A Time of Dreams

After a few years, the king saw a dream. We see that dreams were important in their lives. There are several dreams in this story: a dream of Yaʿqūb, the dream of Yūsuf, the dream of the king, and the dreams of the two men in prison. Dreams played an important role in their lives. And Allah (swt) gives the prophets miracles that challenge people in whatever matters most to them. So Allah gave Yūsuf the miracle of interpreting dreams; that was one of his miracles.

The king saw seven fat cows being eaten by seven ʿijāf. ʿIjāf means that their bones were sticking out — you could see the bone under the flesh. They were very thin. So these seven fat cows were eaten up by seven thin ones. That was one dream. In another, he saw seven green ears of corn, and seven others that were dry.

And the king of Egypt said: truly, I saw in a dream seven fat cows, whom seven lean ones were devouring, and seven green ears of corn, and seven others dry. O notables, explain my dream to me, if you can interpret dreams. We have seven fat cows eaten by seven weak ones, and seven green ears of corn, and seven dry ears of corn. He asked his government, his associates and his people: please interpret this dream for me. None of them knew the answer.

They said: mixed-up, false dreams. Forget about it; these are false dreams; do not worry about it. And we are not skilled in the interpretation of dreams — we are not people who care about interpreting dreams. People who are materialistic and attached to this life do not care about the unseen, al-ghayb.