. The dictionaries read it as an enemy, stronger or weaker by its... Water & Sea Water Clean, flowing water is read as life, purity and lasting good, and the Prophet ﷺ himself read a flowing spring in... The Body Teeth falling out No verse or hadith interprets teeth. The dictionaries tie them to relatives and lifespan, and their readings point... People & Family Seeing the deceased No verse or hadith interprets a dead person who simply appears. The Sunnah records two dreams of dead men,... Faith & Worship The Kaaba The Prophet ﷺ saw himself circling the Kaaba in a dream but gave the House no meaning. Readings rest on what the... People & Family Marriage The Sunnah's one marriage dream is the Prophet's own, of Aisha, and he left it with Allah. Beyond that the... Objects & Clothing Gold In the Prophet's own dreams gold is a palace of Paradise (Bukhari 7024) and also two bracelets that frightened... Actions & Events Death No verse or hadith reads a dreamed death as a forecast. The Qur'an and the Prophet's bedtime words call sleep a...
125symbols in the dictionary, each with its own sources
22dreams from the Qur'an and Sunnah, told one by one
1434Qur'an verses and hadith cited, every one checked against its source text
0fatwas or predictions. We present the tradition, we do not rule
Browse by theme
17 Faith & WorshipThe Kaaba, prayer, the Qur'an, Paradise, fasting and the other acts and places of worship. 14 Sky, Earth & ElementsThe sun, moon and stars, fire, wind, mountains, trees and the great forces of the natural world. 9 Water & SeaRain, rivers, wells, the sea, floods and everything that floats or drowns in them. 17 AnimalsSnakes, lions, horses, camels, birds and the other creatures that cross a dream. 12 The BodyTeeth, hair, eyes, hands, the heart and what the body says in a dream. 12 People & FamilyParents, the deceased, a spouse, children, rulers, enemies and the faces a dream casts. 10 Actions & EventsFlying, falling, weeping, travelling, dying and the other vivid verbs of dreaming. 8 Food & ProvisionBread, milk, honey, dates and the foods the Qur'an and Sunnah give a meaning of their own. 18 Objects & ClothingGold, money, clothes, keys, rings, swords and the things the tradition reads as symbols. 8 Places & BuildingsHouses, graveyards, markets, prisons, walls and roads.
Tools for your own dreams
All of them run in your browser. Nothing you write is sent to us.
Dream guideWhat kind of dream was it, what to do now, which symbols apply. Dream journalA private notebook that stays on your device, with the Sunnah checklist built in. Istikhara guideThe dua, the steps, and why it does not depend on a dream. Before you sleepThe Prophet's bedtime routine as a tickable checklist, with sources.
How we keep this honest
Authority comes from the sources, so we show them.
Most dream sites tell you what a symbol means and stop there. We tell you where the reading comes from: a verse, a hadith, a classical dictionary, or an analogy we are drawing ourselves. Each entry says which.
Read our method- Citations are machine-checked.Each verse and hadith number is matched against the source text, and the claim we attach to it must appear in that text.
- Each reading is labelled.Rooted in the Qur'an, rooted in the Sunnah, from the classical dictionaries, or extended by analogy.
- Disagreement is shown, not hidden.Where scholars differ, the page says so and gives both views.