29. Closet converts are the malamatiyya: they know, but are not known.

Definitions:
Malamatiyya - Those who “draw blame” or delibrately draw the contempt of others while preserving purity of heart, those who do not care if other Muslim accept their faith or actions as legitimate (ref http://essenes.net/sufi.html)

Comments:

By “closet converts”, I take it that the Shaykh is speaking about people who have accepted Islam but have not announced their faith or become active members of the Muslim community.

The Malamatiyya reference is interesting because the word seems to be used throughout Sufi literature as a state of sufistic perfection. Those that have totally divorced themselves from the world and people, and give no importance to the contempt that the world has for them.

Closet converts therefore are displaying an aspect of the Malamatiyya in that they do not need to display their faith or actions to others in order to feel satisified and complete.

“They know but are not known”: simple way to say the same thing. Such converts are aware of the knowledge of Islam but they are like strangers to others. They do what they need to do for themselves and in order to meet their requirements, and they do little to build their own ego.

This is interesting in another way because it brings back the discussion we had some time ago about convert stories. Maybe it is a reflection of this great characteristic of some converts to keep their story private.