and their corruption. He therefore meant that it tempts the heart of whoever seeks it out. This constitutes a prohibition on his part and an unqualified condemnation of those who seek it, contrary to the statement attributed to al-Shiblī without a chain of transmission: “Whoever understands the allusive meaning may lawfully listen for the lesson it conveys.”

This distinction resembles the claim that it is permissible or commendable for the elite, but not for ordinary people. This has already been discussed and refuted, for those who make this claim have also expressed conflicting views on the matter. I know of no shaykh among the accepted authorities from whom any concession concerning listening, or praise of it, is reported without condemnation and prohibition also being reported from him. In this respect, their position resembles what is related from many scholars concerning various questions of speculative theology.

Nothing of this kind is reported from anyone held in esteem within the Muslim community without something contrary to it also being reported from him. This is part of Allah’s mercy towards His righteous servants: in the end, He brings them back to the truth with which He sent His Messenger and does not leave them persisting in what contradicts the religion He has prescribed.

Thus Allah Most High says, describing the God-fearing for whom He has prepared Paradise:

“Hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as wide as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the God-fearing: those who spend in prosperity and adversity, restrain their anger, and pardon others—and Allah loves those who do good—and those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins—and who forgives sins except Allah?—and do not knowingly persist in what they have done. Their reward is forgiveness from their Lord and gardens beneath which flow