And when the Qur'an is recited, listen to it and give ear. Perhaps you will be shown mercy. Listening [samāʿ] is the reality of giving ear to the Qur'an. Listening gives more life to a man's days than the spirit gives to the body. Listening is a spring that bubbles up from the midst of the heart, nurtured by the well of truthfulness. Truthfulness is to listening as the sun's body is to its rays. As long as the darknesses of mortal nature do not lift away from the heart, the reality of lis- tening's sun will not be permitted to disclose itself in the desert of a man's breast. Know that listening is of two sorts: The listening of the common people is one thing, the listening of the elect something else. The common people's share in listening is sound and its melodies, and the elect's share in listening is a subtlety in the midst of the sound and its meanings and allusions. The common people listen with the ear of the head, the organ of discernment, and the movement of the natures so as to be freed of sorrow and at ease from their preoccupations. The elect listen with a dead soul, a thirsty heart, and a burnt breath. They reap the fruit of the breeze of intimacy, endless reminder, and everlasting happiness. It is said that the reality of listening is remembering the eternal call that came forth on the Day of the Compact from the Court of All-Compellingness and the Side of Unity: " Am I not your Lord? " [7:172]. It became connected to the hearing of the servants and its tasting reached their spirits. This is a call whose repository is in that world and whose lodging place [11:6] is in the spirit. What bears witness is the mark, what it expresses is the title-page. What is supposition in reports is face-to-face vision in finding. The servant's seven bodily members listen to the Friend- the call of the Friend does not belong to the now, for it is everlasting.
