The Shaykh warned against interpreting a verse in a manner that contradicts what came from the righteous Salaf.

The Shaykh : His concern is that a Muslim might fall into interpreting a verse or hadith in a way that contradicts the path of the righteous Salaf. However, I do not believe he meant this in an absolute sense, because one may find events in which it is inconceivable that the Salaf spoke. In that case, the scholar must truly issue a ruling based on the knowledge he possesses from the texts of the Book and the Sunnah, and the scientific principles from which the mufti proceeds. He does not mean this specific detail; rather, he means the issues in which one is certain that they occurred in the time of the Salaf and that they must have had an opinion and answer regarding them. Here, the Muslim must be scrupulous about rushing to present his own opinion in such an issue unless he has a precedent from the Salaf. With this condition or detail, we can consider Imam Ahmad’s statement to be, in reality, a restriction for many of today’s students of knowledge who ride on their own heads and rush to issue fatwas. Some of them openly say, with arrogance toward the statements of those who came before them, “They are men, and we are men.” But where are you, and where are they? What does the poem say: “And the milk-fed calf, if it does not stick to a horn, cannot achieve the charge of the shaggy-maned bull.”
This is part of the arrogance that has afflicted many of today’s students of knowledge. As I mentioned earlier, some of them openly say this: “They are men, and we are men.” For some, their inner state is this, even if the one who claims or says this has not been granted much knowledge, having only fragments here and there. Nevertheless, their inner state says, as they say in Syria: “O earth, be firm, for no one has come to you before.”

The questioner : In a verse of poetry of which I remember a part.

The Shaykh: Tell us so we can see.

The questioner : “They are the men, and it is a defect to say of one who is not like them that he is a man,” or to this effect. But

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed, it is a beautiful meaning.