Educational Methods The method used by the reverend Shaykh...

Educational Methods The method used by the reverend Shaykh in self-building and training his disciples can be divided into two parts: 1) his educational method in public sessions and 2) His educational method in his private encounters. Public Sessions The Shaykh's public sessions were usually held in his house once a week. Similarly, in most occasions such as Islamic festive days, birth and martyrdom anniversaries of the Infallible Imams (a), he would hold sessions in his own house.

In the months of Muharram and Safar[^3] and the holy month of Ramadhan, he would also hold preaching sessions. These sessions that were occasionally held in his friend's houses on a regular basis would last for two years. Weekly sessions were usually held after performing evening and night prayers on Thursday nights with the Shaykh as prayer leader.

After prayers, he would recite some couplets of the late Fayz[^4] containing istighfir (asking Allah's forgiveness with an attractive and impressive voice: 'I seek Allah's forgiveness for whatever (I have done for) other than the Beloved, I seek Allah's forgiveness for my fictitious existence. If a moment elapses without remembering his (beautiful) countenance, I seek Allah's forgiveness myriad of times for that moment.

The tongue that is not engaged in remembering the Friend, Beware of its evil and seek Allah's forgiveness. Life came to its end and due to negligence I was not conscious for a single hour, I seek Allah's forgiveness (for that negligence). The youth gone by and the old age drawn near to its end, I did nothing (worthwhile), I seek Allah's forgiveness.' One of the Shaykh's disciples says: 'He would sing these poems in a way that we could not help crying.

In the end he would read in an indescribably charming spiritual state one of the fifteen whispered prayers[^5] attributed to Imam Zayn al-'Abidin (a).' Another disciple said: 'In his supplication sessions I did not see anybody else shedding tears like him; his weeping was really heart- rending. At the end of the supplication and serving tea, the reverend Shaykh would begin to talk and preach.

He was very eloquent; in his lectures he would try to impart to others what he had found through the Qur'an and the Islamic traditions as well as the facts about which he had himself attained certitude.