He brought guidance after blindness; through him our hearts
Are certain that what he said will come to pass.

The states experienced by those who listen in this manner are mentioned in Allah’s Book: trembling hearts, flowing tears and shuddering skin.

Poetry-listening gatherings arose only after these generations, and the imams denounced them. Al-Shāfiʿī—may Allah have mercy on him—even said: “I left behind in Baghdad something introduced by the heretics, which they call taghbīr. They claim that it softens hearts, but they use it to turn people away from the Quran.”

Imam Ahmad was asked about it and said: “It is newly introduced.” He was then asked, “Should we sit with them during it?” He replied: “One should not sit with them.”

Taghbīr consists of beating their skins with a rod and is among the better forms of these listening practices. Yet the imams disapproved of it, so what of the other forms? The great spiritual masters who were leading authorities did not attend these newly introduced listening gatherings, such as al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyād, Ibrāhīm ibn Adham, Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī, Maʿrūf al-Karkhī, al-Sarī al-Saqatī and others like them.

Nor did the foremost later shaykhs, such as Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir, Shaykh ʿAdī, Shaykh Abū Madyan, Shaykh Abū al-Bayān, Shaykh Abū al-Qāsim al-Hawfī, Shaykh ʿAlī ibn Wahb, Shaykh Hayāh and others like them. Some shaykhs attended these gatherings but subsequently abandoned them.

Al-Junayd was asked about this listening and said: “Whoever deliberately seeks it out is put to trial by it, whereas whoever encounters it without seeking it finds relief in it.” He thus explained