Seventh: It is more conducive to persistence in asking and supplicating, for the tongue does not weary and the limbs do not tire. When someone raises his voice, by contrast, his tongue may grow weary and some of his strength may fail. This is like someone who reads and repeats aloud: he cannot keep doing so for long, unlike someone who lowers his voice.

Eighth: Concealing supplication better protects it from interruptions, distractions, and anything that weakens it. When someone supplicates quietly, no one notices him, so he suffers no distraction or other disturbance from them. But when he supplicates aloud, the evil spirits and the malicious spirits of falsehood among jinn and humankind become aware of him. They inevitably distract him, obstruct him, and oppose him. Even if their attention to him did nothing more than scatter his concentration and thus weaken the effect of his supplication, that would be reason enough. Those with experience know this. By keeping his supplication private and concealed, he remains safe from this harm.

Ninth: The greatest blessing is to turn to Allah, worship Him, devote oneself wholly to Him, and dedicate oneself exclusively to Him. Every blessing, great or small, has someone who envies it in proportion to its worth, and no blessing is greater than this one. The envious souls of those cut off from it therefore fix their attention upon it. Nothing is safer for the person envied than to conceal his blessing from the envier and not deliberately display it to him. Jacob said to Joseph:

“Do not relate your vision to your brothers, or they will devise a plot against you. Indeed, Satan is a clear enemy to man.”

How many a person possessed a devoted heart, inward collectedness, and a spiritual state with Allah, then spoke of these things and disclosed them, only for outsiders to rob him of them, leaving him wringing his hands in regret! This is why those who know Allah and the spiritual guides counsel people to preserve their secret with Allah, disclose it to no one, and conceal it with the utmost care. As one poet said:

Whoever eagerly divulged the secret they confided to him,
They never trusted with their secrets for the rest of his life.
They kept him far away, denying him their nearness,
And gave him desolation in place of intimacy.
They trust no one who spreads even part of their secret—
Far be it from their faithful love—far be it!

These people are exceptionally discreet about their spiritual states with Allah and what He has bestowed upon them of love for Him, intimacy with Him, and wholehearted attentiveness to Him. This is especially important for the beginner and the one travelling the spiritual path. But once he becomes firmly established