What matters, then, is that these are the kinds of dreams. If someone sees a likeness of his father, mother, brother, uncle, or anyone else, that image may correspond to reality, or it may be nothing more than Satan taking on that person’s form so the sleeper sees him—everyone except the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Whenever a person sees the Prophet in the well-known appearance described in the sources, he has truly seen him, for Satan can never mimic the Prophet’s likeness, nor would he dare.

Therefore, if a dreamer beholds a figure and feels certain it is the Prophet, he must compare the features he saw to the Prophet’s recorded attributes: if they match, then it was indeed the Prophet; if they do not, it was not the Prophet at all but a deception from Satan, who merely implanted in the sleeper’s mind the notion that it was the Messenger. This is why people often come forward saying, “I saw the Messenger and he told me such-and-such or did such-and-such,” yet when they describe him, the features they recount do not agree with the Prophet’s description. Although in the dream they felt convinced it was him, once we hear the description we can state with certainty that it was not.

Conversely, if someone describes what he saw and the description corresponds exactly to the Prophet’s known features, then—God willing—it was the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Still, we must also be sure that the Prophet would never say anything in a dream that contradicts his own Sharia. In other words, if a person were to come and say, “I saw the Messenger…"