his Companions and would ask them for it. Thus, it is reported in the Sahih that Abdullah ibn Masūd (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me, “Recite the Quran to me.” I said, “Should I recite it to you when it was revealed to you?” He replied, “I love to hear it from someone else.” So I recited Surah al-Nisā to him until I reached: “How will it be when We bring a witness from every community and bring you as a witness against these?” 1 He said, “That is enough.” I looked at him and saw tears streaming from his eyes. 2

This is the listening of the people of faith: whoever listens to it, believes in it, and follows it will be guided and prosper, while whoever turns away from it will fall into misery and error. Moreover, it produces effects upon faith, sacred insights, pure spiritual states, and praiseworthy outcomes in this world and the Hereafter beyond all reckoning.

As for listening to whistling and clapping—that is, clapping the hands, whistling, and the like—this is the listening of the polytheists mentioned by Allah Most High in His words: “Their prayer at the House was nothing but whistling and clapping.” 3 He thus informed us that they treated clapping their hands and making sounds with their mouths as acts of devotion and religious practice. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions never gathered for this kind of listening or attended it. Nor, during the first three favored generations, did anyone among the people of religion, righteousness, and worship gather for such whistling and clapping, whether accompanied by a tambourine, hand-clapping, or the beating of a stick. This practice arose only later, toward the end of the second century AH. When the leading scholars saw it,