Removing Hair and Nails After Forty Days

The questioner:
Your Eminence the Shaykh! If forty days have passed and a person's hair and nails have not grown long, is it permissible for him to remove them? Or to let them grow beyond that?

The Shaykh:
In any case, if there is something in them, he removes it. If it is just the appearance of something, it does not need it. But if there is length in them, meaning they return to their original state, he cuts them. As for if nothing grows back in them, perhaps something may befall him that prevents the nails from growing, so there is no harm. The objective is preventing their length. So if they do not grow long after that, he is not required to cut them or trim them. That is only if they reach forty; before they reach forty, he cuts them. But if, say, a disease or something befalls him that prevents their growth, prevents this, then there is no harm. The objective is that they do not grow long. So if they are in their state, whenever he removes them they return, he cuts them before forty.