Chapter on the Audition of the Koran and kindred matters.
The most beneficial audition to the mind and the most delightful to the ear is that of the Word of God, which all believers and unbelievers, human beings and perís alike, are commanded to hear. It is a miraculous quality of the Koran that one never grows weary of reading and hearing it, so that the Quraysh used to come secretly by night and listen to the Apostle while he was praying and marvel at his recitation, e.g., Naḍr b. al-Ḥárith, who was the most elegant of them in speech, and `Utba b. Rabí`a, who was bewitchingly eloquent, and Abú Jahl b. Hishám, who was a wondrous orator. One night `Utba swooned on hearing the Apostle recite a chapter of the Koran, and he said to Abú Jahl: “I am sure that these are not the words of any created being.” The perís also came and listened to the Word of God, and said: “Verily, we heard a marvellous recitation, which guides to the right way; and we shall not associate anyone with our Lord” (Kor. lxxii, 1-2).[[181]] It is related that a man recited in the presence of `Abdalláh b. Ḥanẕala: “They shall have a couch of Hell-fire, and above them shall be quilts thereof” (Kor. vii, 39). `Abdalláh began to weep so violently that, to quote the narrator’s words, “I thought life would depart from him.” Then he rose to his feet. They bade him sit down, but he cried: “Awe of this verse prevents me from sitting down.” It is related that the following verse was read in the presence of Junayd: “O believers, why say ye that which ye do not?” (Kor. lxi, 2). Junayd said: “O Lord, if we say, we say because of Thee, and if we do, we do because of Thy blessing: where, then, is our saying and doing?” It is related that Shiblí said, on hearing the verse “And remember thy Lord when thou forgettest” (Kor. xviii, 23), “Remembrance (of God) involves forgetfulness (of self), and all the world have stopped short at the remembrance of Him;” then he shrieked and fell senseless. When he came to himself, he said: “I wonder at the sinner who can hear God’s Word and remain unmoved.” A certain Shaykh says: “Once I was reading the Word of God, ‘Beware of a day on which ye shall be returned unto God’ (Kor. ii, 281). A heavenly voice called to me, ‘Do not read so loud; four perís have died from the terror inspired in them by this verse’.” A dervish said: “For the last ten years I have not read nor heard the Koran except that small portion thereof which is used in prayer.” On being asked why, he answered: “For fear lest it should be cited as an argument against me.” One day I came into the presence of Shaykh Abu ´l-`Abbás Shaqání and found him reading: “God propoundeth as a parable an owned slave who hath naught in his power” (Kor. xvi, 77), and weeping and shrieking, so that he swooned and I thought he was dead. “O Shaykh,” I cried, “what ails thee?” He said: “After eleven years I have reached this point in my set portion of the Koran and am unable to proceed farther.” Abu ´l-`Abbás b. `Aṭá was asked how much of the Koran he read daily. He answered: “Formerly I used to read the whole Koran twice in a day and night, but now after reading for fourteen years I have only reached the Súrat al-Anfál.”[[182]] It is related that Abu ´l-`Abbás Qaṣṣáb said to a Koran-reader, “Recite,” whereupon he recited: “O noble one, famine hath befallen us and our people, and we are come with a petty merchandise” (Kor. xii, 88). He said once more, “Recite,” whereupon the reader recited: “If he stole, a brother of his hath stolen heretofore” (Kor. xii, 77). Abu ´l-`Abbás bade him recite a third time, so he recited: “No blame shall be laid upon you this day: God forgiveth you,” etc. (Kor. xii, 92). Abu ´l-`Abbás cried: “O Lord, I am more unjust than Joseph’s brethren, and Thou art more kind than Joseph: deal with me as he dealt with his wicked brethren.”
All Moslems, pious and disobedient alike, are commanded to listen to the Koran, for God hath said: “When the Koran is recited hearken thereto and be silent that perchance ye may win mercy” (Kor. vii, 203).[[183]] And it is related that the Apostle said to Ibn Mas`úd: “Recite the Koran to me.” Ibn Mas`úd said: “Shall I recite it to thee, to whom it was revealed?” The Apostle answered: “I wish to hear it from another.” This is a clear proof that the hearer is more perfect in state than the reader, for the reader may recite with or without true feeling, whereas the hearer feels truly, because speech is a sort of pride and hearing is a sort of humility. The Apostle also said that the chapter of Húd had whitened his hair. It is explained that he said this because of the verse at the end of that chapter: “Be thou steadfast, therefore, as thou hast been commanded” (Kor. xi, 114), for Man is unable to be really steadfast in fulfilling the Divine commandments, inasmuch as he can do nothing without God’s help.[[184]]
Section.
Zurára b. Abí Awfá, one of the chief Companions of the Apostle, while he was presiding over the public worship, recited a verse of the Koran, uttered a cry, and died. Abú Ja`far Juhaní,[[185]] an eminent Follower, on hearing a verse which Ṣáliḥ Murrí[[186]] read to him, gave a loud moan and departed from this world. Ibráhím Nakha`í[[187]] relates that while he was passing through a village in the neighbourhood of Kúfa he saw an old woman standing in prayer. As the marks of holiness were manifest on her countenance, he waited until she finished praying and then saluted her in hope of gaining a blessing thereby. She said to him, “Dost thou know the Koran?” He said, “Yes.” She said, “Recite a verse.” He did so, whereupon she cried aloud and sent her soul forth to meet the vision of God. Aḥmad b. Abi ´l-Ḥawárí relates the following tale. “I saw in the desert a youth, clad in a coarse frock, standing at the mouth of a well. He said to me: ‘O Aḥmad, thou art come in good time, for I must needs hear the Koran, that I may give up my soul. Read me a verse.’ God inspired me to read, ‘Verily, those who say, “God is our Lord,” and then are steadfast’ (Kor. xli, 30). ‘O Aḥmad,’ said he, ‘by the Lord of the Ka`ba thou hast read the same verse which an angel was reading to me just now,’ and with these words he gave up his soul.”
Chapter on the Audition of Poetry, etc.
It is permissible to hear poetry. The Apostle heard it, and the Companions not only heard it but also spoke it. The Apostle said, “Some poetry is wisdom;” and he said, “Wisdom is the believer’s lost she-camel: wherever he finds her, he has the best right to her;” and he said too, “The truest word ever spoken by the Arabs is the verse of Labíd,
‘Everything except God is vain,
And all fortune is inevitably fleeting.’”
`Amr b. al-Sharíd[[188]] relates that his father said: “The Apostle asked me whether I could recite any poetry of Umayya b. Abi ´l-Ṣalt, so I recited a hundred verses, and at the end of each verse he cried, ‘Go on!’ He said that Umayya almost became a Moslem in his poetry.” Many such stories are told of the Apostle and the Companions. Erroneous views are prevalent on this subject. Some declare that it is unlawful to listen to any poetry whatever, and pass their lives in defaming their brother Moslems. Some, on the contrary, hold that all poetry is lawful, and spend their time in listening to love-songs and descriptions of the face and hair and mole of the beloved. I do not intend to discuss the arguments which both parties in this controversy bring forward against each other. The Ṣúfí Shaykhs follow the example of the Apostle, who, on being asked about poetry, said: “What is good thereof is good and what is bad thereof is bad,” i.e., whatever is unlawful, like backbiting and calumny and foul abuse and blame of any person and utterance of infidelity, is equally unlawful whether it be expressed in prose or in verse; and whatever is lawful in prose, like morality and exhortations and inferences drawn from the signs of God and contemplation of the evidences of the Truth, is no less lawful in verse. In fine, just as it is unlawful and forbidden to look at or touch a beautiful object which is a source of evil, so it is unlawful and forbidden to listen to that object or, similarly, to hear the description of it. Those who regard such hearing as absolutely lawful must also regard looking and touching as lawful, which is infidelity and heresy. If one says, “I hear only God and seek only God in eye and cheek and mole and curl,” it follows that another may look at a cheek and mole and say that he sees and seeks God alone, because both the eye and the ear are sources of admonition and knowledge; then another may say that in touching a person, whose description it is thought allowable to hear and whom it is thought allowable to behold, he, too, is only seeking God, since one sense is no better adapted than another to apprehend a reality; then the whole religious law is made null and void, and the Apostle’s saying that the eyes commit fornication loses all its force, and the blame of touching persons with whom marriage may legally be contracted is removed, and the ordinances of religion fall to the ground. Foolish aspirants to Ṣúfiism, seeing the adepts absorbed in ecstasy during audition (samá`), imagined that they were acting from a sensual impulse and said, “It is lawful, else they would not have done so,” and imitated them, taking up the form but neglecting the spirit, until they perished themselves and led others into perdition. This is one of the great evils of our time. I will set it forth completely in the proper place.