Sama (سماع) — literally 'audition' or 'listening' — is the Sufi practice of spiritual hearing through music, poetry, and sacred movement, most famously embodied in the Mevlevi sema ceremony founded by the followers of Rumi. The dervish whirls with one palm raised toward the heavens and one lowered toward the earth, becoming a living axis (qutb) through which divine fayd (emanation) flows into the world. Al-Ghazali in the Ihya Ulum al-Din defends sama against its critics, arguing that music does not create states in the heart but reveals what is already there — it is a mirror of the listener's batin (interior). The practice builds toward hal — a transient spiritual state of wajd (ecstatic finding) that cannot be willed or earned, only received through the discipline of deep and surrendered listening.