may Allah bless him and grant him peace—those whom Allah praised in the Quran. After them, three effects appeared among the Successors: agitation, convulsions, and fainting—or death and frenzy. Some of the early scholars disapproved of this, either because of their innovation or because of their love. Most leading scholars and early authorities, however, did not disapprove of it: when the cause is not prohibited, a person is excused for its consequences.

The reason for this, however, is the intensity of what comes upon their hearts and their hearts’ inability to bear it. Had listening failed to affect them because of their hardness of heart, they would have been blameworthy, just as Allah condemned those of whom He said:

“Then your hearts became hardened after that.”

He also said:

“Has the time not come for those who believe that their hearts should become humbly submissive at the remembrance of Allah and what has come down of the truth? And let them not be like those who were given the Scripture before, whose hearts hardened as time passed, and many of whom are defiantly disobedient.”

If listening produced praiseworthy effects in them without taking them beyond the bounds of reason, they would be like those whom it brought to the point of being overwhelmed: they too would be praiseworthy and excused.

As for those who gather to listen with the aim of reforming their hearts—whether to unaccompanied chanting resembling ghubār, or to chanting accompanied by clapping and the like—this is a form of listening newly introduced into Islam. It arose only after the passing of the three generations praised by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when he said:

“The best generations are the generation in which I was sent, then those who follow them, then those who follow them.”

Leading figures of the Muslim community disapproved of it, and the foremost shaykhs did not attend it.