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The Kaaba in a Dream in Islam: Meaning by Ibn Sirin
الكعبة في المنام
In Islam, seeing the Kaaba in a dream is, according to the Ibn Sirin collection, “good news for a good deed one has done, or a warning against an evil one has planned”. In interpretation, the Kaaba also stands for the caliph, an emir or a vizier. Praying inside it brings safety and good. Praying on its roof shows a shaken religion: Ibn Sirin told the man who saw it “Fear Allah”.
ورؤية الكعبة في المنام بشارة بخير قدمه أو نذارة من شر قد هم بهIn the Ibn Sirin collection: “Seeing the Kaaba in a dream is good news for a good deed one has done, or a warning against an evil one has planned.”
Muntakhab al-kalâm, chapter 14, vol. 1, p. 99
This sentence comes from chapter 14, which deals with the pilgrimage, the Kaaba, the Black Stone, the Station of Ibrahim and Zamzam. The same dream can therefore be good news or a warning, depending on what the dreamer has done or is planning. Chapter 39 comes back to the Kaaba: from it we have taken the case of the one who enters it and that of the Kaaba seen far from its place. Prayer facing the Kaaba is covered on the page Praying in a Dream.
Circling the Kaaba in a dream of the Prophet ﷺ
Abdullah ibn Umar reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
بينا أنا نائم رأيتني أطوف بالكعبة فإذا رجل آدم سبط الشعر بين رجلين ينطف رأسه ماء، فقلت من هذا قالوا ابن مريم. فذهبت ألتفت فإذا رجل أحمر جسيم جعد الرأس أعور العين اليمنى، كأن عينه عنبة طافية، قلت من هذا قالوا هذا الدجال“While I was sleeping, I saw myself performing the Tawaf of the Ka‘ba. Behold, there I saw a whitish-red lank-haired man (holding himself) between two men with water dropping from his hair. I asked, ‘Who is this?’ The people replied, ‘He is the son of Mary.’ Then I turned my face to see another man with red complexion, big body, curly hair, and blind in the right eye which looked like a protruding out grape. I asked, ‘Who is he?’ They replied, ‘He is Ad-Dajjal.’”
Sahih al-Bukhari, no. 7026, narrated by Abdullah ibn Umar
The Arabic word used here, âdam, means brown-skinned; the Muhsin Khan translation renders it “whitish-red”.
This is a dream of the Prophet ﷺ, and the dreams of prophets are true. The hadith gives no interpretation of the circling of the Kaaba itself.
The meaning according to what you saw
Here are the cases described in the Ibn Sirin collection, first in chapter 14 (vol. 1), then in chapter 39 (vol. 2).
| In your dream | Meaning in the collection |
|---|---|
| You walk around the Kaaba | An imam entrusts you with an honourable office.vol. 1, p. 98 |
| You pray inside the Kaaba | You gain a place among nobles and leaders, and you obtain safety and good.vol. 1, p. 99 |
| You take something from the Kaaba, or one of its walls falls | Taking something: you receive something from the caliph, because the Kaaba stands for the caliph, an emir or a vizier. The fall of one of its walls announces the death of the caliph.vol. 1, p. 99 |
| The Kaaba is your house, or your house is the Kaaba | You keep servants, authority, high rank and a good name, unless the Kaaba appears in a poor state: then there is no good in it. If your house becomes the Kaaba, the imam comes to you and honours you.vol. 1, p. 99 |
| You enter the Kaaba | According to one opinion, you will really enter it, if Allah wills. According to another, you enter the caliph’s presence. Chapter 39 adds: the unmarried person marries, the disbeliever becomes Muslim, the one who neglected prayer returns to it, and the one who disobeyed his parents obeys them again. If none of these cases applies to you, a ruler, a judge or a scholar of fiqh enters your home. The one who is afraid is made safe. For a sick person, it is his death and his salvation. (another opinion quoted in the collection)vol. 1, p. 99; vol. 2, p. 131 |
| You pray on the roof of the Kaaba | Your religion is shaken.vol. 1, p. 99 |
| You live in Makkah, or the dead question you there | Living in Makkah: you will reach the weakest age of life. Being in Makkah with dead people who question you: you will die a martyr.vol. 1, p. 100 |
| You touch the Black Stone, or you pull it out | Touching it: according to one opinion, you follow an imam of the Hijaz. Pulling it out and keeping it for yourself alone: you cut yourself off in religion through an innovation. (another opinion quoted in the collection)vol. 1, p. 100 |
| You drink Zamzam water | You obtain a good, and what you want by a virtuous path.vol. 1, p. 100 |
| You see the Kaaba in your town or your neighbourhood | When you alone see it, and you neglect your religion or abandon prayer, it is a warning: you are abandoning what you must do, which is to face it wherever you are. The same applies if you owe the pilgrimage and have forgotten it: it reminds you of it and claims it from you.vol. 2, p. 132 |
| People gather around the Kaaba | If the dream concerns everyone: a just ruler who takes power over them, a judge, or a well-known scholar returning from the pilgrimage or a long journey. Or a man who leaves his home after a retreat, for an event, a duty, or a dead member of his family: people follow him and surround him, praying for him and seeking his baraka.vol. 2, p. 132 |
Praying on the Kaaba: Ibn Sirin’s answers
أن رجلا أتى ابن سيرين فقال رأيت كأني أصلي فوق الكعبة فقال اتق الله فإني أراك خرجت عن الإسلام … (ورأى) رجل كأنه تخطى الكعبة ثم قصها على ابن سيرين فقال هذا رجل خالف سنة رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ودخل في هوى ألا ترى أنه يتخطى القبلة فكان كذلك لأنه دخل في الإباحةA man came and told Ibn Sirin: “I saw that I was praying on the roof of the Kaaba.” Ibn Sirin replied: “Fear Allah, for I see that you have left Islam.” Another man saw that he was stepping over the Kaaba and told his dream to Ibn Sirin, who said: “This is a man who has gone against the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and followed a desire. Do you not see that he steps over the qibla?” And so it was: he had adopted the doctrine that makes everything lawful.
Muntakhab al-kalâm, chapter 14, vol. 1, p. 100
The Kaaba is the qibla of Muslims. For Ibn Sirin, praying above it or stepping over it shows that the dreamer is moving away from the religion and the Sunna.
Before you interpret your dream
Not every dream carries a meaning. The Prophet ﷺ described three kinds: a good dream, which is glad tidings from Allah; a distressing dream, which comes from Satan; and what a person tells himself during the day (Sahih Muslim, no. 2263). Only the first is read with a collection like Ibn Sirin’s. See the three kinds of dreams, and if your dream frightened you, what to do after a bad dream.
Frequently asked questions
Is seeing the Kaaba in a dream a good sign in Islam?
The collection says that seeing the Kaaba is “good news for a good deed one has done, or a warning against an evil one has planned” (vol. 1, p. 99). The one who sees the Kaaba as his house gets no good from it if it appears in a poor state.
What does seeing the Kaaba far from Makkah, in your own town, mean in a dream?
When the dreamer alone sees it, and he neglects his religion or abandons prayer, it is a warning. For someone who owes the pilgrimage and has forgotten it, the Kaaba reminds him of it (vol. 2, p. 132). The collection adds that for a man waiting for a wife whose marriage contract is already concluded, and whose wait goes on, her arrival is near (vol. 2, p. 132).
What does entering the Kaaba in a dream mean in Islam?
According to one opinion, you will really enter it; according to another, you will enter the caliph’s presence (vol. 1, p. 99). Chapter 39 says that the unmarried person marries, the disbeliever becomes Muslim, and the one who neglected prayer returns to it. The one who is afraid is made safe. For a sick person, it is his death and his salvation (vol. 2, p. 131).
What does touching the Kaaba or the Black Stone in a dream mean?
The collection does not speak of touching the walls of the Kaaba. It speaks of the Black Stone: touching it means, according to one opinion, following an imam of the Hijaz; pulling it out to keep it means cutting yourself off in religion through an innovation (vol. 1, p. 100).
What does a destroyed Kaaba in a dream mean?
The collection does not speak of the Kaaba destroyed entirely. It says that the fall of one of its walls announces the death of the caliph, since the Kaaba stands for the caliph, an emir or a vizier (vol. 1, p. 99).
Sources
- Muntakhab al-kalâm fî tafsîr al-ahlâm, collection attributed to Muhammad ibn Sirin, chapter 14, vol. 1, pp. 98 to 100; chapter 39, vol. 2, pp. 131 and 132 (Arabic text, Shamela edition, OpenITI corpus).
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of the Interpretation of Dreams, no. 7026 (English translation by Muhammad Muhsin Khan).
- Sahih Muslim, no. 2263, for the three kinds of dreams.
- English translations of the Ibn Sirin collection: tafsir-a7lem.com.