Dream meaning Dreaming of a lamp

A lamp in a dream casts a circle of light into the dark around it. It is guidance and knowledge, and the care it takes to keep a light burning. The reading follows the flame, whether it burns clear, smokes, runs dry or goes out, and the hand that holds the lamp.

The Qur'an's Verse of Light describes God's light as a niche holding a lamp, the lamp within glass like a shining star, lit from a blessed olive tree whose oil would almost glow untouched by fire: light upon light. Al-Ghazali devoted a whole book, The Niche of Lights, to its meaning, and Mamluk glassmakers inscribed it on the mosque lamps that hung over worshippers.

The Qur'an also calls the Prophet a light-giving lamp. In the Psalms, God's word is a lamp to the feet, and in Jesus' parable, wise bridesmaids bring oil for their lamps while foolish ones find theirs going out. Diogenes walked through Athens in daylight with a lamp, looking for an honest man. For the interpreters a lit lamp is guidance, knowledge, or a person who brings light to a household.

A lamp burning clear is knowledge that shows the next step, or a guide who will show it; a smoking lamp is knowledge clouded, or guidance mixed with error; a lamp running out of oil is a light that needs feeding with prayer, learning, or the company of those who guide. Carrying a lamp through darkness is seeking, or guiding someone else, and lighting another person's lamp is teaching that will be rewarded.

A broken lamp is the loss or absence of a guide, and many lamps shining together are a gathering in faith or a celebration. A lamp lit for you by someone unknown is help that comes from where you did not expect it.