The Shaykh’s statement: “Interpreting dreams is not a science, but rather a gift from Allah.”

The Shaykh : Second, they must be good at interpretation. Interpreting dreams is not a science; interpreting dreams is not a science, but rather it is a gift from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Therefore, I speak about what I observed in others, and then what happened to me myself. When I was seeking traditional knowledge, which is the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, from some of the shaykhs, we would pray the Fajr prayer and read a lesson in Hanafi fiqh until the mid-morning. An old woman would enter the mosque and sit besideThe Shaykh : and whisper to him words that we did not hear, but we heard his answer.The Shaykh : And we understood that she was recounting a dream to him. Glory be to Allah, his answerThe Shaykh : was like what they call today a routine, meaning it did not change. Every time a woman would whisper something to him, and we understood she was recounting a dream to him, his answerThe Shaykh : would be on the same note. The following conclusion remained in my mind: it seems that the deceased needs charity, so give charity on his behalf, or he needs the Qur'an to be recited for him, so recite for him, something like that. So the answers would be like this. This is what I observed regarding some of the shaykhs. As for myself, I was passionate about knowledge since I graduated from primary school. I heard about the book *Ta'tir al-Anam fi Tafsir al-Manam* (The Perfuming of the People in the Interpretation of Dreams) by Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi. I have forgotten now whether it is two volumes or three volumes.
Abu Malik: Two volumes.

The Shaykh : Two volumes, and you will know why I forgot. And in the margin, the interpretation of Ibn Sirin. Muhammad ibn Sirin was a noble man, one of the great scholars of the Tabi'un (the generation after the Companions), and one of those who narrited many hadiths from Abu Hurayrah from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And I, with some of my brothers who were students of knowledge, were somewhat distinguished from the others. Whenever someone saw a dream, I had no knowledge, meaning I had no innate knowledge as Ibn Sirin had. Where would I turn? To his book. I would turn to *Ta'tir al-Anam* by al-Nabulsi, for example. If someone saw heavy rain falling, I would turn to the word "rain." A person gets lost, he is bewildered by the abundance of details, and nothing much comes out for me. This happened to me repeatedly, so I left the book until cobwebs grew on it, and I did not benefit from it in any way. Later, when I delved deeper into knowledge, especially when my heart was illuminated by the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him), I learned that this knowledge is not a science that is acquired like most sciences, but rather it is a gift from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Therefore, I say that whoever sees a dream should keep in mind that it is one of three things: which one is it? He does not know why he wants to recount it. I say, if it is good, he should recount it to a scholar and an advisor, as we mentioned.