those like themselves, in whom they find examples and models to follow. Among the passages concerning this is His saying, Exalted is He:

“And among people are those who purchase idle talk to lead others astray from Allah’s path without knowledge and to make a mockery of it.”

It has been said that this refers to singing, and it has also been said that it refers to stories of the unbelieving Persian kings.

In short, every narrative or command that encourages people to obey Allah and discourages them from disobeying Him is itself an act of obedience to Him. Everything that encourages them to disobey Him and discourages them from obeying Him is itself an act of disobedience to Him.

As for speaking of sexual immorality and its practitioners in ways that the Sharia requires or recommends—such as warning against it and them, condemning it and them, mentioning what makes it abhorrent and repellent, speaking of its practitioners in general where this is permissible, and directing lawful criticism at them both in their presence and in their absence—all of this is good: sometimes obligatory and sometimes recommended. The same applies to descriptions of such immorality and its practitioners involving passionate love, when presented in the prescribed manner that leads people to refrain from what Allah has forbidden and to hate what He hates.

Thus Allah has recounted to us in the Quran the stories of the prophets, the believers and the God-fearing, as well as the stories of the wicked and the unbelievers, so that we may learn from both: loving the former and their path and following their example, while hating the latter and their path and avoiding their deeds. Allah has related how His prophets and righteous servants spoke of sexual immorality