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Before becoming public, the movement was secretive and held closed meetings in what was known as Sessions of Wisdom.

During this stage a dispute occurred between ad-Darazi and Hamza bin Ali mainly concerning ad-Darazi's ghuluww ( Arabic, " exaggeration "), which refers to the belief that God was incarnated in human beings, especially ' Ali and his descendants, including Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah who was the current Caliph, and ad-Darazi naming himself " The Sword of the Faith " which led Hamza to write an epistle refuting the need for the sword to spread the faith and several epistles refuting the beliefs of the ghulat.