It is but a word, and You are its Meaning (Ma‘nahu). How often have I mentioned a named one of no concern [to me]

Only so that the mention of him might lead to the mention of You.

I am vainglorious over all lovers because of You; Mighty indeed is he whose Master, O my Master, is You.

Likewise, the Creator (al-Bari)—Exalted is He—does not intend by the name of Fasting and its components, or by the name of Prayer and its requirements, or by the name of Hajj and its rituals, requirements, and recommendations, or by the name of Zakat and its conditions, or by the name of Jihad and what pertains to it—nor any other exoteric things through which Allah the Exalted addressed us in His Mighty Book—except inner luminous persons (ashkhasan batinatan nuraniyyatan), divine gnoses (ma‘arif ilahiyya), and non-sensory spiritual indications, as we have previously presented and clarified. He named them with these exoteric names because it is not permissible to reveal their esoteric secrets except to the People of Response and Faith (Ahl al-Ijaba wa al-Iman).

This meaning was confirmed, supported, and clarified by the scholar and philosopher Hamza bin Ali bin Shu'ba al-Harrani—may Allah sanctify his soul—in his book titled Hujjat al-‘Arif fi Bab al-Dalala ‘ala Ithbat al-Batin wa Tanaqud al-Zahir (The Proof of the Gnostic in the Chapter of Indication upon the Affirmation of the Esoteric and the Contradiction of the Exoteric), by his saying: