Dreaming of King in Islam

A king is read by how he treats the dreamer and by what passes between them. Being received well, or given something by him, is the strong good reading: a matter opened by someone with the power to open it, or a standing raised by another's decision. Speaking with him and being heard is read as access — a door that had been shut. Being ignored or dismissed turns it toward an effort spent where it has no weight. Being the king oneself was read two ways and the interpreters kept both: elevation, and a burden of responsibility that leaves a person answerable for people he cannot see. A just king and an unjust one are read as opposites in everything: the first as order, the second as arbitrariness one is subject to. A king who is deposed or leaves his place is read as the end of an arrangement the dreamer had been relying on. Being summoned by a king was read as a call to account for something rather than as an honour by itself.

The reading rests on an idea the Qur'an states directly: sovereignty is given and taken away, and not held in one's own right — You give sovereignty to whom You will and take it from whom You will (Al Imran 3:26). That is why the older interpreters read the king in a dream as a condition rather than as a person: to be near a king is to be near something that can change everything about your circumstances and is not yours to hold. In a world where one man's decision could resettle a family, no metaphor had to be explained.

A dream of a king is not news of promotion, favour or ruin, and it identifies nobody. It is not a ruling and decides nothing about your work or your case. If it unsettled you, the answer taught for a distressing dream is the one to use: seek refuge in Allah, turn onto your other side, and do not relate it.