The categories of people as it relates to speaking about other people
Ibn Hazm said:
1. Those who praise people in their presence but chastise them in their absence. This characteristic is common among most people and this is a trait of hypocrisy.
2. Those who chastise people both in their presence and in their absence. This is the characteristic of shameless people.
3. Those who praise people both in their presence and in their absence. This is the characteristic of flatterers.
4. Those who chastise people in their presence but praise them in their absence. This is the characteristic of stupid people.
5. Those who neither praise nor chastise people in their presence, but in their absence they only speak good of them and they refrain from chastising them. This is the characteristic of virtuous people.
(الأخلاق والسير pg. 62)
You get one more benefit from the last point that is the matter of understanding that how too much of appraisal can affect your Muslim brother, affect his intentions, affect his deeds, if you want your Muslim brother to fall then praise him as much as you want to on his face, but if you want good for him be moderate or stay silent.
Often people come to the realm of knowledge with the intentions of pleasing others, or gaining dominance over the masses for recognition power support etc. All of this just means your means to knowledge has destroyed you and never benefitted you.
The first thing to sort when entering this path of knowledge is the intentions, and it can be destroyed by yourself or the exaggerated appraisal of others, or constant appraisal.
You wouldn’t know if your intentions are good unless you think before doing something or ponder over your actions and don’t take it lightly.
A secondary way that could be an eye opener for you is how you react when people praise you, if it makes you overjoyed and you want more of it or if it changes your reason for seeking knowledge subconsciously or within heart, then understand you are on the path of fire. An عالم with humility fears Allah, even his humility is because he fears Allah and not because he wants to prove someone around him that he is humble.
A truly knowledgeable person would stop his Muslim brother from praising him, reprimand him for it, ask Allah for protection or forgiveness if he fears his intentions were affected by someone’s appraisal.
So it goes both ways, the fitnah can occur from the person praising someone and the person having a different intention in matters of knowledge other than pleasing Allah, while accepting appraisals and feeling good about it.
So watch out for your intentions and avoid seeking appraisal and reprimand those who praise you a lot, or leave the place if they don’t stop or ignore their appraisal and advise them not to do this again.
Criticism can also affect you in a wrong way, if your knowledge isn’t for the sake of Allāh, then peoples criticism will get you even if they are ignorant and foolish. People pleasing comes from both appraisal and criticism.
Pay no heed to criticisms that are based on falsehood insults etc, especially don’t waste your time upon those who are jaahil. Arguing and debating them could also arise from two different intentions one is to bring them closer to Allah for the sake of Allah, while the other is to make them see you as knowledgeable or someone worth respect, so to get their respect and appraisal you debate them and argue them and are affected by their response because you want to be known by proving yourself worthy.
And if the criticism is based upon truth, then pay heed to it, but again with the intention to correct yourself for pleasing Allāh and not to establish closeness or recognition with the person who criticised you.
The matter of intentions, appraisal, criticism, is very deep, so be careful around the words of people, and be careful with your reasoning purpose and understanding of walking the path of knowledge
و الله اعلم