Counting the Pieces of Coal

*A retelling for children, based on the account of Áqá Ḥusayn-i-Áshchí in **Bahá'í Chronicles**, which draws on H. M. Balyuzi's **Bahá'u'lláh, The King of Glory** and on Áshchí's own memoir as quoted in Adib Taherzadeh's **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**.*

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Ḥusayn came from the city of Káshán in Persia. His father, Áqá Muḥammad-Javád, had met the Báb in Káshán and become a believer. Later his father moved to Baghdad, where Bahá'u'lláh was living, and took Ḥusayn with him.

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Bahá'u'lláh sent Ḥusayn's father to Tihrán on an important errand: to ask for the hand of the daughter of Bahá'u'lláh's brother in marriage to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. On the way back he fell ill, and he died just as he reached Baghdad.

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For a time Ḥusayn was cared for by his uncle, Ustád Ismá‘íl. Then, when Bahá'u'lláh was about to leave Baghdad, Ḥusayn was taken into His household. At first he served the women of the family; later he became the cook. That is how he got his name: "Áshchí" means a cook, or a maker of broth. He went with Bahá'u'lláh through every stage of His exile, all the way to ‘Akká.

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In Adrianople the household lived for a time in the house of Amru'lláh. Ḥusayn remembered that it was "very large and magnificent," but there was very little to live on. Most of the time the only food that could be served to Bahá'u'lláh was bread and cheese. Every day Ḥusayn put aside a little meat and oil in a special place until there was enough to cook. Then he would invite Bahá'u'lláh to a meal on the lawn.

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The household also saved enough money to buy two cows and a goat, and their milk and yogurt were served in the holy household.

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In winter there was a brazier, a metal pan for burning charcoal, in each room, and lighting them was one of Ḥusayn's duties. To save fuel, he measured the coal he put in each one. Someone told Bahá'u'lláh about this. He called Ḥusayn to Him and said: "I hear you count the pieces of coal which go into each brazier!"

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Ḥusayn remembered that Bahá'u'lláh smiled and was very amused, and agreed that such care was necessary in a large house.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["Aqa Husayn-i-Ashchi"](/stories/bc-aqa-husayn-i-ashchi).*

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