Al-Maktabah as-Salafiyyah

Islam Upon the Way of the Righteous Predecessors
- Purifying the Way

Shaving The Beard:A Modern
Effeminacy

Abu`Abdillah Muhammad al-Jibaly 

Bismillaahir-Rahmaanir-RaheemDefinition
The beard (Arabic: liyah) is defined as the hair which
grows on the cheeks and
the jaws (ex., review: al-Q m s al-Muh t by al-Fayrazabad
). It includes the
hair of the temples, the growth underneath the lower lip,
the hair of the chin,
and the hair that grows on the lower side of the jaws.

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:
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]

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:

a. A Disobedience to Allah (T)Shaving the beard is
a disobedience to
Allah (T). The ruler of Yemen, appointed by the Persian
emperor Kisraa, sent
two envoys to the Messenger (S) to summon him. When they
came into his
presence, he noticed that they had shaved their beards and
grew their
moustaches. He hated to look at them (because of their odd
appearance) and he
said:  Woe be to you, who told you to do so?  They
replied: "Our lord!
(referring to Kisraa.)" The Messenger (S) then
said: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.]

b. A Disobedience To the Messenger (S)Shaving the
beard is a
disobedience to the Messenger (S). In many hadiths, the
Messenger (S) commanded
men to leave alone their beards. These  different hadiths
have a similar
meaning: 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]

c. A Deviation from the Appearance and Guidance of the
Messenger
(S)Shaving the beard is a deviation from the
appearance and guidance of the
Messenger (S). The Messenger (S) used to have a large
beard [Muslim]. One
should strive to imitate him (S) in his practices, as
Allah (T) said (what
means):In the Messenger of Allah is a good example for
you to follow.
[Al-Ahzab 33:21]And the Messenger (S) said:
Verily, the best
guidance is Muhammad's guidance.  [Muslim]

d. A Deviation from the Way of BelieversShaving
the beard is a
deviation from the way of believers. All the prophets (S),
the sahbah
(Prophet's companions), the great  `ulamaa, and the
righteous early Muslims of
this Ummah (Nation) grew their beards. There is no report
of a single one of
them ever shaving his beard. Thus, this is their way, and
Allah (T) says (in
the meaning):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]

e. An Imitation of the DisbelieversShaving the
beard is an imitation of
the disbelievers. This has been emphasized in several
hadiths of the Prophet
(S). For example: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]

f. Changing Allah's Creation without PermissionThe
Messenger (S)
declared that the women who change what Allah (T) has
created (such as removing
the hair from their faces or filing their teeth or
tattooing their bodies)
seeking by that to improve their appearance, are accursed
by Allah (T).
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]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]

g. An Imitation of WomenThe beard is a major
distinction between men
and women. Shaving it removes this distinction, and is
thus a means of
imitating women. The Messenger (S) said: Allah
curses those men who
imitate the women, and He curses those women who imitate
the men.
[Al-Bukhari]

h. Shaving the Beard Contradicts the Pure Fitrah
(Nature)Allah's
Messenger (S) mentioned ten qualities as indicative of a
good, clean nature
[Muslim]. Two of these qualities are to trim the
moustaches and to grow the
beard.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.
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.