Shoghi Effendi called the Tablet of Carmel "the Charter
of the World Spiritual and Administrative Centres of the Faith". ('Messages
to the Baha’i World’) In a message dated Naw-Ruz 111 (1954) to the Baha’is of
the East, Shoghi Effendi wrote:
In this great Tablet [of Carmel] which unveils divine
mysteries and heralds the establishment of two mighty, majestic and momentous
undertakings -- one of which is spiritual and the other administrative, both at
the World Centre of the Faith -- Bahá'u'lláh refers to an "Ark",
whose dwellers are the men of the Supreme House of Justice, which, in
conformity with the exact provisions of the Will and Testament of the Centre of
the Mighty Covenant, is the body which should lay down laws not explicitly
revealed in the Text. In this Dispensation, these laws are destined to flow
from this Holy Mountain, even as in the Mosaic Dispensation the law of God was
promulgated from Zion. The "sailing of the Ark" of His laws is a
reference to the establishment of the Universal House of Justice, which is
indeed the Seat of Legislation, one of the branches of the World Administrative
Centre of the Bahá'ís on this Holy Mountain ....
(Naw Ruz 111-1954 to the
Bahá'ís of the East -- translated from the Persian; published in "The
Bahá'í World", vol. XIV, p. 438; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Establishment of the Universal House of
Justice)
