Dreaming of Orphan in Islam

The dream is read by what the dreamer does with the orphan, not by the child's presence alone. Feeding, clothing or sheltering an orphan is the strongest of the favourable readings and was tied by the interpreters directly to the reward promised for that care. Taking an orphan into your own house turns the reading toward a responsibility being formally accepted rather than a kindness done in passing. Seeing an orphan turned away, hungry or crying was read as a neglected duty somewhere in the dreamer's affairs — often one he knows about and has postponed. Being an orphan yourself, when you are not one, is read as a feeling of being unsupported rather than as anything about your parents. An orphan who is well and cared for is read as a matter that was left vulnerable and has since been secured. Property or money belonging to an orphan was treated with particular gravity, as wealth held in trust that must not be touched.

The weight of this symbol is Qur'anic and unmistakable. The orphan appears repeatedly as the measure of a person's conduct: ad-Duha 93:9 instructs that the orphan is not to be treated harshly, and al-Ma'un 107:2 makes driving the orphan away the mark of one who denies the faith. So the figure in the dream is read less as a person than as a test of how the dreamer treats the one who cannot press his own claim.

No dream here is a ruling on anyone's family, a statement about a real child, or an omen concerning parents' lives. It is not a diagnosis and not a forecast of loss. Grief, recent bereavement, or reading and giving in Ramadan all bring this image on their own. If it left you distressed, the guidance is to seek refuge in Allah, turn over onto your other side, and keep it to yourself.