The laws revealed by
Bahá’u’lláh in the Aqdas are, whenever practicable and not in direct conflict
with the Civil Law of the land, absolutely binding on every believer or Bahá’í
institution whether in the East or in the West. Certain ... laws should be
regarded by all believers as universally and vitally applicable at the present
time. Others have been formulated in anticipation of a state of society destined
to emerge from the chaotic conditions that prevail today... What has not been
formulated in the Aqdas, in addition to matters of detail and of secondary
importance arising out of the application of the laws already formulated by
Bahá’u’lláh, will have to be enacted by the Universal House of Justice. This
body can supplement but never invalidate or modify in the least degree what has
already been formulated by Bahá’u’lláh. Nor has the Guardian any right
whatsoever to lessen the binding effect much less to abrogate
the provisions of so fundamental and sacred a Book.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter written on
behalf of Shoghi Effendi to a National Spiritual Assembly in 1935, quoted by
the Universal House of Justice in the “Introduction to the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)
