Mount Carmel
Updated: Jul 27, 2020
“In that same year Bahá’u’lláh’s tent, the ‘Tabernacle of Glory’, was raised on Mt. Carmel, ‘the Hill of God and His Vineyard’, the home of Elijah, extolled by Isaiah as the ‘mountain of the Lord’, to which ‘all nations shall flow’. Four times He visited Haifa, His last visit being no less than three months long. In the course of one of these visits, when His tent was pitched in the vicinity of the Carmelite Monastery, He, the ‘Lord of the Vineyard’, revealed the Tablet of Carmel, remarkable for its allusions and prophecies. On another occasion He pointed out Himself to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as He stood on the slopes of that mountain, the site which was to serve as the permanent resting-place of the Báb, and on which a befitting mausoleum was later to be erected.” Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 194.
“A person standing on the summit of Mount Carmel, and the passengers of the steamers coming to it, will look upon the most sublime and majestic spectacle of the whole world.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, quoted in Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, p. 251
Bahá’u’lláh stayed in various places during his visits to Haifa, including this spot at the foot of Mount Carmel. He also visited the cave of Elijah where centuries before, a Christian order had built a monastery in the expectation that Christ, returning in the glory of the Father, would bless it with His presence.
Described as a “holy mountain” in sacred books and records as far back as 1600 BC, Mount Carmel is also mentioned in prophecy and was extolled by Isaiah:
"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God."
