And among people there is he whose speech in the life of this world pleases you; and who calls on God to witness what is in his heart; yet he is most stubborn in dispute. He relates that the Real سبحانه وتعالى has given some people skill in speaking outwardly yet [He] has turned away from their hearts which are bound by the ropes of deprivation and covered by their own ignorance. There is no meaning beyond [their outward selves] and nothing of weight in what they say. One cannot rely on their faithfulness nor trust in them in any way. The allusion is to the people of external appearances ahl al-ẓāhir who have not been helped by the lights of insight and are bound to the precepts of the external world. They have no faith in this kind of talk and no insight into this [path] as a whole. It is necessary to keep secrets from them since they will only receive this discourse with disapproval. Peaceable people among ordinary folk who have respect for this path and faith in the whole of this discourse are far closer to this way than those who count themselves among the elect but are cut off from faith in this affair.
