Thus, he described it as a trial for whoever deliberately seeks it out. For whoever happens upon it, he did not deem it recommended or an act of obedience, but merely a respite. How, then, could he say that it made manifest the True One’s earlier address?

Abū al-Qāsim said: “I heard the teacher Abū ʿAlī al-Daqqāq say: ‘Listening is forbidden to ordinary people because their lower selves persist; permissible for ascetics because they have undertaken spiritual striving; and recommended for our companions because their hearts are alive.’”

I say: Abū al-Qāsim had already related the following in his biography of Shaykh Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhābārī, who belonged to an earlier generation, died after 320 AH, and associated with al-Junayd and those of the second generation. He used to say: “My teacher in Sufism was al-Junayd; in jurisprudence, Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Surayj; in language and literature, Thaʿlab; and in hadith, Ibrāhīm al-Harbī.” Abū al-Qāsim said of him: “He was the most refined of the shaykhs and the most knowledgeable of the spiritual path.”

He said: “I heard Shaykh Abū ʿAbd al-Rahmān al-Sulamī—may Allah have mercy on him—say: ‘I heard Abū al-Qāsim al-Dimashqī say: Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhābārī was asked about someone who listens to musical entertainments and says: “They are lawful for me because I have reached a degree at which I am unaffected