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* * *Interpreting Dreams: Facts or Playing with Fatwas? * PEOPLE usually try to know the interpretation, meanings and secrets of their dreams. As such interpreters of dreams are in great demand these days. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said the dreams of true believers can never be untrue and in this age, everybody volunteers to give his interpretation, whether he is knowledgeable or not. To make matters worst, these people appear on satellite channels to give their interpretations forgetting, or tending to forget, that they have to abide by certain religious restrictions in such matters. Dr. Saleh Al-Ghazali, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Shari'ah (Islamic Law) at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, warns against this prevalent practice. "These people should not give hasty interpretations because giving hasty fatwas (religious edicts) has never been the approach of our pious predecessors. Some of those people really lack knowledge." Noted scholar, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Muhammad Al-Sadhan, concurred with Al-Ghazali. "Islam has laid down certain rules for interpreting dreams, because such dreams may talk about events that may happen in future like that of Prophet Yusuf's (peace be upon him) interpretation of his co-prisoner's dream. True dreams are factual. Some of the symbols have opposite meanings and then there are symbolic dreams that have different aspects," he said. Sheikh Al-Sadhan said a correct interpretation of dreams should involve flexibility and clarity of dream as some dreams only reflect on what happens to people in their daily life. A dream or vision is a secret given to man and thus it should be only told to scholars or sages, he said. The Holy Qur'an and Sunnah (Prophetic Tradition) abound with symbols such as the following: - Dates mean a happy life. - Wood means hypocrisy. - Sleep means security. - Divorce means wealth. - Fire means a happy occasion. - Animosity means accord after misunderstanding. - Stone means hard-heartedness. - Iron means power. - Honey means recovery. Compiled from various sources. * Permission is granted to circulate among private individuals and groups, to post on Internet sites and to publish in full text and subject title in not-for-profit publications. * ** **
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