Discussion of the hadith: (Let the beards grow)

The Shaykh : If we were to stop at this general text , then we should say that no matter how long a man’s beard grows, even if it reaches the ground, this general text must be implemented. Of course, this is an exaggeration, but do not imagine that anything we are not accustomed to cannot exist in reality, because the scholars say: "Not knowing a thing does not imply knowing its non-existence." You have not heard, for example, of a man whose beard grew so long that it touched the ground; you have not heard of this. And perhaps you have not heard of a man whose beard grew so long that it reached his waist, but the jurists have spoken of this, saying: "If a man is naked and stands to pray and finds nothing to cover his private parts, and his beard is long enough to cover his major private part, that is sufficient." They said this, but I cannot say that it actually happened, because they sometimes dive into hypothetical examples, and they have accustomed us to that. Therefore, such a report must be mentioned in history as an actual fact. However, I bring closer to you the possibility of such a thing happening by a story I mentioned recently on some occasion. I read it in a magazine and saw a picture of a rooster on a wall, four meters high, with its tail touching the ground. I mentioned this example to some of the young Muslim debaters who have been educated in a Western materialist culture and are influenced by the denial of the Islamic prophetic miracles. For example, he cannot conceive that the Messenger, peace be upon him, in one night, passed through the first and second layers of the heavens, which science does not know even today, and returned in the same night. It is not reasonable, he says. So I discussed with this young man and presented him with real evidence that, my brother, your ignorance of the possibility of this thing, especially as a miracle for the Master of Mankind, peace and blessings be upon him, does not mean that it did not happen. Not knowing a thing does not imply knowing its non-existence. I said to him: What do you think, do you conceive that a human heart could be on the right side? He said: No. I said: But this has happened, as evidenced by the fact that many doctors who perform autopsies have found the heart of a patient in Iraq, long ago, about fifty years ago, on the right side. Do you conceive that a man could have two hearts, one on the right and one on the left? He said: No. I said: That has also been found. I said: Do you conceive that a rooster could be this size, meaning a handspan or two, with a tail of four meters reaching the ground? We showed him the picture. So, from this type of thing, it is possible that our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, who breaks the system so that the disbelievers do not say "this is nature," for Allah is capable of what He wills, and as He said in the Noble Qur'an: . So, no matter how long a man’s beard grows, if we want to act according to the generality of the text, we must leave it as it is. But what was the position of the Salaf? Here the importance of our Salafi methodology becomes clear when we say: It is not sufficient to have the Book and the Sunnah; one must return to the Salaf who applied these verbal texts from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. The first of these is what has reached you from the narrators of the hadith , which is Abdullah ibn Umar, and he used to take what was below his fist from his beard, and whatever exceeded that he would cut. He was not the only one to do this; it is authentically reported from Abu Hurayrah, and it is authentically reported from a group of the Companions, without any mention of a single one of them contradicting this. And we are accustomed to some jurists, like Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi and other scholars, when they bring an action from a Companion that clarifies a ruling, saying: "And we do not know of anyone who contradicted him, so it is consensus." What do you say if the issue is not reported from a single Companion, but from Companions, and no one is mentioned as having a difference of opinion? Then there is another very important point in this topic: the one who did not act according to the generality of the text is the most eager, without exaggeration, the most eager of the Messenger’s companions to follow the Messenger. This is in terms of reality, not in terms of knowledge. This is a second point, and Abu Faris, you must pay attention to this.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : This is in terms of reality.

The questioner : Of course.

The Shaykh : Yes, not from the scientific aspect. Ah, the most eager of the Companions to follow the Messenger, peace be upon him, in everything they knew he did, who was it? Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab. If he, having lived with the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, for many long years, had seen him letting his beard grow, no matter how long, do you think he would follow him in that? They saw his shirt with the buttons undone; why was it like that? He said: I saw the Messenger of Allah like this. They saw him coming to a tree to urinate near it; they were asked: Why? He said: I saw the Messenger of Allah do that. This Companion, whose attention reached such examples, if he saw the Messenger, peace be upon him, let his beard grow and leave it in the absolute, comprehensive sense, and then he came afterward and every time his beard grew, he took what was below the fist, this is almost impossible for such a person. But if it were that Bedouin or that Najdi who was asked about what Allah has made obligatory upon him, and he was told: five prayers in every day and night, and the hadith is known to everyone, and he said: By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I will not add to them or subtract from them, and he said: . If this had been reported to us as a hadith from the Messenger and then he contradicted it, we could say this is not like Ibn Umar, who is eager to follow him in the least thing the Messenger, peace be upon him, did. But since the narrator is Ibn Umar, and the one cutting his beard below the fist is Ibn Umar, it is the furthest thing from contradicting the Prophetic command if it were in its absolute, general, and comprehensive sense. Add to this a man from the righteous Salaf, from the four Imams of the Muslims, who distinguished himself from the four Imams, and the forty, and the four hundred, by his strict adherence to the Sunnah. Who is it? Perhaps you have known him: Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who stood firm in the trial, the fitnah of the claim that the Qur'an is created. He also says to take what is below the fist. If we see the first Imam in the Sunnah, eager to adhere to the Sunnah, and another Imam eager to adhere to the Sunnah, both meeting in not acting according to this absolute text, then we say: Have you not heard that it is not permissible for a Muslim to let his beard grow longer than the fist? And I said from my own view that letting it grow longer than the fist falls under the meaning of isbal, the blameworthy isbal, especially since we see this phenomenon has spread in the Saudi lands, and it has become a byword. Whenever one wants to show adherence to the Sunnah, what is the slogan? Letting the beard grow. Therefore, when we claim to be Salafis, we must be Salafis in knowledge and action. And I do not miss the fact that I fear some of our brothers present may understand from this speech that it is also permissible to take from the beard until it is as the common people in Syria say: "The best of chins is a sign." No, this contradicts the text, which is leaving the beard to grow , meaning do not take from it. So it is not permissible to take from it with a machine or scissors more than what Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, used to do. Do you have anything else? Do you have many questions, perhaps.