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I've noticed a number of dream interpretation questions coming in. Some recent examples:

While two of these three have been closed as off-topic (with at least one close vote on the third), there is actually nowhere in the Help Centre on-topic definition about dreams.

I don't know enough about the topic to know if "Islamic dream interpreation" has any actual Islamic basis or if it falls under the umbrella of Folk Islam, but given that people have a lot of questions about it — and obviously feel that here is a place to ask them — we should iron out exactly how on (or off) topic they really are and clearly define such in the Help Centre.

So, the question lies thus: Should Islamic dream interpretation questions be on-topic?

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    Is there a consensus about this?
    – blackfyre
    Feb 25, 2015 at 20:08
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    @blackfyre I don't recall ever seeing a single valid argument supporting the idea that Islamic dream interpretation should be on-topic. That's enough of a consensus for me.
    – goldPseudo Mod
    Feb 25, 2015 at 20:26

4 Answers 4

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Personally, I suggest to mark all dream-related questions as off-topic, this because each dream service narrow audiences, also, each dream can be explained by different means this depends on the person, time of the dream, situation where all conditions of clean dream met or not.

From these facts, instead of wasting time for answering dream-questions, it better to answer some other questions about Islam Rules, Ethics, etc..

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Well AFAIK dream interpretation is a very delicate matter and if ever only a few people are or could be qualified to do so. And i think they even need to meet and see the person who asks about dream interpretation and ask them Questions to get to know them, according this i would say that dream interpretation can't at all be made online and therefore should be off-topic here.
Especially as in many Muslim cultures people tend to ask about this addressing their questions to anybody they trust, even if this person doesn't even have basic knowledge on how to interpret a dream! We shouldn't let this kind of nonsense flood our site!

Beside the above a person posting his dreams -which in Islam are -in cases- considered as part of the prophet hood- openly where anybody could give his two cents will certainly not get the correct interpretation. As only the first interpreter if lead to the correct interpretation may tell him the verdict or rule or meaning of this dream. Anybody who comes later won't as this is clearly stated in ahadith, see for example: What is the relationship between Ilham and leg of a bird? and How does dream interpretation distinguish itself from fortune telling?

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I vote to put them as off-topic or not constructive. My reason is the following.

First read this answer, I cite the hadith referenced.

أَصَبْتَ بَعْضًا وَأَخْطَأْتَ بَعْضًا
You have interpreted a part of it correctly and you have erred in interpreting a part of it

It appears that Islam does not forbid the interpretation of dreams. But the interpretation of dreams can be correct or incorrect, and Quran and hadith are not abundant with details on that.

Therefore questions about "interpretation of dreams according to Islam" are barely constructive, because in most cases we cannot give reference from Quran or hadith, and our statements can be correct or incorrect and can not be verified easily (if at all).

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There's a proposal called SLeep on Area51.

I think these kinds of questions belong to such a specialized site, or even another one specifically called Dreams. But better to mark them as off-topic here.

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    Unfortunately this proposal didn't survive!
    – Medi1Saif Mod
    Mar 10, 2016 at 6:56

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