Bad dreams and confused visions

Dreams are three: glad tidings from God, sorrowing from Satan, and the soul's own chatter — who sees what he dislikes spits to his left thrice, tells no one, and it cannot harm him.

Malik relates from Yahya ibn Sa'id from Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Rahman that he heard Abu Qatada ibn Rib'i say: I heard the Messenger of God ﷺ say: "The righteous dream is from God, and the bad dream is from Satan; when one of you sees what he dislikes, let him blow on his left three times when he wakes, and seek refuge in God from its evil, for it will not harm him God willing" ¹ Muwatta 2750.

Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Rahman, who heard this hadith, said: "I used to see a dream heavier on me than a mountain; when I heard this hadith I no longer minded it" ¹ — the Prophet taught his Companions that the bad dream has no weight and no meaning, lifting from them the burden of what they saw in sleep.

Hulm in the language is what weighs heavy on the soul in sleep; its counterpart is the light, glad-tidings true dream. In the terminology of the hadith scholars it is what the servant sees in his sleep that he dislikes or that frightens him, among Satan's whisperings by which he terrifies the believer ^{2 3}. No ruling is built on it and it is not taken up; it is of the false that does not count.

The jurists and hadith scholars gathered from the hadith's text the following:

• Blowing on the left three times on waking — a light breath from the mouth without saliva — because it is the side of Satan ¹.
• Seeking refuge in God from its evil: saying "I seek refuge in God from the evil of what I saw" or its like ¹.
• Changing sides and rising: it is recommended to turn over and rise from the bed, as in the fiqh reports ⁴.
• Not telling people about it: so that they do not take ill omens from it nor frighten another, as in this chapter's reports ¹.

A distinction must be kept between the bad dream — what is seen in sleep and refuge is sought from — and ihtilam — the emission that occurs in sleep and which obliges ghusl by the majority. The bad dream obliges nothing by itself, while ihtilam may oblige ghusl even if the person saw no dream ^{5 6}. Both belong to what occurs in sleep, but one is from Satan and nothing is built on it, while the other is a purity event with its own ruling.

Dreams and the bad dream are mentioned in the chapters of purity and sunan when speaking of sleep and what occurs in it; among that, whoever has ihtilam in his sleep owes ghusl, and whoever sees the bad dream seeks refuge ⁴. These rulings connect to the fiqh of the dream and to dreams generally.

• Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama'a: the bad dream is from Satan; no ruling is built on it and it is not interpreted; the prescribed course is seeking refuge, the left-hand blowing and not telling people.
• The people of knowledge: judging a dream belongs to the scholars versed in it; whoever sees what he dislikes imposes no interpretation on himself and does not frighten another.