pure and simple. Souls have no inclination toward either; rather, both arise only from obstinacy and injustice. According to innate human nature, both are sheer wrongdoing and injustice. These traits therefore corrupt the faculties of knowledge and action.

Prayer restrains indecency and wrongdoing. “Whoever follows Satan’s footsteps—he commands indecency and wrongdoing”: this holds whether the pronoun refers to Satan or to the one who follows Satan’s footsteps. For whoever commits indecency and wrongdoing is in the same position in either case: if Satan commanded him, then he follows, obeys, and worships him; and if the perpetrator is himself the one giving the command, commanding an act goes further than merely committing it. Whoever commands others to do such things approves of them for himself.

Among acts of indecency and wrongdoing is listening to Satan’s pipes. The singer is his herald, calling people to obey him, for singing is a charm that incites fornication. Speaking about Allah without knowledge is likewise a form of following Satan’s footsteps:

“Say, ‘Indeed, Allah does not command indecency. Do you say about Allah what you do not know?’”

Such is the condition of people of religious innovation and wickedness, and of many who deem it lawful to establish bonds of brotherhood with women and beardless youths, bring them to gatherings of singing, and profess to love their physical forms for Allah’s sake, along with other things by which many people have been tempted, becoming misguided themselves and misleading others.

Then He, glorified be He, forbade someone wronged by a slanderous accusation of unchastity from withholding the kindness he ought to show his relatives, the needy, and those who repent, and commanded him to pardon