TAQĪYAH ("safeguarding, protection") and kitmān ("concealment") are terms applied, primarily in the Shīʿī branches of Islam, to two broader types of religious phenomena: (1) the "prudential concealment" of one's allegiance to a minority religious group in danger of persecution and (2) the esoteric "discipline of the arcane," the restriction of a spiritual reality or mystery (or its symbolic form) only to those inwardly capable of grasping its truth.

Juridical and Ethical Dimensions

The classical discussions found in all Islamic legal schools are based on various Qurʾanic verses (16:106, 3:28, 40:28, etc.) permitting the neglect of certain religious duties in situations of compulsion or necessity. In each school an elaborate casuistry was developed, detailing the special conditions for such exceptions. However, the crucial practical question for Shīʿī groups, given the endangered minority position of the Shīʿī imams and their followers from earliest Islamic times onward...