and singing as their prayer, worship, and means of drawing near to Allah, substituting them for the prayer prescribed by Allah and His Messenger.

As for the Muslims—the Emigrants, the Helpers, and those who followed them in righteousness—their prayer and worship consist of reciting and listening to the Quran, bowing, prostrating, remembering Allah, supplicating to Him, and other such acts that Allah and His Messenger love. Whoever adopts singing and clapping as worship and a means of drawing near to Allah has thus imitated the polytheists and resembled them in practices foreign to the believers—the Emigrants and the Helpers. If he does this in the houses of Allah, his resemblance to them becomes greater still; and if he occupies himself with it instead of praying, remembering Allah, and supplicating to Him, his resemblance to them becomes profound. He thus incurs a considerable share of the censure indicated by the words of Allah, Glorified and Exalted:

“Their prayer at the House was nothing but whistling and clapping.”

Yet he may be forgiven for this on account of his exercise of independent judgment, good deeds that efface sins, or other grounds that distinguish a Muslim from a disbeliever. Nevertheless, his differing from the polytheists in other respects does not preclude his being blameworthy, departing from the Sharia, and engaging in the innovation through which he has imitated them. The believer should therefore be alert to this and distinguish between the listening of the believers, which Allah and His Messenger have commanded, and the listening of the polytheists, which Allah and His Messenger have forbidden.