An Introduction to the Glorious Quran

About the Author

Bahram Samii was born in the city of Shiraz, in 1939. Upon completion of his Petroleum Engineering degree from the University of Tehran, he left Iran to continue his education in the United States of America, in 1962. He started his career with Standard Oil Company of California (now Chevron) as soon as he received his Master's degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In 1969, he joined the Iranian oil industry, and served in various engi­neering departments until he joined the rapidly expanding operations of the North Sea oil industry in Aberdeen, Scotland. Incidentally, this move was made in mid‑October, 1978, only about four months before the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran. His employer, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, transferred Bahram from Scotland to California, in 1983, to join the corporation's headquarters of its worldwide engineering activities.

His job was the task of facilitating the Director of Europe and Middle East Petroleum Engineering with economic studies for project ranking and strategic decision making. 1986 was a critical year for the oil industry in which many lost their jobs; Bahram was no exception. While many were sad, Bahram kept saying: "Thank God Who may have planned something better for me". This refers to the essence of a beautiful Iranian poem, which says: "If God closes a door out of His Wisdom, He opens another, out of His Grace."

A significant turning point was forming in Bahram's life. God's will was to subdue his earthly matters and to compensate for this by arousing his spiritual life. Initially, he himself, his colleagues, and his lovely wife tried hard to set up various oil (and non‑oil) related businesses. But it was obvi­ous to those around him that God had something else in store for him. A variety of irresistible forces induced him more and more toward the study of the Glorious Qur'an and the omnipotent Islamic belief. All glory and thanks belong to God.

The most effective one of these forces were the love of his family and the occurrence of certain grave events. This created the main driving force pulling him closer to the spiritual aspect of life, and a desire to learn about God and His recommended way of life. He found the Glorious Qur'an the best guide to inspire him. The second important feature was the charisma of a great man, Hadrat 'Imam Khomeini (R.A.).

Without having met him, and with miles of physical distance between them, the radiant character of this great leader had a striking impact on Bahram. Interestingly enough, misinformed Bahram was initially somewhat suspicious of Ayatullah Khomeini's mission! However, his words and deeds gradually convinced Bahram about the Great Ayatullah's spiritual character, strength and wisdom (R.A.).

This generated curiosity to read first, his biography, then, about the system that built his character (i.e. Islam) and finally the Glorious Qur'an as the basis and foundation of Islam. The third great force was the effect of certain spectacular dreams, dramatic visions, and prayer sessions at the beginning of this drive.

Bahram is devastated by the extent to which the enemies of Islam, from both within and without, have collectively managed to change the real pic­ture of Islam, and that of Muslims into an ugly and unbecoming one. No matter how divided they may be in their own beliefs, they become united allies when they face Islam.

Bahram is deeply disturbed when he sees that they have managed to deceive a worldful of people by manipulating and falsifying the rule of God in order to justify their own illegitimate earthly desires or practices. He is greatly concerned about the innocent young peo­ple who could easily fall into their traps under various great‑sounding but deluding and unpalatable banners.

With this brief background, the motivation for this work ‑ and hopefully others in future ‑ becomes overwhelming and overpowering. He himself was the victim of a lengthy period of unawareness, and he hopes to com­pensate for this setback by raising the sense of awareness of others of the Reality, and in particular, that of the innocent, lovely young people living under the subduing and often misleading influence of Western culture.