"This mountain [Carmel] is where Israel's prophets passed
their nights in prayer. Every step of it has been blessed by the footsteps of
the prophets... This land will be the envy of the world, the center of arts and
sciences. 'Akka and Haifa will be connected and all the vacant lands will be
cultivated. All these caves that you see have been the abode of the prophets,
step by step. [1] Every atom of this soil is holy. All the prophets, while
praying, longed to reach this day and give the glad tidings of the coming of
the Lord. They prophesied that the Lord of Hosts would come and the tent of the
Lord would be pitched on Mount Carmel... in all these mountains and caves the
prophets of God prayed at night, shed tears, and longed to be with us in these
days of the Blessed Beauty. Since I am a prisoner and cannot move, you make a
pilgrimage on My behalf. My utmost desire is to go and visit in freedom, but I
cannot. You go on behalf of 'Abdu'l-Baha and make a pilgrimage to all of the
Holy Places... and beseech God's bouncy. I cannot go. I am a prisoner. I am re-incarcerated,
and I have no permission to go out. The government prohibits me."
- 'Abdu'l-Baha (Words
of ‘Abdu’l-Baha to some pilgrims around the end of 1907; from ‘Memoirs of Dr.
Habib Mu’ayyad’, pp. 19, 21, 22, 53; quoted by Hand of the Cause Zikrullah Khadem in ‘Carmel: The
Mountain of God and the Tablet of Carmel’ published in ‘Zikrullah Khadem, The
Itinerant Hand of the Cause of God’, by Javidukht Khadem)
[1] Including the Lower
Cave of Elijah, known also as Maqam-i-Khidr, blessed by the footsteps of Baha'u'llah
for three days (according to Memoirs of Dr. Mu'ayyad, 2:258) and of 'Abdu'l-Baha
for about two months (according to an unpublished manuscript). See also David S.
Ruhe, ‘Door of Hope: A Century of the Baha', Faith in the Holy Land", pp. 186-88)
