(dear Hamid).

(dear Hamid)." He was by no means snobbish, and never considered himself superior to others. If he ever gave advice to someone, it was merely to fulfill the duty of guiding and instructing others. He would always sit next to the entrance and whoever entered the room he would welcome them warmly, and respectfully invited them to be seated.

Another disciple of the Shaykh says: 'When he was going somewhere in the company of his friends, he would not go ahead of others to get in.' Another one says: 'We had a trip to Mashhad together with the Shaykh. When we were setting out for the Holy Shrine, Haydar Ali Mu'jiza-son of the late Mirza Ahmad Murshid Chilu'i[^1]-frantically dropped himself on the Shaykh's feet trying to kiss his feet. The Shaykh retorted: "You mean-spirited one! Beware of that disobedience of God!

Be ashamed of yourself! Who do you think I am?!" Reconciliation One of the most important moral issues that the Shaykh was very concerned about was to reconcile people with each other. He would invite to his house those who were not on speaking terms with each other, and would reconcile them by means of quoting relevant verses from the Qur'an and Islamic hadiths (traditions).

Profound Reverence for the Sayyids He was highly reverent to the descendants of Imam Ali (a), Hazrat Fatima (a), and the Sayyids. He was frequently observed to be kissing their (the Sayyids') hands and enjoined others to respect them too. There was a noble Sayyid who often went to visit the Shaykh. He had the habit of smoking the hobble bubble.

Whenever one was prepared for him, the Shaykh himself -although not in the habit of smoking it -would first take a couple of drags, pretending he was smoking, so that the Sayyid would not feel ashamed of smoking; then the Shaykh would offer it to him to smoke. One of the Shaykh's friends related: 'Once on a winter day I had an audience with the Shaykh. He said: "Let's go to one of Tehran's old quarters." We went to an old alley.

There, we found a shabby store where an old respectful Sayyid -who was a bachelor -worked as a charcoal seller and lived and slept there as his residence. It turned out that the previous night the kursi [^2] had been set on fire burning his clothes and some of his belongings. His living condition was so miserable that many people were even unwilling to enter such places as that.

With utmost humbleness, the Shaykh went to him and after a warm greeting, he collected his unwashed and half-burnt clothes to wash and mend.