Mirza Mohammad Said (1886-1962) belonged to a cultured family of Delhi, associated with the cause of education and enlightenment. He did his Masters in English Literature with distinction from Government College Lahore in 1905. After a year or two as Lecturer in M. A. O. College, Aligarh, he came back to serve his Alma Mater for nearly two decades. He wrote his two pioneering Urdu novels, Khawb-i Hasti (Dream of Life) and Yasmin before finishing college, and soon his growing reputation as an outstanding scholar and professor drew him into the circle of the intellectual elite of the sub-continent. He first knew Iqbal as his philosophy teacher in G.C. during his graduation and this paved the way to his close and life-long relations with the philosopher-poet. A voracious reader and a linguist with a prodigious memory, the range and depth of his study as reflected in Religion and Esoteric Teaching was truly amazing. His long and in-depth study of modern and classical literature, philosophy and history led him to conclude, however, that no knowledge, science or philosophy could claim to be the last word for human understanding and perception, hence his endless search for new theories and ways of thinking.