He saw his father with his bright face, trembling voice, recommending him.

He saw his father with his bright face, trembling voice, recommending him. O son, I am about to depart this world, and I am recommending you with things never to be forgotten: seeking knowledge, doing kindness to your mother, as she is the offspring of great men. But his mother’s image remains more tormenting for him than others... with her weeping voice as bidding him farewell. He murmured: She approved of my travel but departure was so difficult for her to bear...

Do not cry mother, I won’t remain poor forever, verily I shall strive to bring you to Najaf. Thus Muhammad Baqir kept on communing with his mother’s image, till drowsiness overcame him, making the dreaming youth mount the winged sleep-horse, perambulating him through far-away worlds, infinite worlds. With the dawn-fall, the young man got up from bed, despite his feeling tired, but he rose as if a call was inviting him to leave the warm bed.

He soliloquized to himself: Leaving night prayer, and sleeping like the dead, are not of the traits of man, so what about one living beside the everlasting history man. Thus he rose up ridding his face of the dust of “substance”, being so diaphanous, stepping forward through Divine worlds. The only thing that tied him to the factual world, was the sound of adhan (call for prayer) resounding loudly through the blue sky.

He felt as if magnetic waves attracting him toward the shrine (haram), covering the entire city up to the farthest houses... attracting its people and attaching them to the holy shrine, at which they stay up till sunrise... the sun that never sets to include them with her warm lights.

Evening Hikmah School The mosque was filled with knowledge-seekers, who have attended the class of philosophy under al-Sayyid Muhammad al- Tabataba’i al-Brujerdi.[^1] A 35-year, thick-bearded, wide-eyed man has seated himself near the door, and whispered in the ear of his companion: “O Shaykh Mahdi! Look at that youth sitting near the rostrum... have you noticed how did he give reply to the teacher? “ “Whom do you mean?

Is it that light-bearded young man wearing (Oriental) cloak?” “No, I mean the one sitting at the left of the rostrum.” “Do you mean that youth putting his head between the two covers of the book, as if intending to devour its papers?” “Yes, it is said that he has reached Najaf recently ... I was told by Mirza Husayn al-Kashi[^2] that he is coming from your hometown. You are supposed to know him more than me.” “Is he from Isfahan?” “Yes...