Dreams in the Sunnah · Muslim 2268d
The man whose head rolled away, and why he was told to keep quiet
The short answer
A man told the Prophet ﷺ that in sleep his head was struck off and rolled away. The Prophet gave no meaning: he called it Shaytan's play with the sleeper and said not to tell it. The narrations differ on the man, his words and the reaction.
Traditional interpretations, not a fatwa and not a prediction. How we source.
In this article
The detail most retellings skip is a verb. In Muslim 2268c the man does not say he saw his head cut off. He says he had a hulm of it, from the same root as the word the Prophet ﷺ sets against a true vision (ru'ya) in Muslim 2261a. None of the narrations records a request for a meaning, and none records one being given. What the Prophet gives instead is a sentence about what to do with the dream.
Five narrations and no interpretation
The story is told 5 times, 3 in Muslim and 2 in Ibn Majah, and no 2 of the tellings agree on everything. The table keeps to what each one says.
| Narration | The man and what he says he dreamed | The Prophet's reaction | What he says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muslim 2268c (Jabir) | A Bedouin: "I had a hulm that my head was cut off, and I am following it" | Rebuked him | Do not report Shaytan's toying with you in sleep |
| Muslim 2268d (Jabir) | A Bedouin: in sleep his head was struck and rolled, and he ran hard after it | Spoke to him; later, in a sermon, said it to everyone | Do not tell the people of Shaytan's toying with you in your sleep |
| Muslim 2268e (Jabir) | "A man": in sleep his head was cut off | Laughed | When Shaytan plays with one of you in his sleep, do not tell the people |
| Ibn Majah 3912 (Jabir) | A man, during a sermon: his neck was struck, his head fell off, he chased it, picked it up and put it back | Not stated | If Shaytan plays with any of you in his dreams, he should not tell people |
| Ibn Majah 3911 (Abu Huraira) | A man: his head was cut off and he saw it rolling away | Not stated | Shaytan frightens one of you, then he tells people the next morning |
Muslim 2268d and Muslim 2268e come down through the same upstream narrators (al-A'mash, from Abu Sufyan, from Jabir) and still differ: a Bedouin in one and "a man" in the other, a Prophet ﷺ who speaks in one and laughs in the other. The texts do not say whether these were one visit or several, and Ibn Majah 3912 puts the man in the middle of a sermon. The laughter has no stated reason. What every version agrees on is the answer, and none of them treats the picture as a sign of anything to come.
Outside Muslim, our data grades Ibn Majah 3911 and Ibn Majah 3912 sahih or hasan, so we use them as supporting tellings only. Muslim 2268a gives the rule with no man in it: Jabir reports together that Shaytan cannot appear in the Prophet's form in a dream, and that a dreamer should tell no one of Shaytan's toying with him in sleep. The first half is taken up in seeing the Prophet in a dream.
Toying, and what the verb says
The word the Prophet ﷺ uses is تلعب (tala'ub), a noun from the verb for playing. The English gives "vain sporting" and "play", and "vain" is the translator's addition. The word is aimed at someone. In Muslim 2268c and Muslim 2268d it is Shaytan's toying "with you", said to the man. The general rule turns it into toying "with him" (Muslim 2268a, and the sermon in Muslim 2268d). In one narrator's wording of Muslim 2268e the verb is passive, "if one of you is played with", and Shaytan is not named at all.
Ibn Majah 3911 adds a step the others leave out: Shaytan frightens one of you, and then the person tells people about it in the morning. There are 2 actions in that sentence, and the second is the dreamer's.
How is a dreamer to know that a dream is this kind? The Prophet named this one. For the rest, the Sunnah gives the dreamer's own reaction as the test: what you like is from Allah, and what you dislike is from Shaytan (Bukhari 6985). The Arabic keeps 2 words apart, ru'ya for the good vision and hulm for the disliked dream, "the ru'ya is from Allah and the hulm is from Shaytan" (Muslim 2261a). The man's own verb in Muslim 2268c is halamtu, and in Muslim 2268d and Muslim 2268e he says he saw it in sleep. The answer is the same either way, because the Prophet names the source whatever word the man used.
One verse is not about dreams but has the same shape. It says of secret counsels that they come from Shaytan to grieve believers, and that he cannot harm them except by Allah's permission (Qur'an 58:10). Neither the verse nor the hadith cites the other. Its 2 ideas are the ones in the manners for a disliked dream: Shaytan wants you grieved, and his reach stops where Allah allows, so the dream will not harm you (Bukhari 7044).
The same picture in the Prophet's own dream
A struck head turns up in the Prophet's own long dream too. In Bukhari 7047 the Prophet ﷺ is led to a man lying down, with another standing over him holding a big rock. The rock is thrown at the man's head and rolls away, the thrower goes after it and brings it back, and by the time he returns the head is whole again and the throwing starts over. The explanation comes at the end of the dream, from the 2 who led him, and it concerns a kind of conduct, not a named person. That dream has its own page: the longest dream in the Sunnah.
The likeness to the Bedouin's dream goes no further than this: a head is struck, something rolls, and there is a chase. What separates the two is where they came from. Scholars treat the Prophet's own dreams as revelation, and of this man's he says that it was Shaytan's toying. So an image alone cannot tell you which kind of dream you have had, and we think that is why the hadith does not read the Bedouin's picture. There is nothing in it to read. Sorting a dream into its kind is the work of the three kinds of dreams, and the picture cannot do it for you.
Anyone, or the people?
The rule is worded 2 ways. The general manners for a dream you dislike say to tell no one at all, with "anyone" in Bukhari 7044, Bukhari 6985 and Muslim 2268a. The head-dream narrations say not to tell "the people" (Muslim 2268d, Muslim 2268e, Ibn Majah 3912). The second wording reads as the narrower one, a ban on broadcasting, and the first as the wider.
For the full routine of seeking refuge, turning over and praying, see what to do after a good or bad dream. For choosing a listener for a good dream, see the etiquette of telling a dream.
Common questions
Does a dream of my head being cut off mean something bad?
The hadith gives it no meaning at all. The man in Muslim 2268c is told not to report it, and the Prophet gives the image no reading (Muslim 2268d). The manners for a disliked dream promise that it will not harm you if you seek refuge and keep it to yourself (Bukhari 7044). Anyone whose dreams keep returning with such images should see a doctor.
What is the difference between a ru'ya and a hulm?
In Muslim 2261a the Prophet says the ru'ya is from Allah and the hulm is from Shaytan. In practice the word marks a dream you dislike, and the manners that follow are to seek refuge, blow lightly to the left and turn over (Muslim 2262), and tell no one (Bukhari 6985). The Arabic verb for having a hulm is the one the man uses in Muslim 2268c.
Why did the Prophet laugh in one narration and rebuke in another?
The narrations do not say. Muslim 2268e has him laugh, and Muslim 2268c says he rebuked the man. The narrations do not say whether these are one occasion or two, and neither gives a reason for the reaction. The instruction that follows is the same in both.
Reviewed 5 October 2026 by The Editorial Team. We cite our sources and fix mistakes openly: see our editorial standards, or report a correction.