I consider myself a student of Mr. Motahhari, as I once told him. You know, we were close friends. Our friendship was strong and close since before the Revolution. Many times we would stay at each other's house; he would come to our house in Mashhad, and I would visit him in their house in Tehran and we would stay over for long hours, even for days and nights. I told him I was his student. He was astonished and said "but I never taught you anything"; and it was true that I was never his student. Yet, one of the elements that established the main bases of my Islamic thinking was the speeches by Mr. Motahhari, maybe some twenty years ago. His speeches were published and distributed.
An interview by Ettela'at Newspaper, April 28, 1982
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