Islamic tradition
Water in Islamic dream interpretation
Clear water is among the most favourable images in the tradition, and the quality of the water carries the reading.
What this page is
What follows describes readings recorded in this tradition, with the tradition's own qualifications attached. It is not a claim that a dream about any of these things means anything, and it is not religious guidance.
Clean, still or flowing clear water is associated with life, provision and knowledge. Murky, salty or stagnant water reverses it. The manuals are consistent about this and it is one of the few readings on which the tradition speaks with almost one voice.
Drinking is distinguished from swimming, from drowning, and from standing in it. The verb matters, which is a general feature of this tradition and the thing most modern symbol dictionaries lose.
Rain has its own treatment and is read favourably in most circumstances, as mercy and as relief, with the same qualification about quantity: what is welcome in measure is read differently in flood.
What is actually recorded about dreaming of water
Water is the most frequently reported dream element, and its readings are unusually consistent across traditions: emotion, the unconscious, and whatever is too large to be argued with. Depth and clarity carry most of the meaning.
The water entrySources and reviewed references
2 references. What these labels mean
- 1.Ta'bir al-Ru'ya and the dream manuals attributed to Ibn SirinReligious or philosophical text
Attributed to Muhammad ibn Sirin (died 728 CE)
Cited for: The symbol readings of the classical Islamic dream-interpretation tradition as they circulate. ⚠ Authorship is disputed: Ibn Sirin was a real early figure renowned for dream interpretation, and the large manuals sold under his name are later compilations that gathered material from several hands. The tradition is genuine; the single-author attribution is not, and the pages say so.
- 2.The Early Muslim Tradition of Dream InterpretationAcademic book
John C. Lamoreaux (2002) · State University of New York Press
Cited for: Scholarly treatment of how the Muslim dream-interpretation tradition formed, who its early figures were, and how the manuals attributed to them were assembled.