If Allah Most High has praised and commended those who turn away from idle talk and pass by it with dignity, without listening to it, how can listening to every kind of speech be praiseworthy?

Allah Most High says:

“Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart—about all those you will be questioned.” [Surah al-Isrāʾ 36]

He has thus stated that He will question the servant about his hearing, sight and heart, and has forbidden him to speak of that of which he has no knowledge.

If the use of hearing, sight and the heart falls into what is commanded and what is forbidden, and the servant is accountable for all of this, how can it be said that the servant deserves praise for listening to any speech whatsoever in the world? This is like saying that the servant deserves praise for looking at everything visible in the world.

Through these two avenues, Satan has gained access to many ascetics, leading them to indulge in looking at forms they were forbidden to look at and listening to words and sounds they were forbidden to hear. Satan was not content with that: he made these things seem so appealing to them that they turned what they had been forbidden into worship, a means of drawing near to Allah, and obedience. Thus, they did not regard as forbidden what Allah and His Messenger had forbidden, nor did they follow the religion of truth.

As related of Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz, who said: “I saw Iblīs in a dream