Dreaming of Lamp in Islam

A lamp is read by whether it is lit and by whose hand carries it. A lamp burning steadily is the settled good reading: guidance, knowledge that is being used, or a righteous child — the older interpreters put all three under the same image. Carrying a lamp before others is read as leading by something one actually has, and it is read better than owning a lamp and keeping it in one place. A lamp that goes out is read as the loss of what was giving light — a teacher, a guide, a state of clarity — and the interpreters were careful to keep that away from any reading about a person's term of life. A lamp with little oil, or one guttering, is read as a good that is not being maintained. Lighting a lamp from another lamp is one of the strongest readings here: knowledge taken from someone without diminishing him. A lamp in daylight has been read as effort spent where it was not needed. A lamp given to the dreamer is read as something entrusted rather than earned.

The image is the Qur'an's own. The verse of light describes a niche in which there is a lamp, the lamp in glass, the glass as a brilliant star (an-Nur 24:35), and the whole passage is about guidance rather than illumination. The Qur'an also calls the Prophet a lamp giving light (al-Ahzab 33:46). So the reading of a lamp as guidance is not a dream-interpreter's association at all; it is the text's own vocabulary, and the interpretations simply follow it.

A lamp going out in a dream is not a warning about anyone's death or anyone's faith — this needs stating plainly, because it is the reading people fear. It is not a ruling and not a prediction. No one's guidance or misguidance is established by what is seen in sleep. If the dream frightened you, seek refuge in Allah, turn onto your other side, and do not relate it to anyone.