wine, and other such things, but he could find no way to do so except by arranging a listening gathering at which they would assemble with that intention, accompanied by a duff (frame drum) without metal jingles and a singer performing permissible poetry, but without a shabbāba (reed pipe). When he did this, a number of them repented, and those who did not pray, stole, and did not pay zakat became scrupulous about doubtful matters, fulfilled their obligatory duties, and avoided what was forbidden. Is it permissible for this shaykh to arrange such a listening gathering in this manner because of the benefits that result from it, given that he cannot call them to repentance by any other means?

In reply to this question, he—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “The fact that the aforementioned shaykh sought to bring those who gathered to commit major sins to repentance, yet could find no way to do so except through the innovated method he described, indicates that the shaykh is either ignorant of the divinely prescribed means by which sinners repent or incapable of employing them. The Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—the Companions, and the Followers used divinely prescribed means to call people worse than these—those guilty of disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience. Through those means, Allah made them independent of innovated methods. It is therefore impermissible to claim that the divinely prescribed means with which Allah sent His Prophet contain nothing by which sinners may be brought to repentance. It is known by necessity and through mass-transmitted reports that, among the nations, numbers known only to Allah Most High repented of disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience through divinely prescribed means that did not include the aforementioned innovated gathering. Indeed, the first and foremost of the Emigrants and the Helpers, and those who followed them in righteousness—the best of Allah’s God-fearing allies in this Ummah—repented to Allah Most High through divinely prescribed means, not through these innovated methods. Likewise, in Muslim cities and villages, in earlier and later times alike, there have been those who repented to Allah, feared Him, and did what Allah loves and is pleased with through divinely prescribed means, not through innovated methods. It cannot therefore be claimed that sinners can be brought to repentance only through these