Bearing Hatred towards a Scholar

Question

If a person, because of enmity — religious or worldly — abused a religious scholar by way of insult and contempt and thoroughly called him worthless, does kufr become incumbent on the abuser or not? And does his wife become irrevocably divorced or not? For in the fatwa “Nur al-Huda”, p. 145, it is written: [ar]مَنْ شَنَّعَ لِعُلَمَاءِ الْحَنَفِيَّةِ أَوْ لِأَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ أَوْ لِطَلَبَتِهِ أَوْ أَطْلَقَ فِيهِ كَلِمَةً كِنَايَةً مِنْ شَنَعٍ وَالِاحْتِقَارِ صَارَ كَافِرًا.

Answer

If someone abused a scholar, it was either because of a personal quarrel or out of enmity towards religious knowledge. In the first case the abuse is wickedness; the noble hadith says: [ar]عَنْ عَبْدِ اللهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ ﵁ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ ﷺ: سِبَابُ الْمُسْلِمِ فُسُوقٌ وَقِتَالُهُ كُفْرٌ.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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