And they were so stringent concerning sins and acts of disobedience that they declared Muslims unbelievers and held that they would remain in the Fire forever.

There is no doubt that many ascetics, worshippers, and renunciants may share a trait of the Khawārij, even while differing from them in other respects. Thus, adhering to a particular style of dress—whether permissible or considered disliked—in such a way as to make it a religious practice, a recommended act, and a distinguishing mark of religious people is also an innovation. Just as nothing is forbidden except what Allah has forbidden, nothing belongs to the religion except what Allah has prescribed.

The second point: Their assertion that this practice of listening brings about what Allah loves, and that whatever brings about what He loves is itself beloved to Him, is false. Many of these people—or most of them—have fallen into error and gone astray through this very reasoning. They supposed that listening stirs love for Allah. Love for Allah is the foundation of faith as an act of the heart, and as that love becomes complete, so does faith. According to what Abū Tālib and others mention, it is the culmination of the spiritual stations. Some of them may describe it as the station to which the foremost of the common believers and the least advanced of the elect ascend.

Some of them say that listening is a consequence of love, and that they engage in it only because it stirs love for Allah, glorified and exalted be He. For listening stirs whatever is in each heart. Thus, whoever has love for Allah in his heart