I think Imam Ghazzali has written about the dangers of praising someone to their face, maybe one of the brothers could share if they have come across it...
personally i hesitate to praise someone to his face for fear that it may go to his head or that he may think that i am flattering him to get in his good-books. more so if the person actually has something which people may secretly wish to have a share in. but i think there are people who, for whatever reason, enjoy flattering others. i think they derive the same pleasure that some people get from teasing, name-calling and ridiculing the less gifted, especially if that person happens to take this to heart. sometimes flattery is easily detected but at other times one just doesn't know what to think. one's got to have husn-az-zann and at the same time it seems that the praise is undue or pointless at the moment. and then their's the chance that the person is sincere and having husn-az-zann about you. but how atrocious it feels to think that the person deems one such a praise-hungry idiot that he expects one to swallow whatever he throws at you! any pointers in the books of tasawwuf on how to tell flattery and sincere praise apart? jazakAllah.
