Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī (رحمه الله) said:[1]
The Imāms of guidance nurture people upon holding fast to the Book and the Sunnah and upon aiding the truth and rejecting falsehood and error. This is why al-Shāfiʿī criticised his shaykh, Mālik, and Imām Aḥmad criticised his shaykhs. This methodology represents a strong obstacle and preventive barrier in the face of exaggeration, blind partisanship and thoughtless blind-following.
Shaykh Ḥamūd al-Tuwayjurī (رحمه الله) said:[2]
The status of the scholars is not to be magnified and their statements given consideration simply by glorifying them and extolling them by mentioning them. Rather they are considered by following the truth and avoiding falsehood. So whoever among them speaks in accordance with the Book and the Sunnah, his saying is accepted, even if he is not well-known among the people. And whoever speaks with something that opposes the Book and the Sunnah, then his saying is rejected, even if he was well-known among the people.
Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī (رحمه الله) said:[3]
We do not go along with emotions, we go with proof and evidence.
He (رحمه الله) also said:[4]
We call people to the truth with clear evidences and plain proofs, upon the way of the Messengers and the Righteous Salaf, not the way of the Bāṭiniyyah and Freemasons with schemes (tricks) and subjugation.
The Scholars of the Muslims, of Tawḥīd and Sunnah, those upon the way of the Salaf, they have a tremendous status as mentioned in the Qurʾān (58:11-), (35:28-) and the Sunnah, as they are the inheritors of the Prophets. They are the most righteous and devout of people. They carry the truth and explain it to the people, and their status is by virtue of the truth they carry.
Hence, it is not their status that determines truth and falsehood, but what they carry and convey of evidences from the Book and the Sunnah, upon the understanding of the Righteous Salaf.
As such, magnifying the status and standing of a scholar is not proof in a matter, it is the evidence that a scholar presents. This is why obedience to the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is unconditional, because he is infallible in the affairs of religion, whereas obedience to the people of knowledge is conditional, as it returns to their sayings and rulings being in accordance with the Book and the Sunnah.
Thus, Ahl al-Sunnah love the people of knowledge and give them their due status and right, they connect the people to them, and they take from them the truth that they carry and convey but do not attribute infallibility to them, and they take the truth from every scholar who brings it and speaks with it, even if he is one scholar, who is alone in that truth.
This is the cultivation (tarbiyah) of all of the great scholars, and they have made it clear that there is no room for emotions, and nor schemes, tricks and subjugation (of others), since they are the opposite of evidences and proofs. Whoever has to resort to schemes and intrigues, then it is clear that he is devoid of truth and evidence.