For if that were so, people of reason and intelligence would inevitably discover it. Once they knew it, their colluding to conceal it would be impossible in the ordinary course of events, just as their colluding to lie would be impossible. Just as universal collusion in lying is ordinarily impossible, so too is collusion in concealing something that people have strong motives and compelling reasons to explain and disclose. This applies especially to knowledge of such momentous matters, which people have the strongest motives and reasons to discover and discuss.

Do you not see that the esotericists and others like them concealed the opposite of what they outwardly presented to people, pursued every means of doing so, and colluded in it to whatever extent Allah willed, until their true nature became obscure even to many of their followers? Yet despite this, all intelligent people, supporters and opponents alike, discovered their true nature and wrote books exposing their secrets and lifting their veils. Those who knew their hidden reality had no inward respect for them, no trust in what they reported, and no commitment to obeying their commands. The same applies to anyone who displays anything of this kind.

Whoever follows this path loses the trust of those who know his true nature, both in what he reports and in what he commands. Everything he has said to people is then undermined, for whenever he addresses them, they consider it possible that he intends something other than what he outwardly conveys. They therefore trust neither his reports nor his commands, and his entire undertaking falls into disorder. His intention may be to reform them, but the result is grave corruption instead. Indeed, everyone who agrees with him must likewise outwardly display the opposite of what he conceals, as do the followers of those who have taken this path among the Qarmatians