matters whose sight causes him sorrow and distress. Among the lessons contained in these hadiths are the following:

First: Recognizing the great significance of a good dream seen by a Muslim and that it is from Allah (Glorious and Exalted is He), who sends it to His believing servant during his lifetime as glad tidings of goodness, to comfort his heart and bring reassurance to his soul. Allah Most High says: “For them are glad tidings in the life of this world and in the Hereafter.”1 More than one of the early Muslims said: “It is the good dream that a righteous man sees or that is seen concerning him.”

Second: Clarifying that whatever a believer sees in his sleep that he dislikes is only from Satan, who seeks thereby to grieve those who believe. Yet he cannot harm them in the least except by Allah’s permission. What a person sees in his sleep falls into three categories: a good dream, which is glad tidings from Allah for the person who sees it or concerning whom it is seen; a dream from Satan, consisting of terrors and disturbing images that Satan presents to a person in his sleep in order to unsettle him, cause him sorrow, and fill his heart with distress; and, third, ordinary dreams arising from matters a person dwells upon while awake, which continue in his sleep just as they occupied him in his waking state.

Third: Clarifying what a Muslim should do when he sees something he likes in his sleep. This may be summarized in several points:

The first is that a Muslim should rejoice and take glad tidings from a good dream that he sees or that is seen concerning him, without being deluded by it. As one of the early Muslims said: “A dream brings joy to the believer but does not delude him.”

The second is that he should praise Allah (Glorious and Exalted is He) for the good He has sent him and the favor He has bestowed upon him by honoring him with this dream of glad tidings.