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Text and translation
English translation
2270. Abū Hurairah narrated that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: "When time draws near, the dreams of a believer will hardly ever fail to come true, and the most truthful of them in dreams will be the truest in speech among them.[1] The dream of a Muslim is a portion among the forty-six portions of Prophethood. And dreams are of three types: The righteous dream which is good news from Allāh, dreams in which the Shaitān frightens someone, and dreams about something that has happened to the man himself. So when one of you sees what he
dislikes, then he should get up and spit, and not tell any of the people – he said: – and I like the fetters in a dream while I dislike the iron collar.” And the interpretation of fetters is being firm in the religion. (Sahih)
He said: This Hadith is [Hasan] Sahih.
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Footnotes
1
[1] In the narration with Al-Bukhārī (no. 7013) via the route of 'Awf from Muhammad bin Sīrīn "the most truthful of them" is not present. Then before proceeding it says: "Muhammad said" and he is the one narrating it from Abū Hurairah. After the Hadīth, Al-Bukhārī said (it is not translated in the popular English translation): "Qatādah, Yūnus, Hishām, and Abū Hilāl reported it from Ibn Sīrīn, from Abū Hurairah from the Prophet ﷺ. Some of them included all of it in the Hadīth, but the Hadīth of 'Awf is clearer. Yūnus said: 'I am not sure if the part about the fetters is from the Prophet ﷺ.'" Ibn Hajar has a lengthy discussion about which of it is from the Prophet ﷺ and which of it is from the narrators, and he endorses the view of Al-Bukhārī in the end.
Commentary
The Prophet's statement that the dreams of the believers are a portion of the forty-six portions of Prophethood should be taken in the context of the fact that Allāh had endowed His Prophets ﷺ with innumerable qualities and characteristics, some of them of a very high order. In some cases, their followers also bestowed with a shadow of those characteristics by Allāh's permission. It should not, however, be supposed that by getting the semblance of a certain Prophetic quality one partakes a portion of Prophethood itself. The fact is that, in the case of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, he continued to receive Divine Revelations for twenty-three years. He was first shown truthful dreams for six months, which is the forty-sixth portion of the entire tenure of the investiture of Prophethood spent in the world. That is why, true dreams have generally been described as the forty-sixth part of Prophethood. This quality of dreams, i.e., Their truthfulness, is not uniform. It could be more for one person and less for another one. For some the element of truthfulness in dreams is more, while for others it is less. It is not equal for all believers.
