and as an act of obedience and worship and a path to Allah Most High, is it permissible for them to hold this belief and perform this practice on that basis?”

When the question is put this way, no scholar who follows the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—can say that this is a means of drawing near to Allah, an act of obedience, a form of worship, or part of Allah’s way and the path by which these people call others to Him. Nor can he say that it is something Allah Most High has commanded His servants to do, whether as an obligation or as a recommendation. Whatever is neither obligatory nor recommended is not praiseworthy, a good deed, an act of obedience, or worship, by agreement of the Muslims. Whoever does something neither obligatory nor recommended, treating it as belonging to either category, is a misguided innovator. Performing it on this basis is undoubtedly forbidden.

This applies especially to the many people who adopt this innovated practice of listening as a spiritual path and prefer it to listening to the Quran in terms of ecstasy and spiritual experience. They may even believe it to be superior. Thus, you find them listening to the Quran with heedless hearts, idle talk, restless movements, and raised voices. Their hearts do not turn towards it, nor do their souls find comfort in it. But when they hear “whistling” and “clapping,” their hearts listen intently, the beloved is united with the lover, voices grow hushed, and movements cease. There is no coughing, sneezing, clamour, or shouting.

If they recite or hear anything of the Quran, they do so reluctantly, as though subjected to forced labour, just as a person does not listen to something for which he has no need