The Ruling on Classifying Shaykhs and Scholars by Titles Without Evidence
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Question:
He says: Many people in this time assign titles to shaykhs and scholars without conclusive proof. They call this one a brother, or a Sufi, or a Jami, and so on. If you ask him, “What is your evidence?” he says, “I have followed his articles and his tweets.” What is your guidance, Your Excellency?
Answer:
This has been discussed previously: it is not permissible to divide people or to seek out the faults of people. Advising is obligatory; if you see an error in someone, you advise him and clarify it to him between you and him. As for backbiting people in gatherings and dividing the students of knowledge from the shaykhs, this is not permissible. Yes.
He says: Many people in this time assign titles to shaykhs and scholars without conclusive proof. They call this one a brother, or a Sufi, or a Jami, and so on. If you ask him, “What is your evidence?” he says, “I have followed his articles and his tweets.” What is your guidance, Your Excellency?
Answer:
This has been discussed previously: it is not permissible to divide people or to seek out the faults of people. Advising is obligatory; if you see an error in someone, you advise him and clarify it to him between you and him. As for backbiting people in gatherings and dividing the students of knowledge from the shaykhs, this is not permissible. Yes.
Source
لقاء مع المعلمين بالطائف 1434هـ — alfawzan.live (42:05)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.