for him” [Surah Yā Sīn 69], and which He made a “Quran” for Satan—as in the hadith, “What, then, is my Quran?” He said, “Poetry”—then he has equated the speech of the Most Merciful with the speech of Satan. He has thus made Satan an equal to the Most Merciful, placing himself among those of whom Allah said:

“So they will be hurled into it, they and the misguided, and the soldiers of Satan, all together. They will say, disputing there, ‘By Allah, we were clearly astray when we made you equal to the Lord of all worlds.’” [Surah al-Shu‘arā’ 94–98]

To argue that a beautiful voice is a blessing and that people delight in it, and therefore that using it in singing is permissible—or even recommended in certain circumstances—is like arguing that beauty is a blessing and that people love beautiful forms, and therefore that using boys’ beauty to give people pleasure through looking, physical contact, or otherwise is permissible—or even recommended in certain circumstances. Groups of philosophers, Sufis, and ordinary people have fallen into this as well, just as still more have fallen into its counterpart concerning sound. Yet among those who have fallen into this concerning physical beauty are some whose reason and religious commitment exceed those of these others, for among these there is no man of widespread public renown, unlike the practitioners of samā‘ (listening). Nevertheless, they paved the way for them and provided the means, until many people came to say and do concerning sound the equivalent of what these people said and did concerning physical beauty. They argue for the permissibility of looking at it and gazing upon it by appealing to such things as