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Gracious God! Such is the measure of his understanding. And yet, behold what cavils and calumnies he hath heaped upon those Embodiments of God’s infinite knowledge! How well and true is the saying: “Flingest thou thy calumnies unto the face of Them Whom the one true God hath made the Trustees of the treasures of His seventh sphere?” Not one understanding heart or mind, not one among the wise and learned, hath taken notice of these preposterous statements. And yet, how clear and evident it is to every discerning heart that this so-called learning is and hath ever been rejected by Him Who is the one true God. How can the knowledge of these sciences, which are so contemptible in the eyes of the truly learned, be regarded as essential to the apprehension of the mysteries of the “Mi‘ráj,” whilst the Lord of the “Mi‘ráj” Himself was never burdened with a single letter of these limited and obscure learnings, and never defiled His radiant heart with any of these fanciful illusions? How truly hath he said: “All human attainment moveth upon a lame ass, whilst Truth, riding upon the wind, darteth across space.” By the righteousness of God! Whoso desireth to fathom the mystery of this “Mi‘ráj,” and craveth a drop from this ocean, if the mirror of his heart be already obscured by the dust of these learnings, he must needs cleanse and purify it ere the light of this mystery can be reflected therein.

This is the second of the ten paragraphs Baha'u'llah uses to talk about the negative example set by Haji Mirza Karim Khan.

As you can see, it seems to begin with His exasperation, something that occurs seldomly, but occasionally, in this book. This is, in fact, the fifth time He has used the phrase "Gracious God" so far, and it is interesting to note when He uses it, but not where we want to go here.

Instead, He begins by reminding us that this individual said you needed to understand multiple different so-called sciences to understand one of the mysteries of Muhammad, the Miraj. The derision that Baha'u'llah uses towards this claim is evident when He says, "Such is the measure of his understanding." And then He exposes his character by referring to the "cavils and calumnies" he heaps upon those that disagree with him, especially "those Embodiments of God's infinite knowledge".

It is worth pointing out that cavils are petty and insignificant points of argument, while calumnies are lies designed to attack the character of an individual. As bad as backbiting is, at least it is based upon a truth. Calumnies don't even have that going for them. By using these two terms, Baha'u'llah is really giving us a sampling of this man's character.

Then, referring back to those sciences that are deemed necessary by this guy for understanding the Word of God, Baha'u'llah goes on and says that it is absurd to think that this would be the case. He points out that Muhammad, Himself, never wasted His time with these silly and obscure teachings.

Instead of wasting our time with these ideas, Baha'u'llah points out that what is important, especially for the understanding of religious truth, is the purification of the heart.

All of this, of course, goes right back to the very beginning of the book, where He says, "No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth."

This man seems to want to understand the Miraj. Let's presume the best of him here. Let's presume he is sincere in this desire.

He says that to properly understand it, you first have to understand all these different branches of learning, no matter how absurd some of them may be. But that's not what Baha'u'llah says. He doesn't say, "No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding unless he knows these various sciences." That's not what He says at all. He places the emphasis on detachment, not learning.

So what is the purpose of talking about this man here?

In some ways, it is the last step before He describes the station and attributes of the true seeker. By talking about Haji Mirza Karim Khan, Baha'u'llah is giving us a powerful negative example to avoid. After all, this is an individual who incited many people to rebel against the Bab and His followers. He is one of those souls of whom Baha'u'llah talks in paragraph 6. Remember paragraph 6? That is where He says "...the more closely you observe the denials... the firmer will be your faith..."

This is an individual who offered countless denials. But rather than just sharing those denials, Baha'u'llah is exposing a little bit of his character for us. And to be sure, it is of a type of character we really want to avoid.

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For instance, a certain man, reputed for his learning and attainments, and accounting himself as one of the preeminent leaders of his people, hath in his book denounced and vilified all the exponents of true learning. This is made abundantly clear by his explicit statements as well as by his allusions throughout his book. As We had frequently heard about him, We purposed to read some of his works. Although We never felt disposed to peruse other peoples’ writings, yet as some had questioned Us concerning him, We felt it necessary to refer to his books, in order that We might answer Our questioners with knowledge and understanding. His works, in the Arabic tongue, were, however, not available, until one day a certain man informed Us that one of his compositions, entitled Irshádu’l-‘Avám, could be found in this city. From this title We perceived the odor of conceit and vainglory, inasmuch as he hath imagined himself a learned man and regarded the rest of the people ignorant. His worth was in fact made known by the very title he had chosen for his book. It became evident that its author was following the path of self and desire, and was lost in the wilderness of ignorance and folly. Methinks he had forgotten the well-known tradition which sayeth: “Knowledge is all that is knowable; and might and power, all creation.” Notwithstanding, We sent for the book, and kept it with Us a few days. It was probably referred to twice. The second time, We accidentally came upon the story of the “Mi‘ráj” of Muḥammad, of whom was spoken: “But for Thee, I would not have created the spheres.” We noticed that he had enumerated some twenty or more sciences, the knowledge of which he considered to be essential for the comprehension of the mystery of the “Mi‘ráj.” We gathered from his statements that unless a man be deeply versed in them all, he can never attain to a proper understanding of this transcendent and exalted theme. Among the specified sciences were the science of metaphysical abstractions, of alchemy, and natural magic. Such vain and discarded learnings, this man hath regarded as the prerequisites of the understanding of the sacred and abiding mysteries of divine Knowledge.

With this paragraph, Baha'u'llah begins talking about a "certain man". He will talk about this individual for a good ten paragraphs, what we see as the culmination of those twenty-two paragraphs discussing the two stations of the Manifestations of God. Previously He had given us the positive example of a sincere seeker who was willing to look at new ideas in his search for truth. But now He is giving us the negative example of one who was not. To us it gets the reader to ask themselves whether or not they are truly open to this new concept of the Manifestations, and which of these two individuals they want to emulate.

To begin, we want to point out that this "certain man" was Haji Mirza Karim Khan, a disciple of Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim. He had the temerity to "take over" the school founded by Shaykh Ahmad, despite the fact that Siyyid Kazim told his disciples to disperse and search for the Promised One. He fancied himself as the leader of this new movement and became an inveterate enemy of both the Babis and the Baha'is.

Baha'u'llah is using this man as an example from the previous paragraph, in which He talked about people who do not understand what true Knowledge is, and instead follow "those images fashioned by their own fancy and which have sprung from the embodiments of ignorance".

Many people questioned Baha'u'llah about this man, and so He says He had to "refer to his books, in order that We might answer Our questioners with knowledge and understanding". This is such a great example of doing the research before commenting.

In fact, it seems to be the exact opposite of what this other man does.

Baha'u'llah is showing humility here. This other man is showing nothing but haughty pride and arrogance. Entitling his book "Guidance unto the Ignorant"? What presumption. To claim that you must master all these various schools of thought before you can understand the Word of God? How ridiculous. The Word of God is there for all, not just the so-called learned. As Jesus said, all you need is faith the size of a mustard grain, not a whole tree.

Of course, He will elaborate on all this in the paragraphs to come.

For now, this all revolves around the dangers of pride. It goes right back to the beginning of the book where He says "Sanctify your souls, of peoples of world". And one of the first steps in sanctifying our soul is to be humble in our search for truth.

If we look back at how Baha'u'llah talks about the earlier Manifestations, back at the very beginning of the book, He regularly encourages the reader to verify what He says. He doesn't place Himself above the reader. Instead He encourages the reader to walk the path of learning for themselves, demonstrating humility while guiding the reader to greater truths.