KABUL, Afghanistan — Nobody really knew what to do with the pile of shoes left outside a Kabul mosque targeted by a suicide bombing a few days earlier.

The shoes were both trivial and haunting.

Worshipers take their shoes off before entering the main hall of a mosque to respect the sanctity of the space. When Islamic State suicide bombers attacked this Shiite mosque in Kabul during crowded Friday prayers on Aug. 25, the lucky ones rushed through the back doors or jumped out of windows, running for their lives barefoot on warm asphalt.

About 40 people were killed, two dozen of them now buried in the mosque’s rose garden, and nearly 100 were wounded in the attack.