Aga Ali Reza, son of Haji Mulla Muhammad Naini, nephew
of Haji Muhammad Ibrahim Kalbasi, said:
Informed me Akhund Mulla Zainul Aabedeen, that:
One day I was in the class of Ayatullah Allamah Tabatabai
Bahrul Uloom in Najaf Ashraf, when Mirza Abul Qasim Qummi
came to visit him, author of Qawaneen in the year he had
returned from Iran intending to perform the Ziyarat of the Imams
of Iraq and for pilgrimage of holy Kaaba. So, those who were present in the gathering went away from
there leaving only three of us. All of us were very senior students
and we continued to sit there.
This scholar said to the Sayyid: You have attained a lofty
spiritual position and proximity of the divine.
So give me something from those unlimited blessings.
The Sayyid said without hesitation: Last night or two nights
ago (and doubt is from the narrator) I had gone to Kufa Mosque
for the supererogatory night prayer. At dawn I used to move to
Najaf Ashraf this was my practice for many years.
When I came out of the Masjid, I felt the desire to visit
Masjid Sahla, but I gave up the thought fearing I may not be able
to reach Najaf in time before morning and miss the class. Again
the desire surged to visit Masjid Sahla.
When I was confused, suddenly a wind arose and the dust
rose up and took me to the Sahla Mosque and threw me there. I
entered the mosque and saw that it was empty, except for the
presence of a gentleman, who was engrossed in supplicating with
extreme humility and sincerity.
I was moved by his voice and my legs trembled and I wept
on hearing his words, which I had never heard. I was moved by it
very much as I stood there listening with all my attention till he
concluded his litany.
Then he turned to me and said in Persian: Mahdi, come
here!
I moved some steps and stood. He told me to come forward.
I moved a little and then stopped. He again urged me to move and said: There is etiquette in obedience.
I stepped forward till his hand reached me and my hand
reached him and he began to talk.
Maula Salmasi said: When the discourse of Sayyid (r.a.)
reached this point, he paused once and then began to reply to this
Mohaqqiq, the questions he had previously posed about the secret
of the paucity of the writings of the Sayyid inspite of his long age
and knowledgeability. Then he explained the causes.
Mirza again asked the question about that secret statement.
The Sayyid gestured: It is a secret.
Behaarul Anwaar, vol. 53, pp. 235-236