Dreaming of Gold in Islam

Gold is read differently for men and for women, and then by what is done with it. A woman seeing gold as ornament is read favourably: adornment, joy, and a good arriving in her own affair. A man seeing gold on himself is read the other way through most of the tradition — as a fine, a debt, or a grief — and the reading is not arbitrary, since gold is forbidden to men to wear. Finding gold is read as something gained that will have to be answered for; losing it as a burden set down as often as a loss. Melted or broken gold was read as a matter reduced to what it is actually worth. Giving gold away is read better than keeping it: what leaves the hand is discharged. Gold that is hoarded, counted, or hidden carries the worst reading, and the Qur'an's warning to those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of Allah (at-Tawba 9:34) stands behind that.

Arabic makes this one plain. Dhahab, gold, is the same word-form as dhahaba, "it went away" — the interpreters noticed that and read the metal as a thing whose nature is to leave. The two other supports are real as well: the prohibition on men wearing gold, which is why the sex of the dreamer changes the reading; and gold's ordinary use as something stored rather than used, which is why hoarding it reads badly and spending it reads well.

A gold dream is not a forecast of wealth, and it is not a warning of a fine or a debt either. It carries no ruling, and no financial decision belongs on it. Worry about money produces this dream on its own. If it left you uneasy, the practice taught is to seek refuge in Allah, turn onto your other side, and keep the dream to yourself.