Is the beard left entirely untrimmed, or is it trimmed at the length of a fist?

The questioner : Regarding the issue of the beard, is the beard left as is, or is it trimmed at the length of a fist? And if the beard covers the face and is only trimmed before it reaches the length of a fist, is there a violation of the Shari'ah in that? And does this negate its obligatory nature for you?

The Shaykh : It negates its obligatory nature for you if you do not trim what is above the length of a fist, but only what is below it; because the hadiths actually came in an absolute form regarding letting the beard grow, and letting it grow in its absolute sense entails not touching the beard with any trimming or shortening. This is the view held by many scholars, both past and present, from the people of hadith. We should have held this view, were it not for what is established from one of the narrators of the hadith of letting the beard grow, namely 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar, in more than one authentic narration from him, that he used to trim from his beard what was below the length of a fist. Were it not for this, we would be with those who hold to letting the beard grow entirely and not taking anything from it at all. But we believe that Ibn 'Umar, who narrated the hadith of letting the beard grow, was certainly certain of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he would let his beard grow and not trim anything from it, or that he saw him trimming from it. If we assume the first case, as the scholars we mentioned hold to be lawful, we strongly, strongly, strongly doubt that Ibn 'Umar would contradict the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in a situation where we assume he saw him not trimming anything from it, yet he trims it; knowing that Ibn 'Umar was among the most eager—if not the most eager of the Companions—to follow the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), to the extent that he would follow him in matters that had nothing to do with worship; for example, it was seen that he would circle with his mount in a place where no benefit from this circling was apparent, so when he was asked, he said: "This is how I saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) doing it."
A noble Companion like this cannot be imagined to see the Messenger letting his beard grow entirely and hear him commanding to let it grow entirely, and then contradict the absolute saying and restricted action of his Prophet. This is the farthest thing from his character; therefore, we see that the letting of the beard by the Messenger (peace be upon him), or his command (peace be upon him) to let it grow, is restricted to what is below the length of a fist; as for what is above the length of a fist, the action of 'Umar indicates that he saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) doing that, so he did as he did, as we detailed earlier.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : This much is sufficient...