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This essay takes its point of departure in a letter written by Ayatollah Khomeini suggesting that sovereign authority is a matter of "absolute divine guardianship" and that the state "may suspend any matter... when it contravenes the best interests of Islam for the duration that it is so." Khomeini's insistence that the Islamic state headed by a Guardian Jurist is authorized to suspend normally valid law if need be, brings to mind Carl Schmitt's (in)famous proposition that the sovereign is authorized to suspend the normally valid legal order in the state of exception. This essay will explore to what extent this evocation might be indicative of a more general affinity between Schmitt's juridico-political thinking and Khomeini's interventions and innovations during his years as the Guardian Jurist of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The essay ends with reflections on what juxtaposing Khomeini and Schmitt might yield and bring into view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]