The Bookbinder Who Swept the Square

*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 from those books.*

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Muḥammad-Hádí was a bookbinder from Iṣfáhán, one of those who, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words, "emigrated and came to settle near Bahá'u'lláh." 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 set out on "a dreadful journey," passing with extreme hardship from one country to another until he reached the Holy Land and became a prisoner.

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In 'Akká he stationed himself by the Holy Threshold, sweeping it 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."

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Bahá'u'lláh's house was then the house of 'Abbúd, where He occupied a small upstairs room on the eastern side. The streets of the city, Adib Taherzadeh explains, were covered in earth. There was no proper system of refuse collection, and people often threw litter into the streets, so many householders swept the approaches to their houses and sprinkled the ground with water.

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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 who illuminated the Books and Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, Muḥammad-Hádí took upon himself the task of cleaning and sweeping the area around the house.

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Bahá'u'lláh would often glance at that plot of ground, 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls, and then 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."

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"When his sweeping, sprinkling and tidying was done, he would set to work illuminating and binding the various books and Tablets. So his days went by, 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."

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One day he came to 'Abdu'l-Bahá about a chronic illness. For two years he had suffered from chills and fever. 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 end it. "I am weary of this life, and can no longer do my work. Save me!"

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

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"I don't know," he said.

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Jokingly, 'Abdu'l-Bahá named one dish after another. When He came to barley soup with whey, Muḥammad-Hádí said, "Very good! But on condition there is braised garlic in it."

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The Master had it prepared for him. The next day Muḥammad-Hádí came and said: "I ate a whole bowlful of the soup. Then I laid my head on my pillow and slept peacefully till morning." From then on he was perfectly well for about two years.

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Then a believer came to 'Abdu'l-Bahá and said: "Muḥammad-Hádí is burning up with fever." The Master hurried to his bedside and found him barely conscious, with a fever of 42 degrees. He asked what had happened. When the fever came on, He was told, Muḥammad-Hádí had said that he knew from experience what to do, and had eaten his fill of barley soup with whey and braised garlic.

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'Abdu'l-Bahá was "astounded at the workings of fate." He explained that two years before, the man had been thoroughly purged, had a hearty appetite and was suffering from chronic fever and chills; this time he had no appetite and a high fever, and there was no reason to treat it as the old illness. "It was fate," they answered. Things had gone too far, and Muḥammad-Hádí could not be saved.

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Near its end, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's memorial of him says: "He was a man short of stature, lofty of station and mind.

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His heart was pure, his soul luminous." Through all the days he served the Holy Threshold he was loved by the friends and favored by God, and from time to time, a smile on His lips, the Blessed Beauty would speak to him, "expressing kindness and grace." Muḥammad-Hádí, the Master writes, "accounted all things other than God's good pleasure as fiction and fable, nothing more." The memorial closes 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."

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **Memorials of the Faithful** by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.*

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