I want to know that will i be commiting a sin if i shorten my beard
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa
Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked
this question:
ASSLAM ALAIKUM,
Dear burhan,
In thank you for replying to my question, but i want to
know that will i be commiting a sin if i shorten my beard coz some say that as
per imams shortening below one fist is haraam,is it true, can i trim my beard
below one fist, my beard is curly & it looks odd i had no problem if it was
evenly grown
Pls help me in this issue
Quda haafiz
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errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from
questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in
confidentiality.)
Answer:
Length of beard
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask
for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever
He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that
there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that
Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Growing a beard was considered
normal and natural for a man at the time of the Messenger of Allah (saws), whether
he was a believer or not. Even the
enemies of Islam like Abu Jahl and Abu Lahb had long beards! And because every man naturally grew a
beard, it was not necessary for the Prophet (saws) to give an explicit command
exhorting the believers to grow a beard.
The only specific saying of the
Prophet (saws) regarding the keeping of beards arose when he saw that the
pagans used to grow both their beards and their mustaches long; thus he (saws) said to the believers:
Ibn 'Umar related
that the Messenger of Allah (saws) said: "Differ from the polytheists: let
your beards (grow), and trim your moustache."
Related by
al-Bukhari and Muslim.
It was only a couple of
centuries ago, when the western culture
and ideology became dominant over the world and muslim lands, that it became a fashion to be clean
shaven. And as with any dominant
culture, people are always ready to adopt its actions, whether they are of
virtue, or of vice! But Islam has its
own culture, and growing a beard is part of the Islamic culture.
The question is why should a
believer, who professes to believe in
Allah and the Last Day, and who
professes to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws), want to grow a beard?
The answer is simple. Today, you
might have seen many youngsters copy the fashion of sport-stars,
Hollywood-stars or anybody else whom they love. If you notice today, many hot
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzab verse 21:
There is indeed the
best model for you in the Messenger of Allah, for every such person looks
forward to Allah and the Last Day, and remember Allah much.
In another narration, the
Prophet of Allah said in narrating a prophecy of times to come:
Sahih Al-Bukhari
Hadith 9.651 Narrated by Abu Said
Al Khudri
The Prophet (saws)
said: “There will emerge from the East some people who will recite the Quran,
but it will not exceed their throats, and who will go out of the deen of Islam as
an arrow passes through the game. They will never come back to it unless the
arrow comes back to the middle of the bow by itself (i.e. impossible!). The
companions asked, "What will their signs be?". The Prophet (saws)
said: "Their sign will be the habit of shaving off of their
beards".
Thus the keeping of beards is an
encouraged and preferred Sunnah of the Prophet (saws) and every muslim must
strive to keep a beard, if his model is indeed the Prophet of Allah (saws). He
will get his due reward from Allah, Insha Allah, if he keeps the beard to
follow the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws).
But if a believer does not want
to sport a beard for whatever reason, the other believers should not make an
issue out of it. What is important in
Islam and in the Sight of Allah, is that one truly believes and does good
righteous deeds. And when that happens,
it is expected that the beard will follow soon after!
The beard is nothing more than a
sign that the believer truly wants to follow a Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah
(saws). There are many people who have
long beards, but do deeds against the commands of Allah and His Messenger
(saws). And there are many people who are
amongst the best believers, but do not have beards! Allah will not decide the recipient of His
Mercy and His Forgiveness from the appearance of the individual or the size of
one’s beard; but rather He will decide whether the person believed and did
righteous deeds as he was commanded by Allah and His Messenger (saws).
Because each individual has been blessed by nature to have
different levels of facial hair-growth, to the best of our knowledge there is
no specific injunction in Shariah Law regarding the exact length of beard a
believer is obliged to adorn. There are
reports from some companions of the Noble Prophet (saws) who said that they
would hold the beard in the fist of their hands and whatever exceeded that,
they would trim that, while other reports say that the beards of some other
companions would be long unto their chests.
And Allah Alone Knows best.
What is certain and recorded in the authentic and
established narrations regarding the beard is this narration from Hadrat
Abdullah ibn Umar (r.a.):
Ibn 'Umar related
that the Messenger of Allah (saws) said: "Differ from the polytheists: let
your beards (grow), and trim your moustache."
Related by
al-Bukhari and Muslim.
Your Question: can i trim my beard below one fist, my beard is curly
& it looks odd i had no problem if it was evenly grown .
Abu Hurairah reported the Prophet (saws) as
saying, "Whoever has hair should honor it."
Related by Abu Dawud.
Said Ata ibn Yasar, "A man came to the
Prophet (saws) with unkempt hair and an untidy beard. The Prophet (saws) pointed
to him, as if ordering him to straighten his hair and beard. He did so and
returned. Thereupon the Prophet (saws) observed, 'Is that not better than one
of you coming with his hair unkempt, as if he were a devil?"' Related by
Malik.
There is absolutely no harm if one wishes to keep one’s
beard trim and tidy, so that the growth does not look odd, untidy, or unkempt.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to
Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only
Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
Burhan
Wister