The Carpet From Beneath His Feet

*A retelling based on **Memorials of the Faithful** by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, from the chapter on Áqá Muḥammad-Báqir and Áqá Muḥammad-Ismá'íl, with details from **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi and **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh** by Adib Taherzadeh. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those accounts.*

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Áqá Muḥammad-Báqir and Áqá Muḥammad-Ismá'íl, the tailor, were brothers. They left Persia for Adrianople to be near Bahá'u'lláh, and when He was exiled to 'Akká they came with Him as prisoners.

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They were brothers of Pahlaván Riḍá, a tradesman with no schooling whose eloquence, after he became a believer, astonished the people of Káshán. 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells how Riḍá once went to the learned Ḥájí Muḥammad-Karím Khán and, in front of political and military leaders, asked him whether he was the "Fourth Pillar", the perfect man whom the Shaykhí school taught must always be sought. The Ḥájí denied it and cursed anyone who said so. A few days later Riḍá came back.

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He had read the Ḥájí's own book from cover to cover, he said, and it taught that one was bound to know the Fourth Pillar; would the Ḥájí show him who it was? The Ḥájí answered angrily that the Fourth Pillar was plainly visible, a man with a turban on his head, an 'abá on his back and a cane in his hand, like himself. Riḍá smiled.

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"Meaning no discourtesy," he said, "there is, then, a contradiction in Your Honor's teaching." The Ḥájí said he was busy and asked to be excused. Riḍá remained a helper of all seekers after truth to the end of his life. He became known far and wide as a Bahá'í, was made a homeless wanderer, and ascended to the Abhá Kingdom.

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When the exiles reached 'Akká, they were all imprisoned in the soldiers' barracks inside the fortress, and every way in and out was closed. "The first night," Bahá'u'lláh testified in the Lawḥ-i-Ra'ís, "all were deprived of either food or drink... They even begged for water, and were refused." The water in the pool of the courtyard was so filthy and brackish that no one could drink it, and each prisoner was given three loaves of black and salty bread.

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The air of 'Akká was then so unhealthy that every newcomer fell ill. Shortly after their arrival all but two of the exiles fell sick. Malaria and dysentery, with the sultry heat, added to their miseries. Taherzadeh names the two who were spared at first as 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Áqá Riḍáy-i-Qannád, though both fell ill later. The Master, with this believer's help, nursed the sick day and night. The authorities sent for no doctor, and with the few provisions He had, 'Abdu'l-Bahá cooked a simple broth and some rice for them each day.

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Three of the prisoners died. The first was Abu'l-Qásim-i-Sulṭánábádí. Then the two brothers came down with a violent illness, and there was neither doctor nor medicine. They died on the same night, within a few hours of each other, as they lay on the floor, "wrapped in each other's arms". "There was none there but wept that night."

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In the morning the exiles wished to carry the bodies out for burial. The guards told them: "You are forbidden to go out of the fortress. You must hand over these two corpses to us. We will wash them, shroud them and bury them. But first you must pay for it."

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There was no money. But there was a prayer carpet that had been placed beneath the feet of Bahá'u'lláh, which Taherzadeh calls "the only luxury He had." He took it up and said, "Sell it. Give the money to the guards." It was sold for 170 piasters, and the money was handed over.

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The guards did not wash the brothers or wrap them in shrouds. They dug a hole in the ground and put them into it as they were, in the clothes they had on, without coffins. Bahá'u'lláh affirmed that the guards had been given twice the amount required for the burial.

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Because they were not allowed burial inside the Muslim cemetery, they were laid to rest outside it, and some years later 'Abdu'l-Bahá arranged for one of the believers to build their graves. 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes that "even now, their two graves are one, and just as their souls are joined in the Abhá Realm, their bodies are together here, under the earth, each holding the other in his close embrace."

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Of those days Bahá'u'lláh wrote: "None knoweth what befell Us, except God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing... From the foundation of the world until the present day a cruelty such as this hath neither been seen nor heard of."

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Bahá'u'lláh grieved especially at the brothers' death. He said that never before had two brothers passed from this world into the realms of glory in such unity, and in a Tablet He praised them and blessed their parents. 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes that in life they were encompassed by His grace and favour, and in death they were remembered in His Tablets. Their grave is in 'Akká.

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After these three deaths Bahá'u'lláh revealed a short prayer for healing for the believers in the barracks, and asked them to chant it again and again with complete sincerity. They did so, and soon everyone recovered.

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **Memorials of the Faithful** by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi.*

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