Dreaming of Ivory in Islam

Ivory is read by whether it is raw or worked, and by whose it is. Worked ivory — a comb, an inlay, a carved piece is the settled reading: something valuable that has been shaped by care rather than found, and in the older interpretations an honourable woman or a possession kept with dignity. Raw ivory, uncut is read as worth that is present but has had nothing done with it yet. Being given ivory is read as an honour conferred; ivory that is cracked or yellowed as a standing that has been let go rather than lost outright. Buying or trading in ivory was read by the older interpreters as dealing in what is precious and slow to move — not quick gain. Ivory kept hidden away has been read as a good guarded so closely that no one benefits from it, and they did not read that favourably. Seeing ivory belonging to someone else shifts the dream onto that person's standing rather than the dreamer's.

No Qur'anic image stands behind ivory and no Arabic idiom does either, so the honest account is this: classical Arabic poetry uses ivory as a standing simile for fairness and for something finely made, and the interpreters worked from that literary association together with the plain properties of the material — rare, white, hard, and worth nothing until it is worked. The reading of an honourable woman comes from the poetic usage, not from any etymology, and it should not be given more weight than that.

A dream of ivory is not news about wealth arriving and not a statement about any particular person. It is not a ruling. The interpreters cautioned against reading a person's worth or a household's fortune out of a dream at all, and that caution applies here. If the dream unsettled you, the taught response is unchanged: seek refuge in Allah, turn onto your other side, and do not relate it.