This magnificent Edifice [the Shrine of the Bab] stands
facing Baha'u'llah's Most Great Prison, extolled by the Pen of Glory as the "Heaven
of heavens," and looks toward the Qiblih of the people of Baha, that Spot
within the Vale of Security and Peace, the Plain of 'Akka, round which circle
in adoration the Concourse on high. To her right are the hills of Galilee in
which nestles the childhood home of the beautiful Christ, and the locality by
the banks of the Jordan River where He who is the Spirit [Jesus] was called to
prophethood; and on her left, on the crest of Carmel, are to be found the Cave
of Elijah and the exalted Spot which was blessed by the footsteps of the Most
Holy Abha Beauty and was ennobled through the revelation of the Tablet of
Carmel from the treasury of the Pen of Glory. Behind her stand the twin Mounts
of Zion and Olivet and the holy and ancient city of Jerusalem, within whose walls
lie the site of the martyrdom and the burial place of Jesus Christ, the seat of
the Throne of David, the glorious Temple of Solomon and the Aqsa Mosque, which
ranks third among the shrines of the Islamic world. Beyond these there rises
Mount Sinai, the cradle of the Jewish Faith, that Sacred Mount, the Paran of
light, that holy land where He Who conversed with God heard the Voice from the
Blessed Tree. And further beyond lies the Arabian Peninsula, the land of Hijaz,
the cradle of the Muhammadan Dispensation, with the two cities of Batha and
Yathrib, the noble Mecca and the bright Medina, one enshrining the Qiblih of
Islam and the other the resting-place of Him Who is the Lord of mankind
[Muhammad] - upon Him be countless salutations and praise.
High, immeasurably high is this Shrine, the lofty, the most
great, the most wondrous. Exalted, immeasurably exalted is this Resting-place,
the fragrant, the pure, the luminous, the transcendent. Glorified, immeasurably
glorified is this Spot, the most august, the most holy, the most blessed, the
most sublime.
- Shoghi Effendi (from a letter dated Naw-Ruz 1955, translated by
the Universal House of Justice; 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)
