And al-Shāfiʿī—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “I left behind in Baghdad something introduced by heretics, which they call taghbīr and use to turn people away from the Quran.”
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal was asked about it and said: “It is an innovation; I dislike it.” He was told: “But it softens the heart.” He replied: “Do not sit with them.” He was asked: “Should they be shunned?” He replied: “It should not go that far with them.”
He thus made clear that it was an innovation not practised by the virtuous early generations, whether in the Hijaz, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, or Khurāsān. Had it benefited Muslims in their religion, the early generations would have practised it.
Such figures as Ibrāhīm ibn Adham, al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyād, Maʿrūf al-Karkhī, al-Sarī al-Saqatī, and Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī did not attend it; nor did such figures as Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir, Shaykh ʿAdī, Shaykh Abū al-Bayān, Shaykh Hayāt, and others. Indeed, the statements of some of these figures—such as Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir and others—contain prohibitions against it. The foremost shaykhs likewise forbade it.
Some shaykhs did attend it, stipulating a suitable place, favourable circumstances, companions, and a shaykh who would guard against Satan. Most of the trustworthy shaykhs who attended it renounced it late in life. Al-Junayd, for example, attended it as a young man but withdrew from their company late in life.
He used to say: “Whoever deliberately seeks out such listening