But today when a student wants a book in order to be able to...

But today when a student wants a book in order to be able to study about Ali or in order to be able to know who the first followers of Ali were who laid the foundations of the history of Shi'ite Islam in the first century and remained loyal to him in those most difficult times, I have to tell him that there are none. We know some existed, but we know them by name only.

It is disgraceful for a nation whose religion is the religion of Ali, not to have one good book written about him and his companions. It is shameful that Georges Jourdaq, a Christian, introduces Ali to us after 14 centuries and that Jaudat as-Sahhar, a Sunni brother, introduces Abu Dharr. Salman Farsi was the first Iranian who accepted Islam. He holds a place of honor among the Aryan race and Iranians. He is a great man who accepted the Prophet's invitation to Islam.

He got so close to the Prophet that he became part of his family. A man who holds such a place of honor in both a national and a religious sense, does not have even four pages of a book written about him in Persian. But, a Frenchman has written about him. I do not know how we can claim that the stage of knowing and speaking is finished and that it is time for action. I don't want to say that it is not the time for action for all of these things should go together.

The Prophet of Islam never divided his life into two parts where one part would be devoted to action only and the other to speaking only. It is not correct to say that we have talked too much and should not speak at all. We have just complained. This and groaning should be put aside and we should speak of suffering in a scientific manner. The school we believe in should be the basis of our work, our activity and our thoughts. We should know what kind of man Ali was.

We should know about Abu Dharr, Salman and the of the Prophet and Ali. Unfortunately, no valuable or readable book about them exists which is both respected from the point of view of religion as well as from the point of view of humanity. They come into Persian through translation We have yet to write anything ourselves. A person who knows the Qur'an nowadays is called a distinguished person, not a scholar. Scholars are in a stage beyond.

The distinguished are they who know the Qur'an, the history of Islam and the Prophet and his . They explain and interpret the Qur'an and practice it. These people are the distinguished which really means second-hand scholars of Islam.