What's the status and virtue of People of Knowledge in Islam?

Questioned His Eminence: What's the status and virtue of People of Knowledge in Islam?

Answered His Eminence with his saying: The status of people of knowledge has a great status, because they are the inheritor of the Prophets as-salah and as-salam be upon them, and therefore it is obligatory upon them to explain/convey knowledge and call to Allah which is not obligatory upon other than them. They are on the earth like the stars in the sky, they guide the misguided straying creation, and they explain to them the truth, and they warn them from evil and therefore they are on the Earth as the rain strikes the dead earth so it produces vegetation with the permission of Allah.

And it is obligatory upon the people of knowledge from the actions and characters, and manners that is not obligatory upon other than them, because they are an example and model. So, they are the most rightful of people and first of people to act on the legislation in its manners and its characters.

Answered by: Shaykh Uthaymeen
Translation by: نسرين السلفية
Source: Kitabul ilm of Shaykh Uthaymeen

75ـ وسئل فضيلته: ما هي مكانة وفضل أهل العلم في الإسلام؟

فأجاب فضيلته بقوله: مكانة أهل العلم أعظم مكانة؛ لأنهم ورثة الأنبياء عليهم الصلاة والسلام، ولهذا يجب عليهم من بيان العلم والدعوة إلى الله ما لا يجب على غيرهم، وهم في الأرض كالنجوم في السماء يهدون الخلق الضالين التائهين، ويبينون لهم الحق ويحذرونهم من الشر ولذلك كانوا في الأرض كالغيث يصيب الأرض القاحلة فتنبت بإذن الله .

ويجب على أهل العلم من العمل والأخلاق والآداب ما لا يجب على غيرهم؛ لأنهم أسوة وقدوة فكانوا أحق الناس وأولى الناس بالتزام الشرع في آدابه وأخلاقه .