[The following is an excerpt from an interview given by Maurice Béjart and published in the magazine Danser in April 1983]:

[After having collaborated with a group of Iranian musicians for the Golestan ballet, Maurice Béjart was introduced to Ostad Elahi]. I found myself in the presence of a person who, in my opinion, was the greatest musician I had met in my life. […] Music was his language: through his music, I received a teaching. Then he told me the same thing my father had: all religions are equal, and we should adhere to one. It is a path as long as one knows this path is not superior to others. So I decided to take his path: this is a person whose thought was guiding me, and is still guiding me. It was therefore a personal encounter and a musical encounter. This master did not speak French; we communicated solely through music.”

[The following is another excerpt from an interview by Maurice Béjart given on the occasion of the Centennial of Ostad Elahi in 1995]

Q- Referring to Ostad Elahi, you said that it is through music and not words that you have understood. Could you please tell us what you have understood?”

M.B.- No, because I cannot express it with words either. He did not speak French and I did not speak Farsi. He played some music, but I cannot put into words what I felt and lived. It was a great change in my life, my existence, and my thought.

Q- You met him personally. Could you tell me about who he was, his personality, his presence…?

M.B.- Truly, I don’t know what to tell you. What I can tell you and what I have already conveyed in one of my books is what he told me: “If you need me, we will always be in contact. Ask me a question on any subject, and I will answer you.” A few years later, I was asked to do the Florentine Musical Mef, a ballet on the triumphs of Petrarch. But I didn’t like the word “triumph.” I didn’t know Petrarch very well and to tell you the truth, I didn’t feel like doing it. I had to give my answer that same night. I went to the Luxembourg Gardens and sat down. There, I mentally asked my master the following question: “Should I really do this ballet on the triumphs of Petrarch, because I don’t see myself doing it at all. What should I do?” Then I just stayed there. Suddenly, a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time passed by and suggested we go to the Gustave Moreau museum. I like this museum very much. I had even produced a documentary on Gustave Moreau for television and knew the curator very well. So I said, “Let’s go!” We arrived at the Gustave Moreau museum. The curator said, “I haven’t seen you in a long time. I have a surprise for you: there is a painting that has been under restoration and has not been displayed for quite some time. It has just come back to the museum. You must see it; come upstairs with me…” So we walked up to the first floor and he said to me: “Look! It is the triumphs of Petrarch.”