The Ruling on Naming Individuals in Criticism and Warning Against Slandering Scholars

The questioner:
. And he reads with you, Allah, and not disobeying you. And the ugliness of Allah, and what happens to you, and testimony. This contradiction, so what is its ruling? Is this humility?

The Shaykh:
This is the evil, this is the evil: naming specific individuals in the Friday gathering, saying "So-and-so and so-and-so." This is not permissible. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "What is the matter with a group of people who do such and such," and he did not say "So-and-so and so-and-so." He said, "What is the matter with a group of people who do such and such." So the one who has an error knows it when he hears the speech, but naming them involves harms, rights, and ideas, so this is not permissible. And if those named are scholars, the matter is more severe and more dangerous, because it is not permissible to speak ill of the people of knowledge, because the people of knowledge are the heirs of the prophets; they have a distinction and a share. It is permissible to address them due to their sanctity, the severity of their status, and the sanctity of knowledge. Also, this makes people distance themselves from them, and if people distance themselves from the scholars, the catastrophe occurs. There is no power nor strength except in Allah. If trust is removed from the scholars and people distance themselves from them, the catastrophe occurs in the Ummah. And this is what the devils of mankind and jinn want; they want to isolate people from the scholars so that it becomes possible for the devils of mankind and jinn to corrupt them. And no one corrupts the people of knowledge except one of two men, as I told you and I say now: either a person who is an open sinner with sins and violations, and the people of knowledge warn him against these matters, but he wants to continue with them.
So either a person who is partisan with partisanship and the path of the group, and he wants to split and wants the right of the word. The right of the Muslims' word. Their word. The scholars do not agree with him on that. The scholars urge obedience and gathering of the word. And obedience to the rulers. So he hates them because they do not agree with his method and his defective madhhab. So he cannot [do] knowledge except one of these matters: either a corrupt person who wants the forbidden desires and does not want anyone to warn him against them, or a partisan person who wants to [unite] the word of the Muslims, his split, he wants to bring deviant ideas to the Muslims, and the people of knowledge oppose him in this and estimate him, so he disparages them for this.