2617 – ʿUbayd Allah informed us; Yazdad narrated to us; Abū Saʿīd narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Aʿyan narrated, saying:

“I asked Sharīk ibn ʿAbd Allah, ‘Abū ʿAbd Allah, what do you say about someone who declares, “I do not prefer anyone over anyone else”?’
He replied, ‘That man is a fool. Were not Abū Bakr and ʿUmar already given precedence?’
I then asked, ‘Have you ever encountered anyone who puts another above them?’
He answered, ‘No—except someone who has publicly disgraced himself.’

He added, ‘I heard Sufyān al-Thawrī say, “Whoever prefers anyone over Abū Bakr and ʿUmar has in fact disparaged them both.”’
So I said to him, ‘And by doing so he has also disparaged the one he claims to prefer over them.’”