for it gives rise to this harm and turns people away from what is commanded. The same applies to singing: it breeds hypocrisy in the heart, invites fornication, and turns the heart away from the beneficial knowledge and righteous deeds it has been commanded to pursue. It thus encourages evil deeds and discourages good deeds, while offering no benefit. In the cases excepted from this, a countervailing factor removes its harm, as in comparable cases.

Likewise, innovations in belief and practice involve abandoning the divinely prescribed truth—wholesome speech and righteous deeds—from which they turn people away, either by distracting them from it or by contradicting it. They also bring about the harm inherent in their false beliefs and practices.

This is a vast subject; reflection upon it opens the way to understanding many meanings of the religion.