Criticizing the Scholars and Those It Is Advised to Listen To
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This questioner says: Trials have multiplied in this time, and one of the greatest trials is the phenomenon of criticizing the scholars, predicting their status, and not approaching them. What is the advice for those who criticize the scholars, and who are the scholars you advise listening to and to their explanations?
Answer:
The scholars we advise listening to are every pious scholar, every pious scholar who acts upon his knowledge, and we do not single out any specific person. As for criticizing the scholars and speaking ill of them, this is one of the ugliest crimes; because it is a violation of knowledge first, and secondly a violation of the scholar’s personality, whom Allah has commanded to be honored and respected, and thirdly, it is a means of making people disdain knowledge and scholars. So there are many harms in this. Yes.
This questioner says: Trials have multiplied in this time, and one of the greatest trials is the phenomenon of criticizing the scholars, predicting their status, and not approaching them. What is the advice for those who criticize the scholars, and who are the scholars you advise listening to and to their explanations?
Answer:
The scholars we advise listening to are every pious scholar, every pious scholar who acts upon his knowledge, and we do not single out any specific person. As for criticizing the scholars and speaking ill of them, this is one of the ugliest crimes; because it is a violation of knowledge first, and secondly a violation of the scholar’s personality, whom Allah has commanded to be honored and respected, and thirdly, it is a means of making people disdain knowledge and scholars. So there are many harms in this. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب الكبائر للإمام محمد بن عبد الوهاب، بداية من باب الاستخفاف بأهل الفضل — islamhouse.com (1:18:13)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.