While this book is an extraordinary accomplishment, rich in its ethnographic wanderings and sophisticated in its theoretical framing, my interest in this short essay is confined to the book’s treatment of the question of tradition. Importantly, this decision stems not from a shortcoming of The Iranian Metaphysicals, but rather, for the sophistication and rigor with which it approaches the notion of tradition, and thus affords the reader an opportunity to reflect on what, in my view, are some of the key aspects and challenges that Talal Asad’s elaboration of this notion entails. Alireza Doostdar explores how the arguments, perspectives, and understandings of his informants are inscribed within, and extend, traditions of reasoning, including orthodox Shi’a traditions (“Shi’a reason”), as one of a number of powerful sources of authority in contemporary Iran. Focusing on metaphysical practices forged at the unstable and shifting intersection between established Islamic genres and novel techniques and practices modeled on Western inquiries into the scientific occult, Doostdar traces the patterns of transformation, rejection, accommodation, and assimilation occurring at this intersection.