What is the ruling in Islam regarding insulting scholars, whether living or dead?

The questioner : What is the ruling in Islam regarding insulting the imams and scholars, whether living or dead?

The Shaykh : He (peace and blessings be upon him) said This means that it is not permissible to insult a Muslim, even if he is one whose Islam is criticized, because there is no benefit in this criticism after he has passed to the judgment of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). It is even more so, and even more so, that it is not permissible to insult righteous Muslims. And it is even more so, and even more so, and even more so, that it is not permissible to insult the imams, because they combine with their righteousness knowledge and jurisprudence in the religion, and the transmission of hadiths and their clarification, and the detailing of legal rulings, and so on, which is well known. And I am surprised by this question, because we do not believe that among the Muslims, even in the lowest degree of Islam...

The questioner : ...sometimes some scholars may understand it as insult. Does this fall under insult in any way?

The Shaykh : If that is what is intended, then woe to what was intended, because correcting a person’s mistake is an obligatory matter in Islam. And correcting a mistake does not mean criticism, nor does it mean disparagement, let alone mean cursing or insulting. Rather, it is clarifying the truth. And for that reason, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari What is it that comes to one’s mind, that when the Messenger speaks about a certain judge or a certain ruler, that he made a mistake, that he is attacking him and insulting him, while he is giving him one reward? Likewise, in the story narrated by al-Bukhari also regarding the interpretation of a dream, which Abu Bakr interpreted in the presence of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him Does it occur to the mind of anyone who understands what is being said that the Messenger insulted his companion in the cave, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, when he said to him But this is due to the delay of Muslims in their Islamic culture and their distance from the legal language. The truth is that the later scholars, even among the jurists, or perhaps it is more correct to say the those who have studied jurisprudence, avoid such an expression because they themselves have had this reality reversed upon them. So they may imagine, and the common people follow them in that, that if it is said "so-and-so made a mistake," this is a sneer, a jest, and a disparagement of the one who made the mistake. And the matter, as you have heard, is not so. And this matter does not need much explanation, and this statement is sufficient for us.