And among those who denounced it, some were measured in their denunciation, while others, relying on their own interpretive judgments, went beyond what was prescribed, just as the former had introduced what was not prescribed. As time passed, innovations in listening increased, as did the severity of those who denounced them. Eventually, the resulting innovations, deviations, divisions, and disagreements reached the point of the most abhorrent wrongs, whose grave sinfulness and prohibition could not be doubted by anyone possessing even the slightest knowledge and faith.

This corruption originated in such interpretive judgments concerning matters open to independent scholarly reasoning. Whoever Allah makes steadfast through the firm word gives everyone their due and observes Allah’s limits without overstepping them:

“Whoever transgresses the limits set by Allah has certainly wronged himself.”
[Surah al-Talāq 1]

Evil thus lies either in negligence through abandoning what is commanded, or in transgression through overstepping the limits. Further additions arose in every category of these innovations.

Listening to odes originally consisted of the melodious recitation of poems that softened hearts, stirring love and longing, fear and awe, sorrow and regret, and other such feelings. They stipulated conditions concerning the place, the circumstances, and the company. They required those gathered to listen to be people of the spiritual path who sought Allah’s countenance and the Hereafter, and the poetry recited to contain nothing that Islamic law deemed objectionable to hear. Some also required the reciter to be one of them, and some would even impose that condition in the case of