Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – August 5, 1998

I did the work until half past ten in the morning. Mr. [Mohammed] Jafari Gilani, [Head of Qom's Islamic Propaganda Office], with Mr. [Mohammed] Moradi, [Mojtabi] Kalbasi, [Mustafa] Mohami and Karimi, [responsibles of the Quranic Culture and Education Center], came to review the status of the draft of the Quran key. In the first volume, they have completed the letter "A"; It has many problems. Mainly in the lack of comprehensive work and lack of investigation [= finalization]. Because the interpretation of the guide has not been completed yet, it is difficult to extract all the topics from the profiles and they will inevitably investigate by themselves and it will be incomplete. We negotiated for two and a half hours. I painstakingly convinced them that it should be completed and that they should actually wait until the interpretation of the guide is finished; It will be over in about two years, but I agreed to publish a volume after completing the current work in order to test and get opinions and criticisms. Mr. [Mohammed] Moradi, who is the project manager, had his tooth pulled and was bleeding.

We prayed in congregation and they were my guests for lunch. Mr. [Mohammed] Jafari [Gilani] expressed concern about the state of the country's administration and asked me to intervene. He criticized the economic organization plan and called it empty and said that they have wasted the country's economy and call it sick.

In the evening Dr. [Abdullah] Jasbi, [President of Islamic Azad University] came. It was discussed about the plan related to Konkorke, which is in the order of the parliament. It is useful for solving the problem of Azad University. If it is strengthened, it will prevent the Ministry of Science from taking the independent entrance exam of Azad University under the administration of the Ministry, which they want to take.

I wanted Azad University's history faculties to help the History Foundation; In such a way that some of the students choose the thesis from the topics required by the foundation. Mr. Jasbi criticized the fact that the leadership sent a message to the Unity Consolidation Summit, even though Mr. [Abdul Karim] Soroush also gave a speech there, and he is also unhappy that the leadership pays more attention to some of the left wing people, such as Mr. [Hussein] Muzafar and [Mustafa] Moin, etc.

Ayatollah Yazdi, [head of the judiciary] came. We expressed common concern about the general situation of the country and political differences and economic situation. They gave a report on the talks between the teachers' community [of the Qom seminary] with Mr. Khatami, [the president] and talked about Mr. Karbaschi's case. He claims that they do not interfere, but he agreed to tell Mr. [Kazim] Siddiqi, [President of Tehran Public Courts], to be referred to an independent and non-political branch for appeal.

Mr. [Mohammed] Emami Kashani, [juristic member of the Guardian Council], called on the phone to ask that we set aside some time for the negotiation of the [Assembly] of experts. I came home at night. Mehdi and Mona brought dinner. Other relatives also came; Food was scarce, we got it from guards, Mohammad, the son of Ashikh Hossein Hashemian, said that he is going abroad with a scholarship.