The Dream of the King of Egypt

The King of Egypt had a dream that Allah the Exalted made a reason for Yusuf's release from prison, with his honor and reputation preserved. When the king had this dream, he was astonished and fearful and sought its interpretation. He gathered the priests, the chiefs of his state and the princes and told them what he had seen in a dream, asking them to interpret it for him. They did not know its interpretation and as an excuse, they said,

أَضْغَـثُ أَحْلَـمٍ

Commentary

After that, say the verses cited above, Allah Ta` ala created through the workings of what is unseen (Al-Ghayb), a particular way out for the release of Sayyidna Yusuf (علیہ السلام) . This made the king of Egypt see a dream which caused him great anxiety. He assembled the known dream interpreters and soothsayers of his state and asked them to interpret his dream. None of them could understand the dream. The answer they all gave was: أَضْغَاثُ أَحْلَامٍ ۖ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِتَأْوِيلِ الْأَحْلَامِ بِعَالِمِينَ : ' (It seems to be) a mishmash of dreams, and we do not know the interpretation of dreams.' The word: أَضْغَاثُ (adghath) is the plural form of: ضِغث (dighth) which literally refers to a bundle of chaff or husk separated from grain while threshing and is a collection of different kinds of waste material. The sense of their saying was that this dream was somewhat muddled, confused and an admixture of many thoughts and things, and they did not know how to interpret such dreams. Had it been a regular dream, they would have had interpreted it.