The Man Who Lost Everything and Stayed Glad

A retelling for children, based on the account of Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ in Bahá'í Chronicles.

In a quiet corner of a great prison, a man sat very still. His eyes were closed, his lips moved softly, and he was thinking about God. If you had walked right past him, you might never have noticed he was there at all.

His name was Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ, and he was so gentle and so full of love that people said he seemed to be made of devotion itself.

He had a brother in the Faith named Ḥájí 'Alí-'Askar, and the two of them were almost like one person. They believed the same things. They loved the same things. They had traveled together, far from their old home, to a city called Adrianople. Wherever one went, the other went too — even all the way into the prison.

Now, Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ was not a rich man. He owned just a little bit of goods to sell — and that was everything he had in the whole world. He left it in the care of some people in Adrianople, trusting them to keep it safe.

But those people were not honest. While he was away, they took his goods and made them disappear. Just like that, the only things Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ owned were gone.

Think about how that would feel. He had nothing left. And he was living in the Most Great Prison, far from comfort, with hardly anything to call his own.

Yet here is the surprising part. Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ was not bitter, and he was not even unhappy. He spent his days perfectly content. He never complained. In fact, he was so quiet and so humble that you would hardly know he was there at all. He simply went on sitting in his corner, remembering God, peaceful and glad in his heart.

How could a man who had lost everything still be so happy? Because the thing he treasured most was something no one could ever take from him. He treasured his love for God, and his nearness to Bahá'u'lláh. As long as he had that, he felt rich.

He loved Bahá'u'lláh so deeply that when Bahá'u'lláh passed away, Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ could not bear the sorrow of being parted from Him, and soon after, he too passed away from grief.

Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ shows us something worth remembering. The most precious things we can have are not the ones we keep in our pockets or on our shelves. Money can be lost and toys can break, but love and faith are treasures that stay with us no matter what — and they can fill a heart with quiet gladness even in the hardest of places.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Mashhadí Faṭṭáḥ".

editors, B. C.. *Bahá'í Chronicles*. https://bahaichronicles.org/mashhadi-fa%e1%b9%ad%e1%b9%ada%e1%b8%a5/