...it is made indubitably clear and evident that the
Guardian of the Faith has been made the Interpreter of the Word and that the
Universal House of Justice has been invested with the function of legislating
on matters not expressly revealed in the teachings. The interpretation of the
Guardian, functioning within his own sphere, is as authoritative and binding as
the enactments of the International House of Justice, whose exclusive right and
prerogative is to pronounce upon and deliver the final judgment on such laws
and ordinances as Bahá'u'lláh has not expressly revealed. Neither can, nor will
ever, infringe upon the sacred and prescribed domain of the other. Neither will
seek to curtail the specific and undoubted authority with which both have been
divinely invested.
(Shoghi Effendi, from a letter of 8 February
1934, published in "The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh - Selected
Letters";The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, The Covenant)
