Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

can we follow our dreams as guidance to us from our Lord? 

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Can one follow dreams as guidance

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 9.144 Narrated by Abu Huraira

Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "When the Day of Resurrection approaches, the dreams of a believer will hardly fail to come true, and a dream of a believer is one of forty-six parts of Prophetism, and whatever belongs to Prothetism can never be false." Muhammad bin Sirin said, 'There are three types of dreams:

1. The reflection of one's thoughts and experiences one has during wakefulness,
2. what is suggested by the Shaytaan to frighten the dreamer,
3. or glad tidings from Allah.

So, if someone has a dream which he dislikes, he should not tell it to others, but get up and offer a prayer.' "

If one has been blessed to experience a good dream of glad tidings from their Lord, such dreams can indeed be followed as a guidance from their Lord for the individual who saw the dream himself….but the dream of an individual cannot be used as an argument or basis or evidence to transgress the limits of Shariah either for oneself or for others.

For example, one sees a dream that henceforth he has to pray ‘four’ rakahs for the obligatory ‘Magrib’ prayers instead of the ‘three’ rakahs that are prescribed in Shariah; such a guidance or command of one’s dream will be absolutely disregarded, for its following would clearly violate the guidance and boundaries of Shariah!

But if one sees a dream whereby one is praying or is being rewarded for offering the voluntary ‘tahajjud’ or late night prayers, and one wishes to follow their dream and makes intention to intensify and be more constant in offering such voluntary prayers, there is absolutely no harm as the following of such good dreams do not violate the limits and boundaries of Shariah in the least.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan