The Boy Who Saved Pictures

*A retelling for children, based on **Bahá'í Chronicles**, "Muḥammad Labíb."*

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When Muḥammad was just nine years old, his family was in great danger. An angry crowd had turned against the Bahá'ís in their city, and Muḥammad had to hide. For several days he stayed down inside an underground water channel, sitting on his big brother's shoulders, until at last they reached a friend's house where they were safe. Soon after, the whole family moved away to begin again in a new city.

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You might think a boy who had been through so much would only think about himself. But Muḥammad grew up thinking about others — especially children.

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When he was a young man, Muḥammad became a teacher at a Bahá'í school. And there he had a wonderful idea. What if the children at his school could save a little money, bit by bit, so that one day, when they were grown, they would have something set aside for their lives ahead? He started a little company just for that, and he gave it a special name that means "young ones."

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A few years later, Muḥammad went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he met 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He told 'Abdu'l-Bahá all about his idea — the little saving company run by the children. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was so pleased that He gave it His blessing. And then He did something that must have made Muḥammad's heart leap: He took out two gold coins and put them into the company Himself, as if He were one of the children too.

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It was on that same pilgrimage that Muḥammad fell in love with something new. One afternoon, a photographer came to take a picture of the pilgrims in front of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's house. In those days, taking a photograph was not easy or quick the way it is now. The cameras were big and heavy, and instead of film they used sheets of glass that broke very easily. Muḥammad noticed that the photographer made two pictures — one extra, just in case the first did not come out. Muḥammad asked if he might keep the spare one for the children's company.

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So he went with Shoghi Effendi to the photographer's little studio by the sea to fetch it. While he waited, Muḥammad could not stop looking at all the photographer's equipment. He studied every piece of it. Right there, a new love was born in him: he wanted to take photographs too.

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And he did. As the years went by, cameras grew smaller and easier to carry, and Muḥammad traveled all over his country taking pictures. He had a special idea about where to point his camera. He decided to visit and photograph the holy places — the spots that mattered in the early history of the Faith. Some of these places were far away and hard to reach, and the journeys were dangerous. But Muḥammad went anyway, gathering his precious pictures.

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Years later, the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, was preparing a great book about that early history. He asked a brave photographer named Effie Baker to travel across the country and take pictures of the holy sites for the book. The land was huge and the roads were hard, so Effie needed someone who knew the way — someone who had already found those faraway places. That someone was Muḥammad.

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Together they traveled for eight long months, from one end of the country to the other. And when the book was finally printed, some of Muḥammad's photographs were inside it, for people all over the world to see.

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Muḥammad spent his whole long life serving in quiet ways. He kept teaching and traveling, even moving far across the world to share the Faith with new friends. For most of his life, hardly anyone knew his name. He was simply the man behind the camera, doing good and asking for nothing.

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That is the gentle lesson of Muḥammad's life. The best work is not always the work that everyone notices. Sometimes it is a kind idea for children, or a careful picture taken in a hard-to-reach place — small, faithful things, done out of love, that quietly help others for a very long time.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["Muḥammad Labíb"](/stories/bc-muhammad-labib).*

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