causes panic.

As for the voice that rouses anger for Allah’s sake—such as the chants recited in jihad—it was never accompanied by instruments. In the same vein, voices of joy prompted by desire are permitted only to the extent established in the Sunnah: women and children may strike the frame-drum (duff) at weddings and festive gatherings.

Most poetry sung to stir people’s emotions falls under four headings: (1) erotic verse; (2) poems of wrath and tribal zeal—namely ḥamāsa and invective; (3) lamentations composed for calamities; and (4) panegyrics celebrating blessings and happiness. Poets ordinarily move with the current of their own temperament, as Allah, Exalted is He, says:

“Do you not see that they wander aimlessly in every valley, and that they say what they do not do?” (Al-Shuʿarāʾ, 225–226).

He therefore informed us that the misguided follow them. A ghāwī is one who pursues his desire without knowledge; this is ghayy, the opposite of right-mindedness—just as the ḍāll, who is unaware of what benefits him, is the opposite of the rightly guided. Allah, the Most High, says:

“By the star when it sets: your companion has neither strayed nor erred.” (An-Najm, 1–2).

For this reason the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “Hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided successors after me.”

Accordingly you find poets praising courage in general and generosity in general, for a complete absence of these two traits is universally condemned, whereas their presence secures the aims of all souls. Yet in the end the good outcome belongs to the God-fearing, whereas