When they add melody, the human voice is often accompanied by one of several things: clapping one hand against the other; striking a stick against one’s thigh or against a piece of hide; beating one hand against the other—or against something else—on a tambourine or a drum like the Christians’ bell; or blowing into a whistle like the Jews’ trumpet. Anyone who engages in these amusements as a form of worship and a means of drawing near to Allah is, beyond question, astray and ignorant.

Among the scholars who spoke emphatically against the singing of certain Ṣūfīs was Qadi Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī¹, who said:

“This faction is at odds with the Muslim community, for they have turned singing into religion and obedience. I have witnessed them proclaiming it openly in mosques, congregational mosques, and all manner of noble and sanctified places.”²

Another is Imam al-Ṭurṭūshī³. He was asked about a group who, in one gathering, recite a passage from the Quran, after which a chanter recites some lines of poetry; they then begin to dance, fall into rapture, and beat the tambourine and reed-pipe. Is it lawful to attend such a gathering or not?

He replied: “The Ṣūfī practice is futility, ignorance, and misguidance. Islam is nothing but the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ. As for dancing and states of rapture, the first to invent them were the followers of the Samaritan when he made for them a calf—an empty body that lowed—and they came dancing and swaying around it. It is—"