Sama'
Spiritual audition: the listening to sung poems, often in assembly, which opens the heart to states of the soul.
Sama’ means ‘listening’, ‘audition’. In the path the word denotes spiritual audition: the hearing of sung poems, chanted verses or songs of the path, in assembly, which can open the heart to states (hal, wajd) that effort alone does not produce. Al-Qushayri devotes the longest chapter of his Risala to it, so deeply did the debate over the lawfulness and conditions of this listening mark the tradition.
Sama’ is not a concert: its rules make it a framed practice. The text heard is sacred or inspired, the listeners’ intention is turned towards God, and the master sees that the state becomes neither spectacle nor ruin. Among Rumi’s Mawlawiyya it gave rise to the whirling-dervish dance; in the Qadiriya Boutchichiya path, the hearing is done seated, in the inner silence that follows the song.
See the page on spiritual auditions, the essay Listening in spirit: the sama’ and the calendar of sessions in France.