as being connected to religion, and accompany them with particular music. They have distinctive rhythms, called taghbīr, and use a particular bow which they call the taghbīr bow. Then they sit remembering Allah the Exalted in particular melodies, and they have a wooden instrument which they strike. The harder and stronger one’s stroke, the more it is taken as evidence that his heart is more intensely attached to Allah. These are among the ways of the Sufis, and there is no doubt that they are prohibited innovations. They do not bring a person to humble devotion before Allah Most High; rather, they cause him to be stirred by these emotional impulses, which are in reality reckless impulses. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the most reverent of people, yet neither he, nor his Rightly Guided Caliphs, nor the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, ever listened to such things.

Among this category are what are called religious chants. These too are forbidden, for they distract from taking admonition from the Quran. If a person listens to them occasionally when he feels sluggish and lethargic, in order to invigorate himself, there is no harm in that. But making them his regular habit is not permissible. Some of them say, “We listen to them so that we will not listen to other, prohibited songs.”

We say to them: Is a person compelled to listen either to this or to that? He is not compelled. The same is true of one who plays cards: if you tell him, “It is not permissible to play them, for they distract from prayer and cause enmity and hatred,” he replies, “Which is better: this or backbiting?”

The answer is: Yes, it is less serious, but it is not better than backbiting. Yet you are not compelled either to remain a backbiter or a card-player.