Dreaming of Clothes in Islam

Clothes are read as the condition a person is seen in, so the garment is read by its state and by how it fits. New, clean clothes are the settled good reading: standing restored, an affair improving, a religion in order. Torn or soiled clothes reverse it toward worry or something that has damaged the dreamer's name rather than his body. Clothes that are too tight are read as a constriction in the very thing he is known for; too loose or dragging as a position he has not grown into. White garments are read most favourably throughout, and coarse or borrowed clothing as a state that is not truly his. Being given a garment is read as being given a standing by someone; being stripped of one as a standing withdrawn — though the interpreters read the dreamer's own feeling here, since a garment removed for washing is not a garment lost. Changing clothes is read as a change of condition, and the direction is told by what was put on, not by what was taken off.

The Qur'an itself uses clothing for something other than cloth: it calls the garment of God-consciousness the best garment (al-A'raf 7:26), and it calls spouses a garment for one another (al-Baqara 2:187). Arabic usage keeps the same habit — a man's thawb stands for what he is seen in. The interpreters did not invent the transfer; they used one the language had already made.

A dream of torn clothes is not a warning of disgrace, and new clothes are not a promise of anything. The dream carries no ruling and settles no question about how a person stands with people or with Allah. Worry about how one is seen produces this dream reliably by itself. If it distressed you, seek refuge in Allah, turn onto your other side, and keep it to yourself.