and this is widespread.
Those who report such dreams are often lying. Even assuming they are truthful, the one who told them this may have been a devil. There is agreement that a dream alone, without evidence supporting its truth, cannot establish anything. For it is established in the Sahīh that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said:
“Dreams are of three kinds: a dream from Allah, a dream arising from a person’s own thoughts, and a dream from Satan.”
Since dreams fall into three categories, each must be distinguished from the others. Some people—even shaykhs who outwardly possess knowledge and ascetic piety—base their claims in such matters on a story they relate from an unknown person. Some even say, “My brother al-Khidr told me that al-Khidr’s grave is in such-and-such a place.” It is well known, as we have explained elsewhere, that all such claims—whether someone claims to have seen al-Khidr, to have seen someone who saw al-Khidr, or to have heard someone who saw al-Khidr, or whether the observer merely supposed that the person he saw was al-Khidr—can gain credence only among ignorant purveyors of superstition who have no share of knowledge, reason, or religion. Rather, they are among those who neither understand nor reason.
As for reports of a pleasant fragrance, an occurrence beyond the ordinary, or similar things associated with a grave, none of this establishes the identity of its occupant—that he is this or that particular person. Rather,