Those words uttered by the Luminaries of Truth must needs be pondered, and should their significance be not grasped, enlightenment should be sought from the Trustees of the depositories of Knowledge, that these may expound their meaning, and unravel their mystery. For it behooveth no man to interpret the holy words according to his own imperfect understanding, nor, having found them to be contrary to his inclination and desires, to reject and repudiate their truth. For such, today, is the manner of the divines and doctors of the age, who occupy the seats of knowledge and learning, and who have named ignorance knowledge, and called oppression justice. Were these to ask the Light of Truth concerning those images which their idle fancy hath carved, and were they to find His answer inconsistent with their own conceptions and their own understanding of the Book, they would assuredly denounce Him Who is the Mine and Wellhead of all Knowledge as the very negation of understanding. Such things have happened in every age.
Paragraph nine of the twenty-two that look at those two stations that the Manifestations of God occupy is quite interesting. It builds on the theme of rejecting the truth based on one's own desires. The next three look at some examples of this occurrence in the time of Muhammad, and then goes on to use the negative example of Haji Mirza Karim Khan using the Word of God to boost his own fragile ego.
Starting at the beginning, we have to ask which words He means when He says "Those words". Those would be the ones quoted in paragraph 196, in which the Messengers of God describe their station in all these different ways. He has already stated that they "must be attentively considered", and now adds that they "must needs be pondered". He really is drawing our attention to them, and making sure we know to take the time to internalize His explanation.
Following this, the next two sentences have an interesting thing in common, in that they are very easy to misinterpret. It is so natural to try and read each one as referring to multiple things, when they are both using caveats for clarification.
In the sentence beginning "For it behooveth no man..." He uses the word "nor" in the middle. This means that both parts of the statement must be false, or else the word "or" would have been used. In other words, it is not a condemnation of interpreting the Word of God for ourselves, for this would violate the principle of independent investigation of truth. Instead, it is a warning. He is saying that we should not reject the Word of God based on a faulty interpretation that goes against our "inclinations and desires". Instead, we should either reexamine our interpretation so that it is more in line with the truth, or reexamine our "inclinations and desires" to make sure they do not get in the way of our recognition of the truth.
In the following sentence, beginning with "For such, today, is the manner...", it would be easy to see this as a blanket condemnation of all "the divines and doctors of the age". But again, it isn't. It is a condemnation of those who occupy that lofty station, but then "have named ignorance knowledge, and called oppression justice". This is where the problem is, not the position, but the promotion of the denial of truth from that position, probably due to their own "inclination and desires".
All of this builds upon that theme that was first introduced way back in paragraph 2: "... man can never hope to attain unto the knowledge of the All-Glorious... unless and until he ceases to regard the words and deeds of mortal men as a standard for the true understanding and recognition of God and His Prophets." This is a theme He has built on throughout the book, and this is the latest iteration of it.
From here He will go on and give an example of people rejecting Muhammad based on their own faulty understanding. As He said, "Such things have happened in every age."
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