Dreaming of Nose in Islam

The nose is read by its shape, its soundness, and what happens to it. A sound, well-formed nose is the settled good reading: dignity intact, a good name, a person whose standing is not in question. A nose injured or cut is read as an injury to honour rather than to the face — a humiliation, a public embarrassment, a reputation handled roughly. A nose that has grown larger was read by the older interpreters two ways at once: an increase in standing, or pride swelling past what the person actually is, and the tone of the dream decides which. Losing the sense of smell was read as losing the ability to tell a good matter from a bad one before entering it. A pleasant scent reaching the nose is read as good news or a good reputation arriving; a foul smell as something disagreeable becoming known. Bleeding from the nose shifts the reading to what leaves a person under strain, and was often read lightly, as a burden discharged.

The Arabic makes this one explicit rather than symbolic. Anf is the nose, and anafa is to disdain; a proud man is described in Arabic as one whose nose is high, and a humiliated one has had his nose rubbed in the dust — the idiom is old and entirely ordinary. So the nose in a dream sits on a word that already carried self-regard and dignity. Smell supplies the second half: in this field the scent is what reaches people about you before you arrive.

A dream about the nose is not a sign of illness or injury and not news about your reputation. It is not a ruling, and no dream determines anyone's honour. A blocked nose, a cold, or a real worry about how you were seen yesterday will produce it on their own. If it distressed you, seek refuge in Allah, turn onto your other side, and keep it to yourself.