Discussion of scholars under the claim of al-jarh wa al-ta'dil (the critique and vindication of narrators)

The questioner:
This questioner says: What is your opinion of those who speak about scholars and shaykhs and say, "Come, let us backbite for a while"?

The Shaykh:
He says: Come.

The questioner:
Come, let us backbite for a while.

The Shaykh:
Let us organize for a while.

The questioner:
So if he advises on that, he says this is from the category of enjoining good and forbidding evil and al-jarh wa al-ta'dil (the critique and vindication of narrators).

The Shaykh:
It is forbidden; backbiting is forbidden, regarding the general people, so how about scholars? It is not permissible to backbite scholars. And the saying of some of the Salaf, "Let us backbite for a while," refers to the narrators of hadith. The narrators of hadith read the biographies of the narrators and look at the sound, memorizing, precise narrator as distinct from the weak one, the one who is not a memorizer. This is for the sake of preserving the Sunnah from what is mixed in. And this is the meaning of "let us backbite for a while": we sit and discuss the conditions of the narrators of this hadith in order to know who is precise and who is not. As for backbiting other people, that is not this; it is forbidden backbiting that is never permissible. The reverence for scholars is greater. Yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you.