and awe, or grief and sorrow, and the like. They required the right place, opportunity, and companions. They stipulated that those assembled to listen should be followers of the path who sought the Face of Allah and the Hereafter, and that the poetry recited should contain nothing that Islamic law deems objectionable to hear. Some of them might also require the chanter to be one of their own, while others might impose the same condition upon the poet who composed those verses. They might also add an instrument to amplify the sound, namely, striking the leather of a cushion or something else with a rod—a practice known as taghbīr.

It is well known that listening to sounds sets the soul in motion according to the particular sound producing that movement… Sounds have diverse qualities, and their effects upon the soul vary accordingly. The same applies to words that are heard, whether poetry or prose. Thus, they combine sounds suited to them with words suited to them.

This is practiced by those among humankind—whether adherents of innovated religions, such as Christians and Sabians, or people with no religion—who thereby stir their love, longing, or ecstasy; their grief or sorrow; their zeal or anger; or something else. Those people were then succeeded by others who began gathering all sorts of people for it. They regarded such a gathering as a net with which souls could supposedly be caught and brought to repentance and attainment along the path of the spiritual aspirants…”1. End quote.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was also asked about a man known for goodness who wished to bring to repentance a group who gathered with the intention of committing major sins, such as murder, highway robbery, theft, and the drinking of