Did they know other countries beside Iraq?

Did they know other countries beside Iraq?” And every time they answered, I prepared another question for them to prevent them from asking me, for I felt incapable of matching their knowledge. But I refused to admit it, despite the fact that inside myself, I accepted defeat.

The days of glory and scholarship in Egypt had dissipated here, especially after meeting those youngsters, and then I remembered the following wise words: Say to him who claims knowledge in Philosophy, "You have known one thing but you are still unaware of many things." I thought the minds of those young boys were greater than the minds of those Shaykhs whom I met in al-Azhar and the minds of our Shaykhs in Tunisia.

Al-Sayyid al-Khu'i entered the place, and with him came a group of Ulama who looked respectable and dignified, and all the boys stood up, and me with them, then each one of them approached al-Sayyid to kiss his hand, but I stayed rigid in my place. Al-Sayyid did not sit down until everybody sat down, then he started greeting them one by one, and he was greeted back by each individual until my turn came, so I replied in the same way.

After that my friend, who had whispered to al-Sayyid, pointed to me to get nearer to al-Sayyid, which I did, and he sat me to his right.

After we exchanged the greetings my friend said to me, "Tell al-Sayyid the things you hear in Tunisia about the Shi’a." I said, "Brother, let us forget about the stories we hear from here and there, and I want to know for myself what the Shi’a say, so I want frank answers to some questions that I have." My friend insisted that I should inform al-Sayyid about what we thought of al-Shi’a.

I said, "We consider the Shi’a to be harder on Islam than the Christian and Jews, because they worship Allah and believe in the Message of Musa, may Allah grant him peace, but we hear that the Shi’a worship ‘Ali and consider him to be sacred, and there is a sect among them who worship Allah but put ‘Ali at the same level as the Messenger of Allah." Also I told him the story about how the angel Gabriel betrayed his charge, as they say, so instead of giving the message to ‘Ali he gave it to Muhammad (saw).