Hulm

The disturbing dream, seen as arising from whisperings of the shaytan rather than as a message.

Hulm, plural ahlam, is in the Islamic tradition a bad or confusing dream. According to a well-known tradition the Prophet said: the good dream, ru'ya, comes from God, and the hulm comes from Shaytan. That distinction determines how Muslims deal with a nightmare.

Besides ru'ya and hulm the classical scholars know a third kind, hadith an-nafs: dreams arising from what occupies the soul during the day. According to them many bad dreams actually belong in that group. A dream about an exam going wrong, after a week of studying, is then above all the tension of the day.

For a hulm the tradition gives a simple guideline. Whoever dreams something they dislike spits lightly three times to the left, seeks refuge in God three times from Shaytan and from the evil of the dream, turns over onto the other side, and tells the dream to no one. Then the dream cannot harm them. Some traditions add that they may get up and pray.

That guideline is strikingly reassuring. A bad dream is not interpreted or magnified, but let go. The tradition in fact warns against telling nightmares around, because according to tradition a dream follows the interpretation given to it.

Classical interpreters also advise following the sunna before sleep: performing wudu, lying on the right side and reciting the well-known supplications and verses for sleep.

A hulm therefore says nothing about how good or bad someone is. Believers have bad dreams too. What counts is how you deal with them. On Dreamkin the Islamic readings of bad dreams therefore close with this guideline.