and entails following His Messenger, and He made following His Messenger something that necessitates and entails the Lord’s love for His servant. Allah loves those who follow the Messenger, and no one loves Allah unless he is among them.

Once you understand these principles, you will see that those who engage in the innovated practice of listening generally fall short in these three principles. Their shortcomings vary greatly according to the extent to which they substitute innovated listening for religiously prescribed listening, and the consequences that follow. In some cases, this has culminated in abandoning faith altogether and becoming a complete hypocrite or an outright disbeliever.

As for the majority of them, who possess love for Allah and His Messenger and the qualities that accompany it, they fall short in this regard. You find among them very serious neglect of striving in the cause of Allah—including enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong—and of following the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in his law, his Sunnah, his commands and his prohibitions. Likewise, regarding sincere devotion to Allah, you find among them many forms of associating partners with Him, whether concealed or overt.

Thus, this listening—the listening that involves whistling and clapping—is originally the practice of the polytheists, as Allah Most High says:

“Their prayer at the Sacred House was nothing but whistling and clapping.”
[Surah al-Anfāl 35]

They also take their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah, resembling the Christians in much of this. Indeed, some of them worship certain human beings and worship their graves: they call upon them, seek their aid, place their trust in them, fear them and pin their hopes on them, along with other acts that belong exclusively to Allah alone, who has no