Imam Ali (as): Imam Ali (as), in his letter to Malik al-Ashtar when he appointed him governor of Egypt, said, Do not keep yourself secluded from the people for a long time, because the seclusion of those in authority from the subjects is a kind of narrow-sightedness and causes ignorance about their affairs. Seclusion from them also prevents them from the knowledge of those things which they are unaware of and as a result they begin to regard big matters as small and small matters as big, good matters as bad and bad matters as good, while the truth becomes confused with falsehood. Nahj al-Balāgha