Tahrim Alat al-Tarab - Nasir al-Din al-Albani - (179)

Tahrim Alat al-TarabNasir al-Din al-Albani

“The sixth point,” he writes, “is that the singer may chant a single line of poetry that does not suit the listener’s present state; the listener then dislikes it, forbids him from repeating it, and asks for something else. Not every word is appropriate to every condition. Were they, in their devotional gatherings, to sit around a Quran-reciter instead, he might chance upon a verse that does not match their mood—for the Quran is a remedy for all people, in every circumstance… Thus one cannot guarantee that the recited passage will accord with the state of those present; the soul may find it disagreeable and thereby expose itself to the peril of disliking the Speech of Allah, having no way to avert it. Poetry, by contrast, can be construed in a sense other than what the poet intended. The words of Allah, however, must be venerated and protected from such responses. This, I believe, is among the reasons why the shaykhs have turned from listening to Quran recitation to listening to singing.”

I say: Allah is the Greatest—truly the flood has reached the brim and the calamity has swelled! In Ibn al-Qayyim’s earlier report the problem was confined to the murids (spiritual novices); here al-Ghazali states plainly that it afflicts the shaykhs themselves, and he defends them with that chilly rationale whose mere citation suffices to refute it. Allah’s help is sought.

Now if this same al-Ghazali acknowledges that the Quran is a cure for all people in every condition, what need have we of the wajd (ecstasy) for whose sake the Sufis deemed it lawful to turn away from hearing the Quran—an ecstasy whose best case is that its possessor is involuntarily overcome by it, like a sneeze, and whose worst case is sheer ostentation and hypocrisy? How far they stand from Allah’s words: “Say: It is, for those who believe, guidance and a cure; but those who do not believe—there is deafness in their ears and it is upon them a blindness” (41:44).

May Allah have mercy on Ibn al-Qayyim and reward him well, for he discerned the harms lurking in this kind of listening.

الوجه السادس: أن المغني قد يغني ببيت لا يوافق حال السامع فيكرهه وينهاه عنه ويستدعي غيره فليس كل كلام موافقا لكل حال فلو اجتمعوا في الدعوات على القارئ فربما يقرأ آية لا يوافق حالهم إذ القرآن شفاء للناس كلهم على اختلاف الأحوال ... فإذن لا يؤمن أن لا يوافق المقروء الحال وتكرهه النفس فيتعرض به لخطر كراهة كلام الله تعالى من حيث لا يجد سبيلا إلى دفعه.. وأما قول الشاعر فيجوز تنزيله على غير مراد.. فيجب توقير كلام الله وصيانته عن ذلك وهذا ما ينقدح في علل انصراف الشيوخ إلى سماع الغناء عن سماع القرآن. فأقول: الله أكبر لقد بلغ السيل الزبى فقد تضخمت المصيبة لقد كانت محصورة في المريدين في نقل ابن القيم المتقدم وإذا بالغزالي يصرح بأنها في الشيوخ أيضا وعنهم يدافع بذلك التعليل البارد الذي تغني حكايته عن رده والله المستعان. وإذا كان الغزالي هذا يصرح بأن القرآن شفاء للناس كلهم على اختلاف الأحوال فما لنا وللوجد الذي من أجله سوغ الصوفية الإعراض عن سماع القرآن الوجد الذي أحسن أحواله أن يكون صاحبه مغلوبا عليه كالعطاس مثلا وأسوؤه أن يكون رياء ونفاقا وأين هم من قوله تعالى في القرآن: ﴿قُلْ هُوَ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا هُدىً وَشِفَاءٌ وَالَّذِينَ لا يُؤْمِنُونَ فِي آذَانِهِمْ وَقْرٌ وَهُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ عَمىً﴾ ؟ ورحم الله ابن القيم وجزاه خيرا فقد عرف أضرار هذا السماع