wealth and authority afford a degree of power that may also invite all manner of indecency and injustice. A person’s soul does not urge him to act unless he has some ability to do so, and he uses his ability only to do what he desires. Wayward desires lie dormant within souls; when the ability arises, the trial begins, and a person proves either wretched or blessed. Allah accepts the repentance of those who repent. Those who undergo trials may thus either rise or fall.

That souls are stirred by sound alone is also perceptible. Sound moves them profoundly, bringing joy, sadness, anger, fear, and other emotional responses. Likewise, souls respond to outward forms sometimes with love and sometimes with hatred, and to foods sometimes with dislike and sometimes with aversion. The response of children and animals to sound belongs to this same category. Yet the weaker the recipient, the stronger the response: women respond more strongly than men, children more strongly than adults, and animals more strongly than human beings. This indicates that a strong response to sound alone stems from a pronounced weakness of intellect. Whatever praise there may be in this is therefore outweighed by grounds for blame. People of sound intellect, by contrast, are moved by sound comprising letters combined into words that convey cherished meanings. This finds its fullest expression in listening to the Quran.

As for being moved by sound alone, this is not something that the revealed Law has encouraged, nor do sensible people urge it. Rather, they regard it as a sign of deficient intellect and weakness of