I thought to myself...

I thought to myself: how is it credible that a cultured country like Egypt - the cradle of Islamic learning, the centre of the Arabs, nay, of all the Muslims in such a state of ignorance and hostility among its intelligentsia! It was by chance that a book entitled "Farjru 'l-Islam" by the famous writer Ahmad Amin reached my hands. I started wading it but.

when I reached the place where he wrote about the Shi'as, I felt that the learned author was not writing a book but building castles in the air. During the present age, even if a man from the distant regions of China had written such irresponsible things, he could not be easily forgiven.

Anyhow, I now felt satisfied that all that the Iraqi student had written was quite correct and instantly it struck me that if the people used to writing like Ahmad Amin have such a mentality, what can be the condition of the illiterate or half-literate masses; according to the spirit of the times, however, every Muslim of today supports unity and brotherhood among the Muslims and also believes that without such unity our life as well as death will be without meaning.

In truth, if our Muslim brothers were of the reality of the Shi'a religion and also proved to be just, such literature which lays the foundation of mutual enmity and satisfies the cravings of the Imperialist and irreligious forces would be done away with. Let us study this passage of "Fajru 'l-Islam" and consider its repercussions: "The truth is that Shi'aism was the refuge of the destroyers of Islam." p. 330. The writer is not innocent.

He knew that the pen of the critics would pursue him and also knew that his aggressive tendency would injure the feelings of a nation which comprises tens of millions of people and is a very great power in the Islamic world. It was thus quite a surprising event when last year (1349 A.H.), a cultural delegation from Egypt, comprising thirty members, came here and included Ahmad Amin himself. All the members of the delegation came to my residence.

It was the month of Ramadan, night time, and the gathering was large. No sooner had I seen Ahmad Amin than "Fajru 'l-Islam" came to my mind, since this book had already been seen by a number of our scholars. We raised objections, but with respect, in a very mild and soft tone, so that it might not hurt his feelings. On this occasion the strongest explanation that Ahmad Amin offered was a lack of information and a dearth of books.