Shaving The Beard:A Modern Effeminacy
In the Name of Allâh, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Abu`Abdillah Muhammad al-Jibaly
He who starts a good sunnah (way) will be rewarded for it, in addition to
receiving rewards equal to the rewards of those who follow him into it. Whereas
he who starts a bad sunnah will be burdened with it, in addition to receiving
burdens equal to the burdens of those who follow him into it. [Muslim]
And he said:
Allah does not pull the knowledge abruptly from the hearts of people, but he
takes away the knowledge by taking [the lives of] the `ulamaa (true scholars).
When no `ulamaa are left, people will take ignorant persons for leaders. Those
will give them fatwa (religious verdicts) without knowledge. By doing this,
they will stray and lead others astray as well. [Al-Bukhari]
May Allah (T) guide us to abide by His Deen, and to adhere to His Messenger's
Sunnah, and to be among those whom he blessed in both lives.
The
Islamic Ruling Concerning Beards
Growing the beard is a wajib (mandatory) for all males who are capable of doing
so. This has ample evidence in the Sunnah (as will be shown below) and is the
unanimous opinion of the ulamaa of Islam. One should not be misled by the
neglect to this sunnah by a few contemporary shaykhs, and by their providing
shaky fatwas to support their action. By doing that they make people follow
them into the wrong way, when the Messenger (S) said:
A
List of Violations
Shaving the beard results in a series of Islamic violations, as is obvious from
Allah's Book and His Messenger's Sunnah. The following is a list (not
necessarily comprehensive) of such violations:
But my Lord, may
He be exalted and glorified, has commanded me to leave alone my beard and to
trim my moustache. [Recorded by Ibn Jar r a-abar , and judged to be Hasan
(good) by al-Albani.]
Trim the moustache and save the beard. [Al-Bukhari and
Muslim]
Obeying the Messenger (S) in that is equivalent to obeying Allah
(T) who said (what means):
He who obeys the Messenger has indeed
obeyed Allah. [An-Nisaa 4:80]
And the Messenger (S) said: Verily, the best
guidance is Muhammad's guidance. [Muslim]
Whoever disobeys the Messenger after guidance has been
clarified to him, and follows other than the path of the believers, We shall
give to him what he deserves and broil him in hell, which is the worst
abode. [An-Nisaa 4:115]
Cut the moustaches and grow your beards. Be
different from the Magians (followers of a religion that dominated in
Persia). [Muslim]
Cut your moustaches and leave your beards alone.
Be different from the people of the scripture. [Muslim]
Be
different from the Mushrikin (those who worship other than Allah (T)); trim
your moustaches and save your beards. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
We
have been commanded to be different and distinct from the disbelievers, as in
surat ul-Fatihah. Also, Allah (T) said (what means):
Follow not the
whims of those who have no knowledge (of Islam). [Al-Jathiyah
45:18]
And His Messenger (S) said: Whoever imitates a people is but
one of them. [Recorded by Abu Dawud, and judged to be authentic by
al-Albani]
The hadith mentioned women in particular because
they normally seek to beautify themselves more than men. But the warning surely
applies to both sexes, because the condition for the curse is declared, and
thus the curse applies to anyone who satisfies such condition.
Shaving
the beard falls under this warning, as it is much worse than the Nam (removal
of facial hair) practiced by some women. It involves obeying Satan who
said:
And I shall tempt them until they change what Allah has
created. [An-Nisaa 4:119]
Allah curses those men who
imitate the women, and He curses those women who imitate the men.
[Al-Bukhari]
The Messenger (S) also tells that every child is born with a
clean, pure fitrah, which later may get deformed by the influence of the
environment and the up-bringing. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
In the
footsteps of the disbelievers, many Muslims' fitrah is now, unfortunately, so
much deformed that they seem to find a clean-shaven man more handsome and
masculine than one with a beard - exactly the opposite of what the Messenger
(S) declared in the above hadith.
This fitrah never changes with time:
Allah (T) said (what means):
The pure nature according to which
Allah has created people. There is no change in Allah's creation. [Ar-Room
30:30]
For shaving their beards, some men give the strange excuse that
their wives prefer them without one! As if their purpose in this life is to
follow the deformed inclinations of their wives instead of the clear-cut
commands of Allah (T) and His Messenger (S)!
Others claim that growing
their beards results in an irritability and scratching. This cannot result from
abiding by the pure fitrah, but would result (if true) from neglect of the
proper cleaning and washing with wudu as instructed in the Sunnah.
What
the `Ulamaa and Imams Say
All the `ulamaa of as-Salaf u- li, including the Four Imams, agreed that
shaving the beard is haram (prohibited). They considered shaving it an
impermissible mutilation, as has been reported about Umar bin Abdil-Aziz.
They used to consider the person who shaved his beard effeminate. Many of them
would not accept his witness or allow him to lead the prayers.