 Do our dreams have a meaning or not? Every night we see dreams, like we mentioned, we see three to five dreams that last about two hours every night if we sleep eight hours, let's say. But do our dreams have a meaning? Should I try to discover what's the meaning or should I just leave it because there's absolutely no meaning? Now, when you come to, for example, psychology, as many of you have already read, Freud, for example, he believes that our dreams are nonsense. And this is taught in universities today, any psychology class you will take, they'll tell you. Freud, he has many opinions and theories about our dreams. And amongst the things that he says is that our dreams are nonsense. They don't have a true meaning behind it. In fact, he says, indeed, that our dreams are a way in which we express our deep emotions, desires, and anxieties. How so? And that Freud says that many of us, we have certain desires that we want to express but we can't in the society. Why? Because it's a taboo, because we're ashamed, because it's unaccepted in the society. So there's an obstacle from me expressing the certain desire or anxiety. So where can I freely express that in my dreams? In your dreams, you're free, you could do whatever you want. That's why we do so many weird and crazy things in our dreams. So he says it's the realm where you can express your deep anxieties and desires. And no one will tell you, this is wrong, this is naive, this is shameful, don't do that. No, you could do whatever you want. There's absolutely no limits. So there's no real true meaning to your dreams. But when we come to Islam, my dear brothers and sisters, our Ahadith, they tell us, no, this is not correct. In that, yes, there are certain dreams that don't have a meaning. But on the contrary, there are many dreams that we see when we sleep, which have a meaning. So when we come to the Ahadith, the Holy Prophet and the Imams, they divide our dreams into three types. They say there's three types of dreams. So we can't generalize and say all dreams don't have a meaning. Or we can't generalize and say all dreams do have a meaning. There's three types. The first type of dream that we see are the the Ahadith call it al-Ru'iyah al-Sadiq or al-Ru'iyah al-Saleh according to the Ahadith. These are the true dreams, the dreams that, excuse me, that have a meaning behind it, that there is, for example, a message that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is sending to you. It could be a message of glad tidings. Allah could tell you something about the future, or tell you something about your life, tell you something about a mystery. There could be a mystery in your life that you don't know how to solve. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can show you a dream which has a true meaning behind it. And that's why the Holy Qur'an, Allah says, certain individuals, they receive glad tidings, good news. The Holy Prophet, he gave the Tafsir according to one Hadith of this verse. He said, Allah is speaking about dreams. Allah, many times He gives us good news through our dreams. So this dream will have an interpretation. And in one Hadith, the Holy Prophet said, there is absolutely no prophecies, no prophets after me. I am the last prophet. And then he said, he said accept, he made an exception, he said, there is only one exception. What's that exception? He said the good news. So they asked him, the companions, where are the Mubashirat? He told them, the only connection we have now with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because there is no messenger, he died. The only connection we can have with Allah is through our dreams. That specific type of dream where it is called al-ruqya assadiqa, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can tell me something. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, like we mentioned, He could send me a warning so that I stop from doing something haram, or He can send me a message of good news or glad tidings or any other information that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can give me. So this is the first type of dreams that we see, al-ruqya assadiqa. And these, my dear brothers and sisters, these are the dreams that are the prophets of Allah. Because the prophets of Allah, the messengers of Allah, when they see a dream, it is revelation from Allah, it is ruqya assadiqa, it's a true dream. And that's why you see we have many instances in history, in the Qur'an, in the Ahadith, prophets that saw dreams that had a meaning behind it. The second type of dream, the Ahadith of Ahlul Bayt tell us, they call it Al-Ahlam. Al-Ahlam, according to the Ahadith, are the nightmares, the ones where you're frightened. Where you see, for example, someone bothering you, you're imprisoned somewhere, or you're running for your life, or you're in a plane, and the plane is about to crash, or you get into a car crash, or for example, you go to the airport and you miss your flight, something bad happens in your dream. These, according to the Ahadith, are called Al-Ahlam. And this second type of dreams, the Ahadith tell us that they are the work of whom? Allah? No, the first one we said Allah directly, it's a direct link between Allah and that servant. The Ahlam, the nightmares, the Ahadith tell us they are from the work of the devils. Allah has given the devils, the shayateen, authority and the ability to interfere with our dreams. When they interfere, they are able to make you see a nightmare. These are what the Ahadith tell us. This is the second type of dream. And the third type of dream, according to the Ahadith, are the Avgath and Ahlam. Avgath, the ones where they have no meaning, they're nonsense. And these usually they happen because you were thinking too much about something before you slept, you were stressing out. That's, for example, when you have an exam, you see when you have an exam and you're very stressed about it, that night, you constantly see dreams about that exam, and you go into the hall not prepared, or you go late, or whatever, or if you think about someone, or sometimes if you eat certain foods, you may see certain dreams. And these dreams Avgath, Ahlam, they have no meaning. They're just for you to enjoy it, and there's no interpretation to it. So this is the first point, my dear brothers and sisters, that there are three types of dreams, the true dreams, the nightmares, and the dreams that are nonsense. Now, there are a few points here. I'll mention some of them tonight, and I'll continue, insha'Allah, with the others tomorrow. Point number one, my dear brothers and sisters, the Hadith of Imam al-Sadiq, alayhi salam, he tells one of his companions, al-Mufad, he tells him after he tells him there's three types of dreams, and he speaks about them, he tells him and know that most of the dreams that average ordinary human beings like us see are from the third category, they're nonsense, and that the Imam is telling us that it is very rare for us to see a true dream, ru'ya sadaqah. Unfortunately, many individuals I have seen every night, they see a dream, they think it's revelation from Allah. They have to go door to door, scholar to scholar, Maulana to Maulana, Maulana, Sheikhna, I saw this dream, I was on a boat and then it fell and then whatever. What's the interpretation? Will I become rich? Will something bad happen to me? Is there someone that has done magic against me? And all this nonsense. And usually when I'm asked by those people, first of all, right away I tell them I do not interpret dreams, why? I'll mention that tomorrow. And number two, the first question, just like when you go to a doctor, he asks you many questions, I asked them, what did you eat last night? Did you eat a bean burrito? Did you eat shawarma? Did you eat, for example, what did you eat? So the food that they ate could have had an effect on them. So we have to beware, brothers and sisters, that most of the dreams I would say, according to my opinion, my understanding, maybe 90 to 95% or even I would say up to 98 or 99% of the dreams we see are not ru'ya sadaqah. Allah isn't trying to tell you anything. Trust me, no earthquake will happen that you can stop. No one is about to die that Allah wants you to stop through your dreams. Because you know why the imams, the imams, they close the door to dreams. In one hadith Imam al-sadaq, he says, the religion of Allah is more sanctified and glorious and greater than to send you messages about faith and about your teachings and dreams. No, Allah will do it in real life. Why in dreams? Because if the imams would have opened this door, I could come to you tonight. No one I can tell you? Brothers and sisters, last night I saw Fatima in my dream. You know what she told me? She told me every single one of you has to give me $500 or you're going to hell. How would you reply to me? So dream, I saw Fatima. The obvious answer would be what? The obvious answer would be dreams are not hujjah. They have no legal weight. You can't use a dream, of course, to prove anything. There's a beautiful story about this and we'll end with this and continue tomorrow. There's one of our Ulema, by the name of Al-Muhaqq al-Halli. He lived seven, eight hundred years ago. One of our greatest Maraja back then. Up to now we read his books in the hausa. Al-Muhaqq al-Halli, there is a hukum, there is a ru'ya from Imam Ali that says do not let insane people, you know, those that are too wild and insane, that are not controllable, don't let them come to the masjid. Now obviously why? Because they'll distract the people praying. If a person is too insane and you know, too mentally retarded, then don't bring him to the masjid because this is a place of, you know, prostration and dua and salah and he'll distract everyone. So don't let him in. Put him somewhere else. So this is a hadith. So that's why it's makruh. It's not haram. It's makruh, unrecommended, to let someone like that come to the masjid. One night Al-Muhaqq al-Halli, he says, I saw in the dream Imam Ali, someone that I suppose was Imam Ali, he comes and he tells me tomorrow a majnun, a retarded person will come to the masjid, let him in. The next day that retarded person comes, muhaqq, he tells him you can't come in. So the second night he sees in the dream Imam Ali tells him, didn't I tell you let him in? Why didn't you let him in? Tomorrow he's going to come again. Let him in. The second day he also rejects him. He goes against what Imam Ali told him in the dream. Three times he came to Imam Ali in the dream. He told him don't let him in, but he did not listen. Until the fourth night the story says that Imam Ali came to his dream and he told him you truly are a muhaqq. His name was Al-Muhaqq al-Halli. Al-Muhaqq means the researcher, the scholar, the expert. He told him you truly are an expert. The Imam was trying to test him because we know, the Imams told us when they were alive, not in dreams, that do not rely on dreams. He wanted to see will muhaqq rely on this dream? You cannot rely. There is a hadith from the Imam when he was alive that's makruh. I can't come and say oh I saw in my dream that it's not makruh. No this has absolutely no legal weights. So he told him you truly are a muhaqq because you know it's difficult. It's difficult that you know you're seeing the Imam in your dream and you think you should do it and you think you're going against the will of the Imam, but it's the right thing to do because he knew that we had a hadith from the Imam that says it's makruh. So he told him you truly are a scholar. You truly are a muhaqq when he was testing him.