ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Elixir of Love Foreword The first question that may occur to the reader as to the reason the author (of the present book) has undertaken writing a commemorative volume about the perfect Gnostic, the pious servant, and the reverend "Shaykh Rajab Ali Khayyat"-particularly if the reader has been one of his disciples, would probably be: Why has a writer, who has never met with the Shaykh and whose field of work and research is not writing commemorative biographies, made such an attempt like this?

The Charisma of the Shaykh's Sayings Imam Ali (a) has been quoted as saying: ان على كلّ حقِّ حقيقة، وعلى كل صواب نوراُ "Together with every righteous affair there is a truth, and with every correct matter, a light"[^1] Once at early youth when I accidentally encountered in Masjid-i Jamkaran in Qum with one of the devotees of Shaykh Rajab Ali*,* I became devotedly attached to the latter despite having never met him in person.

I found in his words such truthfulness, radiance and charisma that scented of the fragrance of the friends of God. For years, I eagerly longed for the life-story and words of that "unschooled beloved" and instructor of ethics at whose feet many professors from Universities and Hawza (Islamic Seminaries) had knelt in devotion, to be compiled, published and presented to the public, especially the youth-who are in dire need of it at the outset of their life.

If one of disciples of the Shaykh, who is given to writing, had made this valuable and instructive endeavor, there would have undoubtedly been compiled a more comprehensive collection than the present volume. For some reason, however, this was not accomplished, mainly due to the fact that most of the Shaykh's disciples and companions, who potentially could have played a helpful part in compilation of such work, have already departed from this world.

Several years ago I began to feel that the chance for accomplishing this task was gradually being lost, and if the memories of those devotees of the Shaykh who are still alive were not complied by now, perhaps it would never be possible to write his didactic biography, and truth-seekers would be deprived for ever of knowing the truths that this man of God had been able to discover.

Thus, I brought up the issue with a brother-in-faith and asked him to arrange interviews with the Shaykh's devotees and record their memories on the basis of the topics that I had gathered about him.