Thus, although it is permissible, keeping clear of it is preferable among the great ones. Abu Yazid al-Bistami disliked it and did not endorse it. Ibn Jurayj was asked about it and said, “Would that I could come out of it even, with nothing against me and nothing to my credit.”
(Distinguishing Listening from the Effect of Melody)
Our position on it is that a man who has mastery over himself does not seek it out, and if he is present, he does not leave on its account. In our view it is unrestrictedly permissible, since nothing prohibiting it has been established from the Messenger of God, God bless him and grant him peace.
If a man finds his heart with his Lord only in it, he must abandon it altogether, for it is a hidden divine ruse. If he finds his heart in it and elsewhere, and in every state, but finds it more in melodies, then attending it is forbidden to him.
By melodies I do not mean only those heard in poetry. Rather, I mean the presence of melody in poetry and elsewhere, even in the Qurʾan. If someone finds his heart in it because of the beauty of the reciter’s voice, yet does not find his heart in it when he hears it from a reciter whose voice is not pleasing, no reliance should be placed upon that ecstasy, or upon the tenderness he finds in it toward the Divine Presence. It is affected by an ailment, and that is nature’s tenderness.
If he knows the distinctions and differentiates his divine, spiritual, and natural listening, so that it is not confused for him, he does not mix them together, and he does not say of natural listening that it is his listening through God, then such a person is not restricted. Yet leaving it is preferable, particularly if he is one of the shaykhs taken as an example,
