And if the traveling personalities are intelligent and hardworking...

And if the traveling personalities are intelligent and hardworking, they would obtain from the scholars of other areas such points of knowledge and recognition that they cannot gain from the scholars of their own areas. They would also succeed in learning many things that they have not learnt from their teachers. In the same way the people of the places to which they travel would also learn from him things that they could not learn from the local scholars.

Many debates take place between the traveling scholar and intelligentsia of those places resulting in clearing many misunderstandings and clarification of doubts. There are many other benefits that accrue from the journey of religious interaction.

Thus the Almighty Allah says: فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ Why should not then a company from every party from among them go forth that they may apply themselves to obtain understanding in religion, and that they may warn their people when they come back to them that they may be cautious?

[^1] The venerable Shaykh Sadooq was an expert in this field who attained priority among all in such a way that no one could claim to have got even one-tenth of what he achieved. Actually he used to take lightly the difficulties of his journeys and did not accord much importance to the discomfort he had to face. He traveled through arid deserts; battle ravaged areas, traversed deserts and crossed mountains.

He passed through foreign lands and alien cities at a time when a traveler was susceptible to so many perils and the modes of travel were beyond description. Let us go through some details of his travel in order to gain a clearer picture: The author was born in the Iranian town of Qom. He attended classes of scholars and gained knowledge from the learned of Qom. Thereafter upon the insistence of the people of Rayy he shifted there for some time.

Then he visited the holy mausoleum of Imam Reza (a.s.) and returned again to Rayy. On his return journey from Nishapur he was surrounded by the elders of Nishapur and the scholars stood before him in rows. They benefited from the light of his wisdom and gained from his expertise in religious sciences. In the same way, the author also profited by the knowledge of great scholars of Nishapur like Abu Ali Husain bin Ahmad Baihaqi.

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