The Devils Deception by Imam Ibn AL-Jawzi

Chapter Eleven: The Devil's Deception of the $ijis
posing such errors is only to keep the shanah pure, and anxiety to
see that it is not corrupted. We are not concerned with the personality
of the individual; we are only discharging the obligation which
knowledge imposes.
We should not pay attention to someone saying: how could you
discuss the faults of someone who is ascetic, who merely sought to
give others blessings. We only follow shanah, not individuals. A person
could be among the people of Paradise but commits mistakes.
So his status should not prevent us from pointing out his errors.
Know that one who looks at the honour paid to an individual and
does not look at his procedure and what is to be inferred from it is
like one who looks at the miracles performed by 'Isa ('alayhis-salrim)
without studying his person, and so claims divinity for him; had he
studied his person, seeing how he was sustained by food, he would
not give him what he does not deserve.
Ya}:iya Ibn Sa'id said: I asked Shu'bah, Sufyan Ibn Sa'id, Sufyan
Ibn 'Uyaynah and Malik Ibn Anas whether a man who had not memorized
the Qur'an was suspect in }:iadith. They all said: His case is
clear .
Imam Al:imad would praise a man excessively and then mention a
series of mistakes which he had committed. He would say: An excellent
man, were it not that he has a certain failing. Of Sari al-Saqaµ
he said: He is the shaikh who is renowned for his taste in food. Later
he was told that al-Sari claimed that the letter "bri" prostrated itself
to Allah after creating it. A}:imad said: Warn people against him.
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