will be led astray by it, whereas whoever encounters it by chance finds relief in it.” Thus, he censured those who gather for it, while allowing it for those who encounter it unintentionally, without deliberately sitting down to listen.

The reason is that its language is general and lacks specificity. Verses mentioning love, union, estrangement, separation, longing, enslavement to love, patiently enduring reproach and blame, and similar themes employ general expressions equally applicable to those who love the Most Merciful, idols, brethren, homelands, women, or beardless youths. Such listening may therefore contain some benefit when it stirs what dwells within and rouses what lies dormant, provided that what it arouses is something Allah and His Messenger love.

Its harm, however, outweighs its benefit, as is the case with wine and gambling: in both there is great sin and benefits for people, but their sin is greater than their benefit. This is why the revealed Law did not prescribe it: it prescribes only what is wholly or predominantly beneficial. Anything whose harm outweighs its benefit is like taking one dirham in exchange for a dinar, or stealing five dirhams and giving two of them in charity.

For such listening arouses the fervour common to these different kinds of love, stirring latent impulses within the soul whose effects harm it. It feeds the soul and tempts it, so that the soul substitutes it for listening to the Quran, until it retains no love for listening to the Quran and finds neither pleasure nor delight in it. Rather,