In this section of Kashf al-Mahjub, Hujwiri surveys the Sufi masters who disapproved of reciting the Quran with elaborate melodies (alhan) and of listening to qasidas and songs when their delivery stretches the words beyond their proper limits. He observes that these masters abstained strictly and fell into several groups, each objecting for a distinct reason. The first group grounded its prohibition in transmitted reports (riwayat), following the righteous predecessors (salaf salih) through imitation (taqlid): the Prophet's rebuke of the singing slave girl of Hassan ibn Thabit, Umar's striking of a companion who sang, Ali's censure of Muawiya for keeping singing slave girls, and Ali's forbidding of Hasan from watching an Abyssinian woman who sang. For this group, melodic embellishment threatens to turn sacred recitation and audition into forbidden diversion.