摘要：Groups embracing ideas that do not conform to the ideas prevalent in the society, may choose to keep some of their views secret from the rest of the society in order to avoid outside pressure. Alawites in the Islamic world have developed a similar reflex both to protect themselves from outside pressure and to maintain discipline within their own group. This paper tackles the notion of secret based on a passage found in the introduction of a Futuwwat Namah we came across in the Futuwwat Namah collection Number 8602 in the National Library Manuscripts Collection. The passage tells about how the Prophet disclosed to Ali some of the secrets he received during his dialogue with God in the Night of Ascension. Protecting this secret was deemed very important and although the nature of the secret is not to be found in any written or oral source, measures were taken to protect it from non-Alawites and penalties were set for those would reveal it. In this paper, the passage in question is transliterated in Modern Turkish Alphabet and presented to the reader. Also, there is a discussion of the nature of this secret and what this secret could be in the light of written Alawite sources namely Buyruks of Imam Jafar and Sheikh Safi and some modern works.
