Inappropriate Comparisons

The poet says:

ألَمْ تَرَ أنَّ السَّيْفَ يَنقصُ قدْرُهُ
إذا قيل إنَّ السيفَ أمضى من العصا
“Do you not see that it is degrading for the sword,
when you say: “the sword is sharper than a stick?”

This poem is usually quoted when people make inappropriate comparisons.

Like, when you tell someone: “this is Imam Abu Hanifah’s view”, or: “this is Imam Shafi’iis view”, … they don’t get excited. But when you tell them about the view of a modern Shaykh … they’re all ears.

The truth is: not only are those Imams of the Salaf greater than any modern scholar – it is actually an insult to even compare the modern scholars to them.