The Bridal Bower of a Palace

A retelling based on Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, with details from The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, volume 3, by Adib Taherzadeh. Words in quotation marks are as preserved in those books.

Muḥammad-Hádí was a bookbinder from Iṣfahán, and as a binder and illuminator of books, 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes, he had no peer. When he gave himself up to the love of God he was alert on the path and fearless. He left his home and made what the Master calls a dreadful journey, passing with extreme hardship from one country to another until he reached the Holy Land. There he settled near Bahá'u'lláh and became a prisoner with the other exiles in 'Akká.

He stationed himself by the Holy Threshold, sweeping it with care and keeping watch. Through his constant efforts the square in front of Bahá'u'lláh's house was at all times swept, sprinkled and immaculate.

Adib Taherzadeh, who retells this memorial in The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, adds some details about the 'Akká of those days. The streets of the city were covered in earth, there was no proper system for collecting refuse, and people often threw litter into the streets, so many householders would sweep the approaches to their houses and sprinkle the ground with water. Muḥammad-Hádí, Taherzadeh writes, wanted to make sure that the eyes of Bahá'u'lláh "would not fall on any unclean sight when He emerged from His room on to the veranda." Although he was an outstanding artist, engaged in illuminating the Books and Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, Muḥammad-Hádí took upon himself the cleaning and sweeping of the area around the house of 'Abbúd.

Bahá'u'lláh would often glance at that plot of ground. Then He would smile and say:

Muḥammad-Hádí has turned the square in front of this prison into the bridalbower of a palace. He has brought pleasure to all the neighbors and earned their thanks.

When the sweeping, sprinkling and tidying were done, Muḥammad-Hádí set to work illuminating and binding the various books and Tablets. So his days went by, 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes, "his heart happy in the presence of the Beloved of mankind. He was an excellent soul, righteous, true, worthy of the bounty of being united with his Lord, and free of the world's contagion." From time to time, a smile on His lips, the Blessed Beauty would speak to him, expressing kindness and grace.

One day Muḥammad-Hádí came to 'Abdu'l-Bahá complaining of a chronic ailment. "I have suffered from chills and fever for two years," he said. The doctors had given him a purgative, and quinine. The fever would stop for a few days and then return, and more quinine did not keep it away. "I am weary of this life, and can no longer do my work. Save me!"

"What food would you most enjoy?" the Master asked him. "What would you eat with great appetite?"

"I don't know," he said. So 'Abdu'l-Bahá, jokingly, named off different dishes, and when He came to barley soup with whey, Muḥammad-Hádí said, "Very good! But on condition there is braised garlic in it." 'Abdu'l-Bahá directed that it be prepared for him. The next day Muḥammad-Hádí came and told Him, "I ate a whole bowlful of the soup. Then I laid my head on my pillow and slept peacefully till morning." For about two years afterwards he was perfectly well.

Then one day a believer told the Master that Muḥammad-Hádí was burning up with fever. 'Abdu'l-Bahá hurried to his bedside and found him with a fever of 42 degrees Centigrade, barely conscious. When the fever came on, the friends said, he had decided that he knew from experience what to do, and had eaten his fill of the same soup with braised garlic. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was astounded. Two years before, He explained, Muḥammad-Hádí had been thoroughly purged, he had a hearty appetite for the soup, and his ailment was fever and chills. This time he had no appetite, he had been eating other foods, and his fever was high; nothing in his condition called for it. "It was fate," the friends answered. It was too late, and Muḥammad-Hádí could not be saved.

'Abdu'l-Bahá's portrait of him is brief. He was short of stature, lofty of station and mind. His heart was pure, his soul luminous. In all the days he served the Holy Threshold he was loved by the friends and favoured by God. He was loyal always, and "he accounted all things other than God's good pleasure as fiction and fable, nothing more." 'Abdu'l-Bahá closes His memorial with a blessing: "Blessed is he for this gift bestowed upon him, glad tidings to him for the place to which he shall be led; may it do him good, this wine-cup tempered at the camphor fountain, and may all his strivings meet with thanks and be acceptable to God."

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the chapter on Muḥammad-Hádíy-i-Ṣaḥḥáf, and The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, volume 3, by Adib Taherzadeh, pp. 402-403.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1915). *Memorials of the Faithful*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust.