Onions in Dreams. What does it mean?

Onions in dreams may symbolize sorrow, distress, or grief. They can also represent a gloomy or melancholic person, someone who causes sadness to others, or a person who is difficult to deal with. However, if the onion appears cooked in the dream, it may signify relief from sadness, easing of hardship, or improvement in the character of a difficult person.
(This is because onions cause the eyes to sting and tear up. Moreover, plants in dreams can symbolize people, as Allah Almighty says:

“And Allah has caused you to grow from the earth as a growth.” – Qur’an, Nuh 71:17)

Onions may also symbolize a modest livelihood or hard and unrewarding work, accompanied by stress or fatigue.
(This is because onions are edible but peeling and cutting them is laborious and causes tears.)

Eating raw onions in a dream can symbolize offensive or hurtful speech, words that displease Allah, or a person who utters such speech. It may also signify inappropriate behavior in the mosque or in places of remembrance of Allah, leading to the departure of angels from that space. Eating cooked onions, however, is better and less harmful.
(This relates to the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said:

“Whoever has eaten from this offensive plant (garlic or onion), let him not come near our mosque, for the angels are offended by what offends the children of Adam.”
– Sahih Muslim)

Eating onions in a dream may also signify being deprived of good opportunities, delayed affairs, or missing out on righteous gatherings.
(It is narrated that the Prophet ﷺ once passed by an onion plantation with his companions; some of them ate from it while others abstained. The Prophet ﷺ then called those who had not eaten the onions and delayed the others until their odor had vanished – Sahih Muslim.)

Onions may represent painful, tiring, or futile work made up of layers or segments, since onions themselves are composed of many layers. For instance, reading a difficult or false book (because the pages resemble onion layers), or dealing with a troublesome computer (whose internal parts consist of thin layers), may both symbolize layered hardship.
(Refer to the principle of interpretation by resemblance.)

Onions in dreams may also represent connection, communication, or reaching someone, but with hardship, sorrow, or conflict involved. They might also refer to errors in prayer or even unaccepted acts of worship (may Allah protect us).
(Refer to the principle of interpretation by names.)

In some cases, onions symbolize unpleasant matters, since their odor is strong and repelling.

Seeing onions in a dream can be positive and reassuring for someone afflicted by the evil eye (al-‘ayn), or for protection against it — because onions irritate and weaken the physical eye.
(Refer to the principle of interpretation by symbolic similarity.)

Onions may also symbolize hair follicles, due to the linguistic similarity between “onion” (baṣal) and “bulb.”
(Refer to the principle of interpretation by wordplay.)

For those who love raw onions in real life, seeing them raw in dreams may signify misplaced affection or love directed in the wrong way.
Cooked onions, on the other hand, symbolize lawful sustenance, soothing of temperament, improvement of character, or resolution of problems and sorrows.
Raw onions may symbolize life, vitality, and energy, whereas cooked onions may represent stillness or death — as the Prophet ﷺ said:

“If you must eat them, then kill their odor by cooking them.”
(Reported by Abu Dawud, referring to onions and garlic.)

And Allah knows best.

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