The classical works on dream interpretation, and how to read them

Pick up a book called Ibn Sirin's Dictionary of Dreams and look at the front pages. You will usually find a title, a name, and no explanation of which edition was translated or what the Arabic text was. That absence is why this page exists.

Three layers on the shelf

The books people mean when they say "the classical works" are not one thing. They fall into three layers that need different handling.

The first layer is where the Qur'an and the Sunnah speak. The Qur'an records Yusuf saying that Allah taught him the interpretation of narratives and of dreams (Qur'an 12:6, Qur'an 12:101), and the hadith chapters hold the interpretations the Prophet ﷺ gave. If you want to know whether a reading is rooted in the revelation, this is the layer to check.

The other two are a human tradition. They are rich, and often wise, and they say so themselves when they list opinions that conflict.

What is in a dictionary entry, and what is not

A typical entry is a few lines: the object, a reading or two, and often a qualifier such as who the dreamer is. What it nearly never gives is the reason. There is no verse, no hadith, no chain of transmission, and no way to tell whether the reading rests on a text, on a pun in Arabic, or on the compiler's experience. In an Arabic dictionary of this kind the same image can carry opposite readings, one for a ruler and one for a poor man.

Some of the method is traceable. The tradition reads by the Qur'an, then the Sunnah, then by language and proverb, and then by opposites and the dreamer's situation, as set out in the science of ta'bir. The Prophet's own reading by the sound of a name in Muslim 2270 is the textual root of the third step. But a dictionary does not tell you which step each line came from, and that is the first thing you lose when you read an entry in isolation.

The book that carries his name

The best-known case is the dictionary sold under Ibn Sirin's name. What is solid about him is small. Bukhari quotes him saying that it used to be said that dreams are of 3 kinds, and that one should not tell a disliked dream but get up and pray (Bukhari 7017). In Muslim 2263a, a narrator says he does not know whether a remark about fetters belongs to the hadith or is Ibn Sirin's own words. That is how carefully his name was handled when the texts were being transmitted.

The large printed dictionary is a different thing. It is generally treated as a later compilation, and the contents differ from edition to edition. So our rule on this site is plain: we do not credit a symbol reading to Ibn Sirin, or to any named author, unless the text can be shown. We write "the dictionaries" and give the evidence beside it.

Reading a dictionary well

If you do consult a classical dictionary, a few habits make it more useful.

• Read the introduction. Translators who explain their source text are worth more than ones who do not.
• Compare two entries on the same image, and note where they disagree. The disagreement is information.
• Look for a reason. A reading with a verse or a hadith behind it carries more weight than one with a table of conventions.
• Notice the qualifiers. Who the dreamer is, what he does in the dream, and how he feels afterwards all change the reading.
• Keep the manners first. Whatever the book says, a disliked dream is dealt with as the Sunnah says (Muslim 2263a), and not told or dwelt on.

For the method this site follows, see how to interpret your own dream, and for the Arabic terms used here, the glossary.