As My Fingers Are Lovingly Entwined in His Beard...
Is it ok for a Muslim man to shave his beard?  Is growing a beard sunnah or fard(obligatory)?

Shaving the beard is haraam and there are numerous ahadeeth that prove this. One Sahih Hadith on this subject is: Ibn ‘Umar(ra) said that the Messenger of Allah (saw) said: “Be different from the mushrikeen: let your beards grow and trim your moustaches."


There are many other reasons for not shaving the beard such as the fact that shaving the beard is an imitation of women, and changing the creation of Allah, and that letting the beard grow is one of the sunnahs of the fitrah and is the way of the Messengers.
 
Some men find this a burden while living and working in societies where the cultural norm is to have a clean shaven face.  Boo Hoo! So many women are met with hostilities for wearing hijab.  So should they remove it to avoid further difficulties?  Another cultural norm in the West is for women to shape and groom their eyebrows. For me it was painful to learn that in Islam, tweezing the eyebrows is forbidden(except for removal of any uni brow situation). So I had to leave this alone.  To continue would be tant amount to saying "I know better than Allah on this one." (a'udhu billah).


“The only saying of the faithful believers, when they are called to Allah (His Words, the Qur’aan) and His Messenger, to judge between them, is that they say: ‘We hear and we obey.’ And such are the successful (who will live forever in Paradise)”  [al-Noor 24:51]

“It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he has indeed strayed into a plain error.”  [al-Ahzaab 33:36]


The Prophet Muhammad (saw), let his beard grow.  But in recent history many Muslims have gone against the way of their Prophet (saw) in the name of "modernization." The excuse being that these laws that Allah decreed were meant for an era long passed. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) is the LAST Messenger and the Quran is FINAL word of Allah.  Allah is All Knowing and had there been a need for these laws to change, Allah would have surely known this and told us accordingly.  The Hadith say to leave the beard to grow, hence the correct view is that it is haraam to shave it.
 

2 comments:

Amelah C. El-Amin said...

Bismillah...so if it is hadith, it is sunnah if it wasn't forbidden but dislike; that would make it mahkqruh (frowned upon) but not haram...??? may ALLAH be pleased ameen

Shama Yahya said...

(I'm so excited you read my blog!!!! :D )

"And obey Allah and the Messenger (Muhammad)that you may obtain mercy." Quran, Al-Imran [3:132]

"He who obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah; but those who turn away We have not sent you (Muhammad) over them as a guardian." Quran, An-Nisa [4:80]

"Say (Muhammad 'Obey Allah and the Messenger.' But if they turn away then indeed, Allah does not like the disbelievers." Quran, Al-Imran [3:32]

Here's my train of logic and may Allah forgive me and guide me if i'm wrong: If we are to obey Allah's commands, words (ie. the Quran) then as He has commanded us to obey the Messenger(saw), whatever the Messenger has commanded is also LAW. Therefore going against it is haraam. Allah has even gone as far as saying that not obeying the Messenger (saw) is Kufr. The Messenger (saw) has COMMANDED us(men) to trim the mustashe and leave the beard to grow.
and Allah Knows Best

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