"Truly, Allah does not remove Sacred Knowledge by taking it out of servants, but rather by taking back the souls of Islamic scholars [in death], until, when He has not left a single scholar, the people take the ignorant as leaders, who are asked for and who give Islamic legal opinion without knowledge, misguided and misguiding"

(Sahih Bukhari - Fath al-Bari, 1.194, hadith 100) [src: suhba.org]

 "Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) said: when Allāh loves some person, He sends for Jibrīl and commands him: verily, I love such and such person; you should also love him, so Jibrīl loves him as well. Then Jibrīl proclaims in the heavens that Allāh loves such and such person; you should also love him. Then the residents of the heavens love him as well. Then his love is sent down to the earth (the world)."

Narrated by Abū Hurayrah (Radi Allah Ta'lah Anhu).  Muslim transmitted it in his as-Sahīh, b. of birr was-silah wal-ādāb (virtue, joining of the ties of relationship and good manners) ch.48 (4:2030#157/2637); Bakhārī narrated it at three places in his as-Sahīh: b. of bad’-ul-khalq (beginning of creation) ch.6 (3:1175#3037), b. of adab (good manners) ch.41 (5:2246#5693), and b. of tawhīd (Islamic monotheism) ch.33 (6:2721#7047); Ahmad bin Hambal in Musnad (2:413); Mālik bin Anas in al-Muwattā, b. of sha‘ar (hair) ch.5 (2:953#15); and Khatīb Tabrīzī in Mishkāt-ul-masābīh, b. of ādāb (good manners) ch.16 (3:74#5005). [src: Ch3 of Beseeching for Help, Tahir-ul-Qadri]