Abu Abdullah looked at me and said: 'O Mufaddal, you have been granted great favor, and you have learned an esoteric knowledge. You must keep God's secret and not disclose it except to a sincere friend (wali). If you divulge it to our enemies, you have helped in killing yourself.' I said: 'My Master and Mawla, I will do so, God willing. I am astonished by the concealment of this, how you advise and command us to conceal it.' He said: 'O Mufaddal, God, Exalted and Magnificent, loved to be worshipped secretly. So what is the sin of Ja'far?' I said: 'You spoke the truth, O my Mawla!'

The Mawla Al-Sadiq, exalted is His glory, says: 'This is a secret that God obscured from people and made known to His elite friends.' What does 'made known to His elite friends' mean?

Do not think, O believer, that 'His elite friends' means those who verbally profess this knowledge and imitate their ancestors. Rather, the elite friends know the secret of that, outwardly and inwardly, which is the wisdom in what He wills, Glorified be He.

When our Mawlana Al-Husayn, exalted is His glory, was in the night before the battle, He appeared to His followers and the people of His house in the form of incapability and told them: 'These people have no desire other than me. If they capture me, they will not seek you. So take this night as a means of transport, and let every man of you take the hand of a man from the people of my house and go about his business, for you are released from your pledge to me.' They wept and said: 'What excuse will we have with people if they ask us and we tell them that we abandoned our Mawla and fled, and did not strike a sword for Him or thrust a spear for Him? There is no good in life after you.' It was then that He appeared to them in the form of Light (Nuraniyyah), and they fell down prostrating to Him and proclaiming His Oneness. He then created a person from the good deeds of the people of Al-Taff who were confronting Him and gave them power over him, and they killed him. Thus, they weep over their good deeds until the Day of Resurrection.¹