Respect

Someone asked Al-Abbas (radiallahu anhu), the uncle of rasulullah, a question: are you akbar than rasulullah? In Arabic, literally, this means “are you greater than rasulullah.” But the obvious connotation is that the questioner asks about age: are you older than him? Al-Abbas said: رسول الله أكبر مني و لكن ولدت قبله Rasulullah is greater than me, but I was born before him. He wanted to set the record set, and give a clear message to all of us.