Written by: Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Al Ibrahim
As an amateur of touring, and as a professional writer in the hunting of ideas, the author of the touring book, al-Mosawi, excels in opening with an article small in size, lofty in meaning, precise in its aim and discerning in its goal .. It is the *theory of cumulative achievement*, the one that draws its awareness from drops and particles in a dramatic sequence to form a cloud—even if an electronic one—on one of the social media platforms, so that it condenses and then rains down a book, even if after a while..
A small article, like an arrowhead, that flies from the bow of the pen to all those writers who seek perfection in composing their first book, or their second and third .. to those who have not yet reflected on the saying of the master of the eloquent and the wise, ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (a): ( Do not be ashamed of giving little, for deprivation is less than it) ..
And as a kind of noble reproach, as a practical rendering, and as a confirmation of word by deed, he presents us with his aforementioned book as a model of this theory, or golden rule ..
A book that has gathered between its two covers the colors of the four seasons, with their dappling and their patterns .. And you may reflect on each heading as a principle and a sculpted idea in which al-Mosawi believed, which he embodied and which embodied him, with which he was dyed and which was dyed with him ..
And if you wish to speak with greater clarity, this book represents *a tour in the mind of a discerning man*, revealing to you many of the subtle meanings, noble qualities and novel ideas with which the writer is adorned and in which he believes ..
Upon our arrival in holy Mashhad, my son Husayn said to me:
Father, “al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi” is a man of politics and war, and Sayed Mahmoud is a man of touring and ....what?
I smiled and said: (A man of touring and love), to complete the rhyme, and as an allusion to his first book, Love in Marital Relationships, which met with wide circulation, has been printed in more than 5 editions in many beautiful forms, and has benefited many; and I personally witnessed the praise of readers from different countries ..
Then I corrected myself: rather, a man of touring and thought, for he has added to the Islamic library virgin titles through which he has probed the fields of history, culture and thought..
And he has had important studies and research in the Qurʾanic field, just as Qurʾanic visions are, for him, the starting point in the emergence of an idea and the forming of a conviction, along with a wide grasp of the allusive nuances of the hadiths of the Ahl al-Bayt (a)
And in his touring he never ceases to search, in every corner of any city he visits or any country he stays in, for a gallery selling books, or a public or specialized library, and the like ..
He is not a hobbyist collector of books and encyclopedias; rather, he is a skilled hunter of the cardinal ideas, and perhaps he has found what he was seeking in a small booklet, and did not deny it its due of attention and reflection, and then of response ..
As for his writing style, it is of the kind that brings out the charms of meanings more than it parades the glitter of words and uses language closed off to all but the elites..
And like a fruitful tree that hangs low so that the young may pick from it before the old, the fruitful branches of our writer hang low anew to place in our hands his book (Touring with a Discerning Mind).
Muhammad Hasan Al Ibrahim
7 Dhu al-Hijja 1439 AH
