incline toward indecency and wrongdoing. Thus each indulges in indecency, to the point that many Sufis have taken to keeping company with youths and gazing at them.

It is authentically reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “The eyes commit adultery, and their adultery is looking.” Most who engage in this listening mingle with youths and unrelated women. Those among them who refrain from this out of religious scrupulousness or for some other reason are restrained by something other than this listening. This listening certainly does not restrain them from it; rather, it invites them to it. This is especially true of souls marked by tenderness, spiritual discipline, and asceticism: listening to the voice affects them profoundly, as does gazing at physical forms, and this becomes nourishment for them.

Satan has found his compensation in this among those Sufis who engage in it. Once he has drawn them into what corrupts their hearts, hearing, and sight, he does not mind their refraining from amassing wealth and power. For the temptation this presents to one of them may be greater than the temptation of power and wealth. The latter are permissible in themselves and may be used to assist in obeying Allah. What these people occupy themselves with, however, is a corrupt and forbidden form of religion whose harm outweighs its benefit.

The fifth point is men’s imitation of women. The early generations used to call male singers effeminate men, because singing is something women do, and in the time of the Prophet there were no