The Ruling on Advising One Who Shaves His Beard and Lets His Garment Hang Below the Ankles

Question:
May Allah reward you. The questioner says: A person whom we advise regarding shaving his beard and letting his garment hang below the ankles constantly repeats that he is fine and that his faith is in his heart. How do we respond to a person like this, may Allah preserve you?

Answer:
We do not say that he is a disbeliever, nor that there is no faith in his heart. Yes, we say that, if Allah wills, there is faith in his heart, but it is deficient faith. So his shaving of the beard, lengthening of his garment, and opposing the Sunnah are a deficiency in faith. He is not pleased for his faith to be deficient, just as he is not pleased for his wealth to be deficient. So he must repent to Allah and complete his faith. If we were to follow this claim that the one who commits sins, if he says faith is in his heart, you say nothing to him because faith is in the heart, then there would be no enjoining of good and forbidding of evil. The enjoining of good and forbidding of evil would be suspended, and it would be said that faith is in the heart, and whatever a person does, it is not condemned because his faith is in his heart. This is a dangerous principle.