Glossary of Arabic terms for dreams

English has one word where the sources have several. The Prophet ﷺ puts ru'ya and hulm into a single sentence, the first from Allah and the second from Shaytan (Bukhari 6984), and a reader who treats them as synonyms loses the sentence. This glossary lists the Arabic terms the rest of the site depends on, grouped by what they are for, with the verse or hadith each comes from where we could verify one, and a note wherever a word is later usage and not found in the texts.

Kinds of dreams, and the words for them

Ru'ya (رؤيا). A dream taken as a vision that may mean something, as against ordinary dreaming. The Prophet says the ru'ya is from Allah (Bukhari 6984), and the Qur'an uses the word for the visions of Yusuf, Ibrahim and the Prophet himself (Qur'an 12:5, Qur'an 37:105, Qur'an 48:27).

Hulm (حلم), plural ahlam (أحلام). In the hadith, the dream one dislikes, which is set against the ru'ya and traced to Shaytan (Bukhari 6984); Bukhari 7005 supplies the verb, halama, for the person who has a hulm he dislikes. The Qur'an's singular means reaching puberty (Qur'an 24:59), and its plural turns up in the phrase two entries below.

Mubashshirat (مبشرات). Bearers of glad tidings. The Prophet says nothing is left of prophethood except the mubashshirat, and asked what they are, he answers: ar-ru'ya as-salihah, the good dream (Bukhari 6990). The English edition renders salihah "true good"; the Arabic word is good or sound. Its root is that of بشرى bushra, the glad tidings Muslim 2263a names as the first of the 3 kinds.

Hadith an-nafs (حديث النفس). The self's talk: a dream that is the mind's own. Bukhari 7017 lists it first among the 3 kinds in the saying Ibn Sirin passes on, while Muslim 2263a and Tirmidhi 2280 say it with a verb, a dream of what a man tells himself (yuhaddithu nafsahu).

Adghath ahlam (أضغاث أحلام). A tangled bundle of dreams. Each time the Qur'an has the phrase, someone is saying it: the king's court about his dream (Qur'an 12:44), and the Prophet's opponents about the revelation (Qur'an 21:5). Many later writers use it as a name for dreams without a message, which is a use the hadith's own sorting does not make.

Manam (منام). Sleep, and what is seen in sleep. The Qur'an uses it for sleep in Qur'an 30:23 and for a dream in Qur'an 8:43 and Qur'an 37:102, and in the hadith a dream is seen "in the manam" (Bukhari 6993).

Interpreting: the work, the worker and the telling

Ta'bir (تعبير). Interpreting a dream. It comes from a verb meaning to cross over, from the image to what it stands for. The Qur'an uses the verb once, when the king asks his court to explain his vision, "if you should interpret visions" (Qur'an 12:43).

'Abir (عابر) and mu'abbir (معبّر). The interpreter. The Qur'an gives the verb and not the title. In the four collections for which we have the Arabic, the root appears for passing, as in عابر سبيل 'abir sabil, a traveller on the road, in the Prophet's advice to Ibn Umar (Bukhari 6416), and we found no verse or Prophetic report that uses it as a title. The titles reach us through the later literature.

Ta'wil (تأويل). The meaning that a thing returns to. In Surah Yusuf it is the interpretation of dreams and events: Allah promises to teach Yusuf the ta'wil of narratives (Qur'an 12:6), and Yusuf calls the fulfilment of his dream its ta'wil (Qur'an 12:100). The word has wider uses outside the dream stories, so it is not always a dream term.

'Alim (عالم). One who knows. Tirmidhi 2280 says a dream is related only to an 'alim or a sincere adviser (ناصح nasih), and the king's court admits that it is not 'alimin of the ta'wil of dreams (Qur'an 12:44). Both texts name knowledge, and neither names an office.

Qass (قص). To relate or recount, the verb for telling a dream. Yaqub tells Yusuf not to relate his vision to his brothers (Qur'an 12:5), and Tirmidhi 2280 uses the same verb for the dream that is not to be told except to an 'alim or an adviser. Bukhari 6985 uses a plainer verb for telling a good dream, haddatha, "to tell".

What the Sunnah asks you to do

Isti'adha (استعاذة), also ta'awwudh (تعوذ). Seeking refuge in Allah. For a disliked dream the hadith use both forms of the verb, fal-yasta'idh in Bukhari 6985 and fal-yata'awwadh in Bukhari 7044, and the Qur'an gives the order to seek refuge from Shaytan before reciting (Qur'an 16:98).

Nafth (نفث). A blowing out of the breath, which commentators describe as dry or nearly so. Three Arabic verbs sit under the English "spit" in the narrations of the disliked dream: nafth (Muslim 2261a), tafl (تفل, Bukhari 7044) and bazq (بصق, Bukhari 6986 and Muslim 2262), and commentators discuss how much moisture each implies. The verb nafatha is also what the Prophet did into his cupped hands at bedtime (Bukhari 5017), where the English says "blow".

Hamd (حمد). Praise and thanks to Allah. For a dream you like, the Prophet says to thank Him for it (fal-yahmad, Bukhari 6985), and al-hamdu lillah opens the words Hudhayfa reports for waking (Bukhari 6324).

Wudu (وضوء). The washing before prayer. Before lying down, the Prophet tells al-Bara' to make wudu as for prayer (Bukhari 247), which is the third item on the bedtime checklist.

Mu'awwidhat (المعوذات). The "refuge" surahs, al-Falaq and an-Nas, which the translator identifies as surahs 113 and 114. Bukhari 6319 says the Prophet blew into his hands at bedtime while reciting them, and Bukhari 5017 adds al-Ikhlas.

Istikhara (استخارة). Asking Allah to choose what is best: 2 rak'ahs and a dua taught for decisions (Bukhari 1166). It involves no dream, and the page on istikhara gives the text.

Who and what is behind a dream

Shaytan (شيطان). The enemy of mankind. Yaqub warns Yusuf that Shaytan is a clear enemy to man (Qur'an 12:5), and the hadith trace the disliked dream to him: it is a dream of grief from Shaytan in Muslim 2263a, and his "play" with a sleeper, tala'ub, in Muslim 2268c.

Nafs (نفس). The self or soul. The Qur'an says Allah takes the anfus in their sleep (Qur'an 39:42), and hadith an-nafs is what the self says to itself. One word, then, covers the soul He takes and the self that talks.

Malak (ملك), plural mala'ika, angels. Angels figure in a few dreams recorded in the Sunnah, such as the two who led Ibn Umar toward the Fire and the third who told him not to fear (Bukhari 7029). Seeing angels in a dream takes up what that does and does not give a reader.

Tamaththul (تمثل). Taking on another's likeness. The Prophet says Shaytan does not take his likeness (Bukhari 6993), and the same narration records Ibn Sirin's condition about seeing him in his real shape. See seeing the Prophet in a dream.

Fitra (فطرة). The natural disposition on which Allah created people (Qur'an 30:30). Bukhari 6311 says that whoever says the bedtime words and dies that night dies on it, and the English edition renders the Arabic fitra "the religion of Islam".