And our Master, Amir Annahl (may his glory be exalted), said: Indeed, for our Gnosis there is an indication. Whoever catches the allusions and knows the indications, his temperament will be balanced, his path will be sound, he will see in the darkness, be saved from accusations, triumph with the light and the sweetness of joy, know the manifestation, and attain its reward. Those are the ones brought near in the Gardens of Delight.1
So whoever catches the allusion and knows the indication, his temperament is balanced and his path is sound. This is what we strive for in this book: to bring you, my brother, the allusion from the books of the outer and to acquaint you with the indication from the books of the inner.
From Yunus ibn Zabyan (upon him is peace), from al-Mufaddal ibn 'Umar (from him is peace), my Master and my Lord Assadiq (may his glory be exalted) said: "Were it not for obfuscation, God would not be unknown [to the point] of not being worshipped. Were it not for explicit statement, no one would have known God. God has hidden His religion until it was thought that He loves not to be worshipped. He has manifested His affair until it was thought that He loves not to be unknown."2
Obfuscation is one of the most important topics whose aspects and effects on the religion the believer must know. Without understanding it, his view of the Hadith of the Family of Muhammad will remain skewed. We can only allude to this topic here without expanding, to maintain the unity of the subject and not distract the reader. And because the topic is one of the important ones, we will speak about it separately and in detail in a special book, if our Master wills.
From al-Mufaddal ibn 'Umar (from him is peace), my Master Abu 'Abdillah Assadiq (may his glory be exalted) said: "Indeed, for each of us there is an outer and an inner. His outer is a ruling, and his inner is profound. Our Hadith is difficult, hard to bear, and our affair is a deeply hidden secret. So whoever knows our nuance knows what we intended, and whoever does not know the insinuation will not benefit from the explicit statement."3