And so it once happened at a listening session attended by Shaykh Shabīb al-Shattī that, while they were listening to one of their number, an ifrit suddenly appeared, dancing in the air above their heads. They marvelled at him. The shaykh sent for Shaykh Abū Bakr ibn Fīnān on behalf of his disciple. Abū Bakr possessed spiritual experience and knowledge. When he saw him, he shouted at him, and he fell. When they had finished, the fallen man asked for redress, saying, “This man has robbed me of my spiritual state!”

The shaykh replied, “He had no spiritual state. Rather, he was in al-Rahba, and his devil carried him here and made him dance. When I saw the devil, I shouted at it; it fled, and this man fell.”

This account is well known to the shaykh’s companions.

Those who engage in these innovated listening sessions, having made their religion a matter of idle talk and play, have come to embody, in most respects, the opposite of what Allah loves and has prescribed in the religion of truth with which He sent His Messenger. Indeed, these sessions have come to encompass everything that Allah and His messengers have forbidden.

As the Most High says:

“Say, ‘My Lord has only forbidden shameful deeds, whether openly committed or concealed; sin; unjust aggression; associating with Allah that for which He has sent down no authority; and saying about Allah what you do not know.’”
[Surah al-A‘rāf 33]

These sessions have thus come to contain instances of outward and hidden shameful deeds, sin, unjust aggression, associating with Allah that for which He has sent down no authority, and speaking about Allah without knowledge—more than anyone but Allah can count. For these practices have taken many forms and multiplied, and their adherents have divided over them, becoming factions, each group having its own taste, draught, and path