The Friend Who Followed

A retelling for children, based on the account of Muḥammad-‘Alí Ṣabbáq of Yazd in Bahá'í Chronicles.

When Muḥammad-‘Alí Ṣabbáq was a young man living in Iraq, he heard about Bahá'u'lláh — and something inside him woke up. He had grown up never learning to read or write a single word. But he did not need books to know the truth when he heard it. He pushed away all his old doubts, the way you might push aside a curtain to let in the morning light, and he hurried toward the new faith with his whole heart.

He was not a fancy or famous man. To people who only glanced at him, he looked like someone with no schooling at all. But those who knew him discovered the truth: he was quick and clever, and he was the kind of friend you could always trust.

One day, another believer brought him to meet Bahá'u'lláh face to face. For Muḥammad-‘Alí, nothing would ever be the same again. He found himself a little corner to live in, right next to the house where Bahá'u'lláh stayed. Every morning and every evening, he was allowed to come into His presence. Can you imagine? For a while, he was just about the happiest person in the whole world.

But living near someone you love means that when they go, you must choose: do you stay behind where it is safe and comfortable, or do you follow?

When Bahá'u'lláh and His family were made to leave Baghdad and travel far away to the great city of Constantinople, Muḥammad-‘Alí did not stay behind. He went too, his heart full of love for God, walking the long road with the others.

When they reached Constantinople, the government soon forced Bahá'u'lláh to move on again, this time to a city called Adrianople. And here came Muḥammad-‘Alí's first hard test. He was asked to stay behind in Constantinople — not to rest, but to help. Believers were always passing through that busy city, coming and going, and someone kind and trustworthy needed to be there to look after them.

So he stayed. And it was lonely — lonelier than you might think. He had no friend there, no companion, no one to take care of him. For two long years he carried that loneliness, helping others while no one was there to help him. Still, he did not give up and go home.

At last he could bear it no longer — not the work, but being so far from Bahá'u'lláh. He set out for Adrianople to be near Him once more. To earn his bread, he became a peddler, walking from place to place selling small things, glad simply to be close again.

Then came a very dark time. Cruel people rose up against the believers and treated them harshly, trying to break their spirit. Muḥammad-‘Alí was swept up with the rest, made a prisoner, and sent far across the sea to a gloomy prison-city called ‘Akká.

He spent a long time inside that prison, which the believers called the Most Great Prison. Think of what it took to keep loving and trusting through all of that — the exile, the loneliness, the locked gates. Yet he did.

After that long stretch, Bahá'u'lláh asked him to go to a town called Sidon and make his living there as a trader. So he went. Now and then he would travel back and be welcomed once more into Bahá'u'lláh's presence, and those visits must have felt like sunshine after a long winter. In Sidon he lived honestly, respected by everyone, a credit to the friends wherever he went.

And when the saddest day of all came — when Bahá'u'lláh passed from this world — Muḥammad-‘Alí did the most faithful thing he could think of. He came back and lived out the rest of his days near the Holy Tomb, staying close to the One he loved even then.

Everyone who knew him was glad of him. He was a kind man and a good one — patient when things were hard, thankful for whatever God gave him, and gentle and dignified to the end.

Muḥammad-‘Alí could not read or write, and he never became rich or important the way the world counts such things. But love does not need fancy schooling, and faithfulness does not need an easy road. He followed Bahá'u'lláh through cities and seas, through loneliness and prison, and stayed true to the very last. That kind of faithful, loving heart is the greatest treasure a person can have.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Muḥammad ‘Alí Ṣabbáq of Yazd".

editors, B. C.. *Bahá'í Chronicles*. https://bahaichronicles.org/mu%e1%b8%a5ammad-ali-sabbaq-of-yazd/