Two Lamps Lit with God’s Love

In Memorials of the Faithful, 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers Áqá Riḍá of Shíráz together with his companion Mírzá Maḥmúd of Káshán. He calls them "two lamps lit with God's love from the oil of His knowledge," who rendered every kind of service for fifty-five years. "Their services were countless, beyond recording."

Mírzá Maḥmúd came to Baghdád from Káshán as a youth. Áqá Riḍá became a believer in Baghdád. The Master recalls that in Baghdád a company of seven leading believers, being destitute, lived in a single small room. By day they went out to work; by night one might have earned ten paras, another twenty, others forty or fifty, and whatever they had was spent on the evening meal. On one day only one of them earned anything, twenty paras, and he bought dates and shared them; that was dinner for seven people. Sometimes they chanted prayers all night until daybreak, and they were supremely happy.

When Bahá'u'lláh left Baghdád for Constantinople in 1863, a great crowd went with Him, and along the way they met with famine conditions. Áqá Riḍá and Mírzá Maḥmúd walked on foot ahead of the howdah in which Bahá'u'lláh rode, covering seven or eight farsakhs a day. Weary as they were at each halting-place, they would at once begin preparing and cooking the food and seeing to the comfort of the believers. After the meal they collected and washed the dishes and cooking utensils until midnight, slept two or three hours, and rose at daybreak to pack and set out again. "The efforts they made," the Master writes, "were truly more than flesh can bear."

He describes their character plainly. In all that time no one ever heard either of them raise his voice. They never hurt or offended anyone. They were trustworthy, loyal and true, and Bahá'u'lláh showered blessings upon them and often expressed His satisfaction with them. To them, nothing was a bounty at all except service at His Holy Threshold.

After the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh they were consumed with sorrow, "like candles flickering away," yet they stayed firm in the Covenant, laboured to spread the Faith, and were close and trusted companions of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. "In all that long period, they never uttered a word which had to do with self."

They passed away during a time when 'Abdu'l-Bahá was absent, and He grieved that He had not been with them to bid them farewell. "Although absent in body," He writes, "I was there in my heart."

A retelling based on Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá (chapter "Áqá Mírzá Maḥmúd and Áqá Riḍá"). For the fuller account, see the original.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1915). *Memorials of the Faithful*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/memorials-faithful/