of virtue. He would sometimes attend a gathering for listening. If he found it pleasing, he would spread out his waist-wrapper, sit down, and say, “The Sufi follows his heart.” If he did not find it pleasing, he would say, “Listening is for those endowed with hearts,” take his sandals, and leave.’”

I say: Allah willing, we shall discuss such a state: following whatever pleases the heart and whatever a person inwardly tastes and finds conducive to the heart’s soundness. We shall explain that upright spiritual conduct thus proceeds without taking as its criterion the heart’s pleasure, or the benefit, delight, concentration upon Allah, and similar things that a person experiences and tastes. As for that state, it is condemned in the Quran and Sunnah and constitutes a deviation from the path. It is the starting point of the misguidance of those worshippers, ascetics, Sufis, spiritual mendicants, and others who have gone astray. In essence, it is following desire without guidance from Allah. Enough statements from the shaykhs condemning this have already been cited.

For the mere fact that the heart finds something pleasing is no proof that it is pleased only by what Allah loves and approves. Rather, it may be pleased by something that Allah neither loves nor approves—whether He dislikes it or does not dislike it. This is especially true of hearts steeped in the love of melodious voices. Indeed, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said: “Singing causes hypocrisy to grow in hearts just as water causes plants to grow.”