Chapter Twenty-One: Knowledge of the Prohibition of Using Dissimulation (Taqiyya) Among the Believers and in Privacy and Solitude

[180] It was narrated from Al-Mufaddal ibn 'Umar (peace be upon him) that he said: I entered upon my Master Al-Sadiq (Mighty is His Might), and he said:

"O Mufaddal, beware of performing anything of the 'Essence of Ruin' (Dhat al-Rada)." I said: "May I be your ransom, and what is the 'Essence of Ruin'?" He said: "These diversions (al-sudud)." I asked: "And what are these diversions?" He said: "Fasting, prayer, pilgrimage (Hajj), or Jihad. For whoever performs them as an act of religious [devotion] to them, has indeed taken another god alongside Allah." Then he said: "The one who performs them in secret is like the one who abandons them in public, and the one who abandons them in public is like the one who performs them in secret."

[181] Abu 'Abdullah al-Husayn ibn Harun al-Sa'igh narrated it in some of his writings, tracing the chain to Al-Mufaddal (peace be upon him) that he said: