needles. Glory be to God! He
survived two years on that initial outlay of capital; and he returned
thanks at all times. You can tell how detached he was from worldly things
by this one fact: the Nazarenes used to say it was plain to see from the
old man's manner and behavior that he was very rich, and that if he lived
so modestly it was only because he was a stranger in a strange
place--hiding his wealth by setting up as a peddler of needles.

Whenever he came into the presence of Baha'u'llah he received still more
evidences of favor and love. For all seasons, he was a close friend and
companion to me. When sorrows attacked me I would send for him, and then I
would rejoice just to see him again. How wonderful his talk was, how
attractive his society. Bright of face he was; free of heart; loosed from
every earthly tie, always on the wing. Toward the end he made his home in
the Most Great Prison, and every day he entered the presence of
Baha'u'llah.

On a certain day, walking through the bazar with his friends, he met a
gravedigger named Haji Ahmad. Although in the best of health, he addressed
the gravedigger and laughingly told him: "Come along with me." Accompanied
by the believers and the gravedigger he made for Nabiyu'llah Salih. Here
he said: "O Haji Ahmad, I have a request to make of you: when I move on,
out of this world and into the next, dig my grave here, beside the Purest
Branch.(31) This is the favor I ask." So saying, he gave the man a gift of
money.

That very evening, not long after sunset, word came that Nabil of Qa'in
had been taken ill. I went to his home at once. He was sitting up, and
conversing. He was radiant, laughing, joking, but for no apparent reason
the sweat was pouring off his face--it was rushing down. Except for this he
had nothing the matter with him. The perspiring went on and on; he
weakened, lay in his bed, and toward morning, died.

Baha'u'llah would refer to him with infinite grace and loving-kindness,
and revealed a number of Tablets in his name. The Blessed Beauty was wont,
after Nabil's passing, to recall that ardor, the power of that faith, and
to comment that here was a man who had recognized Him, prior to the advent
of the Bab.

All hail to him for this wondrous bestowal. "Blessedness awaiteth him and
a goodly home... And God will single out for His mercy whomsoever He
willeth."(32)

SIYYID MUHAMMAD-TAQI MANSHADI

Muhammad-Taqi came from the village of Man_sh_ad