However much I tried to refuse his offer ‑ saying that...

However much I tried to refuse his offer ‑ saying that, although handwritten, they remained for me a mere adornment and a financial investment for the book collec­tors, adding that after the death of their owner these papers would be sold again in the market for a ludicrous price ‑ there was nothing I could do but peruse the books for the sake of our friendship and to avoid offending him.

Of all the books ‑ most of them of great value by reason of their illuminated pages, calligraphy and age ‑ one in particular, which in contrast con­tained very bad calligraphy and not even the name of the author, attracted my attention. Despite its worn exterior, I purchased it at an extravagant price. This book was in fact `The Mysteries of the Revealed Law, the Stations of the Way and the Light of the Truth' (Asrar al‑Shari`ah) which the decree of God was now placing before my path.

By the style of the text I realized that it was the work of the lord of gnostics and divines Sayyid Haydar Amuli, an Iranian gnostic of great standing of the eighth century AH. His writing is eloquent and he fulfils the demand for spiritual knowledge among those persons whose mother tongue is Persian.

Despite the poor calligraphy, it was nevertheless exceedingly correct and had been copied from the actual work of the author himself, may Allah protect his secret; moreover, there were marginal notes elucidating most places in the book written in 950 AH. Despite research in different libraries of Iran and Turkey I could find no trace of another copy which would permit a cross‑check of my copy.

The copy possessed by the University of Tehran was only a selection containing no more than five or six pages of the book; the copy I found in the Islamic Consultative Assembly (previously the National Assembly) was half missing and full of defects. I thus made a photocopy of my copy and made up for the defects of the Assembly's copy.

It was again the workings of the divine decree which caused me to then find a copy in the library of Ayatullah Mar'ashi of Qum.[^2] Although the copy from the library of Mar'ashi was good, having been written during the time of the Qacharis, it was not as correct as the copy I myself possessed. For this reason I made a further copy of my text and substituted it for the other which had been registered under the number of 388.

I then completed correcting that work, spending many years in the process.