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wa-qāla l-maliku ʾinnī ʾarā sabʿa baqarātin simānin yaʾkuluhunna sabʿun ʿijāfun wa-sabʿa sunbulātin khuḍrin wa-ʾukhara yābisātin yā-ʾayyuhā l-malaʾu ʾaftūnī fī ruʾyāya ʾin kuntum li-r-ruʾyā taʿburūna
[One day] the king said, ‘I saw [in a dream] seven fat cows being devoured by seven lean ones, and seven green ears and [seven] others [that were] dry. O courtiers, give me your opinion about my dream, if you can interpret dreams.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Yusuf – Verse 43
43. “And (once) the king (of Egypt) said: ‘Verily I saw (in a dream) seven fat cows which seven lean cows were eating; and seven green ears of corn and other (seven) dry. O’ chiefs (of my court)! Explain to me my dream, if you are able to interpret dreams’.”
This Surah talks about three dreams: namely Yusuf’s dream itself, the dream of his two fellow prisoners, and the dream of the king of Egypt. In the Torah it is cited that the king dreamed these two subjects on two different occasions; on one occasion the lean cows were eating the fat ones, and on another separate occasion, the green ears of corn were alongside the dry ears.1 As for the speculation that the ‘Aziz of Egypt was the same person as the king of Egypt or that the two individuals were different, there are a number of differences in opinion which do not concern us here for the issues involved do not have any role to play in our discussion.
In Roudat-ul-Kafi dreams are said to consist of three kinds: The first type of dreams are those that give good tidings from the Divine, the second type are terrible dreams from the Satan, and the third type are those dreams that are meaningless and disorganized. Yusuf had remained forgotten within the confines of the prison walls for a number of years, busy perfecting himself and guiding the prisoners around him. Life went on as usual until a seemingly minor matter changed not only his destiny but that of the entire people of Egypt and those of its around.
The king of Egypt, (called Walid-ibn-Rayyan), whose minister was the ‘Aziz, had had an apparently confused dream. Next morning he summoned all the dream interpreters and his entourage and described the dream to them. He said that he had a dream in which he saw seven lean cows attacked and devoured seven fat ones and seven green ears of corn with seven dry and withered ones spiraling around the former made them useless. The verse says:
“And (once) the king (of Egypt) said: ‘Verily I saw (in a dream) seven fat cows which seven lean cows were eating; and seven green ears of corn and other (seven) dry...”
He then turned to them and asked them for their opinion about this dream. The verse says:
“…O’ chiefs (of my court)! Explain to me my dream, if you are able to interpret dreams’.”
Explanations
1. Allah (s.w.t.) saves a nation from famine by giving its oppressive and tyrannical king a dream on condition that its only interpreter be Yusuf.
2. The king of Egypt had had this astonishing dream several times.
3. The chiefs and the powerful people begin feeling threatened at the slightest unpleasant sign and clue lest their power might be lost and taken away from them.
4. To interpret dreams, one must turn to the right kind of people and one must not disclose it to anyone that is not properly qualified to interpret it.
Footnotes