Can You Share Your Dreams?

Praise be to Allah.

Types of dreams in Islam

Note that the things people see in their sleep may come under one of two categories: 

• Dreams /visions 
• Confused dreams 

Types of confused dreams

Confused dreams in turn are divided into two categories: 

•  The Shaitan’s attempts to frighten 
• The workings of the subconscious. 

Types of what people see in their dreams

So it may be said that what people see in their dreams may be divided into three categories: 

• Visions or dreams that come from Allah.
• Attempts by the Shaitan to frighten us
• The workings of the subconscious.

These categories are indicated by the hadith narrated in Sahih Muslim (no. 2263) from Abu Hurayrah, which says that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “When the time (of the Day of Resurrection) draws near, a believer's dream will hardly be false. And the truest vision will be of one who is himself the most truthful in speech, for the vision of a Muslim is the forty-fifth part of Prophecy, and dreams are of three types:

• the good dream which is glad tidings from Allah;
• the bad dream which causes distress, which is from the Shaitan;
• and the dream which represents what a person is thinking about.

So if any one of you sees a dream which he does not like he should get up and pray, and not tell people about his dream…” 

‘Awf ibn Malik narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Dreams are of three types: some are terrifying things from the Shaitan, aimed at causing grief to the son of Adam; some are things that a person is concerned with when he is awake, so he sees them in his dreams; and some are a part of the forty-six parts of Prophecy.” (Sahih Sunan Ibn Majah, 3155) 

Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Dreams are of three types: glad tidings from Allah, what is on a person’s mind, and frightening dreams from the Shaitan. If any of you sees a dream that he likes, let him tell others of it if he wishes, but if he sees something that he dislikes, he should not tell anyone about it, and he should get up and pray.” (Sahih Sunan Ibn Majah, 3154) 

Can you share your dreams?

There follow a number of sahih hadiths which describe how to deal with what one sees in one’s dream. 

• Abu Qatadah said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Good dreams come from Allah and bad dreams come from the Shaitan. If anyone sees a bad dream that scares him, let him spit drily to his left and seek refuge with Allah from its evil, then it will not harm him.” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 3292) 
• Abu Salamah said: I used to see such terrible dreams that I began to shake and have a fever, but did not cover myself with a cloak until I met Abu Qatadah, and I mentioned that to him. He said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say, ‘Good dreams come from Allah and bad dreams come from the Shaitan. If anyone sees a bad dream that he dislikes, let him spit drily to his left three times and seek refuge with Allah from its evil, then it will not harm him.’” (Narrated by Muslim, 2261) 
• Abu Hurayrah said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “If any one of you sees a dream that he dislikes, let him turn over, and spit drily to his left three times and ask Allah of His goodness, and seek refuge with Him from its evil.” (Sahih Sunan Ibn Majah) 
• Jabir narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “If any one of you sees a dream that he dislikes, let him spit drily to his left three times and seek refuge with Allah from the Shaitan three times, and turn over onto his other side.” (Narrated by Muslim, 2262). 
• The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) told us the difference between good dreams and bad dreams. Abu Sa’id al-Khudri narrated that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: “If any one of you sees a dream that he likes, it is from Allah, so let him praise Allah for it and tell people about it. But if he sees something other than that, that he dislikes, it is from the Shaitan, so let him seek refuge with Allah from its evil and not mention it to anyone, for it will not harm him.” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 7045)  

So it is clear that good dreams come from Allah and bad dreams which a person dislikes come from the Shaitan, so he has to seek refuge with Allah from their evil. 

• Abu Hurayrah said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “If any one of you sees something that he dislikes, let him get up and pray, and not tell people about it.” (Narrated by Muslim, 2263). 
• Jabir narrated that a Bedouin came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said, “I dreamt that my head was cut off and I was chasing it.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rebuked him and said: “Do not tell anyone how the Shaitan is messing about with you in your dreams.” (Narrated by Muslim, 2268) 

Should we share our bad dreams with others?

So we may sum up from these hadiths the most important points about what a person should do if he sees a dream that he dislikes, as follows: 

1. He should know that this dream is from the Shaitan who wants to cause him grief, so he should annoy the Shaitan by not paying any attention to him.
2. He should seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaitan.
3. He should seek refuge with Allah from the evil of this dream.
4. He should spit drily to his left three times, i.e., blowing with a little bit of saliva.
5. He should not tell anyone about it.
6. He should turn over from the side on which he was sleeping, so if he was lying on his left side he should turn over to his right side, and vice versa.
7. He should get up and pray.

If a person adheres to this etiquette, then we hope that this bad dream will not harm him, as it says in the texts. 

For more, please see these answers: 9577 , 182280 , 14096 , and 111974 . 

And Allah knows best.