to follow them in this, even though they are forgiven for it and are among the best of Muslims. Allah has forgiven this nation its mistakes and forgetfulness, as the Quran and Sunnah indicate. He, glorified be He, erases bad deeds through good deeds, accepts His servants’ repentance, and pardons their misdeeds.

This answers what Shaykh Abū Tālib al-Makkī mentioned in his book Qūt al-Qulūb (Nourishment of Hearts), where he stated that whoever condemns samā‘ (listening) absolutely, without qualification, has condemned seventy of the eminently truthful. Perhaps such condemnation today would encompass a great multitude of the eminently truthful. Yet the reply is that those who condemned it number more than seventy, and another seventy, and yet another seventy of the eminently truthful; moreover, they possess greater knowledge and faith and hold a higher rank. Appealing to one group of the eminently truthful against their peers—especially against those far greater than themselves—has no more evidential force than the reverse.

For if someone were to say, “Whoever institutes this newly introduced samā‘ and makes it a means of drawing near to Allah has opposed the vast majority of the eminently truthful of this nation and rejected their position,” his statement would be more correct and stronger as an argument, quite apart from any other considerations.

Here there is a fundamental principle that must be upheld: Allah, glorified be He, has protected this nation from collectively agreeing upon misguidance, but He has not protected its individual members from error, whether they are among the eminently truthful or otherwise. Yet whenever some of its members fall into error, Allah must raise up within it someone who is