The Obligation of Letting the Beard Grow
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His Eminence the Shaykh: We hear that leaving the beard is a recommended practice (sunnah), so how can the one who leaves it be a sinner?Knowing that the sunnah is: What is the reward for the one who does it, and why is there no punishment for leaving it?
First: May Allah reward you. The term sunnah is applied to both the obligatory and the recommended. Its application to the recommended only is a convention among the jurists.Therefore, Anas ibn Malik said: [From the sunnah: if a man marries a virgin while he has a wife who has previously been married, he stays with her for seven days, then he]Meaning: divides his time between the two wives—and here, sunnah means obligatory.
Ibn Abbas was asked about a man who prays two rak'ahs while traveling, but when he prays behind the imam, he prays four.He said: [The sunnah of your Prophet, or he said: that is the sunnah], even though it is obligatory for the traveler to complete the prayer behind one who is praying four.
So if one of the scholars described it as a sunnah, and he is from the earlier scholars, it means that it is obligatory.Meaning: That leaving the beard is obligatory. As for the one who described it as a sunnah from the later scholars, after the convention established by the jurists, he means that it is a sunnah for which the one who leaves it does not sin.Meaning: That leaving the beard is a sunnah for which one does not sin, but this opinion is the weaker and weaker position. The correct view is that it is an obligatory sunnah.Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: [Differ from the polytheists, let your beards grow, and trim your mustaches], so shaving it is from the way of the polytheists, and the way of the polytheists is something that must be avoided.By the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): [Whoever imitates a people is one of them].
First: May Allah reward you. The term sunnah is applied to both the obligatory and the recommended. Its application to the recommended only is a convention among the jurists.Therefore, Anas ibn Malik said: [From the sunnah: if a man marries a virgin while he has a wife who has previously been married, he stays with her for seven days, then he]Meaning: divides his time between the two wives—and here, sunnah means obligatory.
Ibn Abbas was asked about a man who prays two rak'ahs while traveling, but when he prays behind the imam, he prays four.He said: [The sunnah of your Prophet, or he said: that is the sunnah], even though it is obligatory for the traveler to complete the prayer behind one who is praying four.
So if one of the scholars described it as a sunnah, and he is from the earlier scholars, it means that it is obligatory.Meaning: That leaving the beard is obligatory. As for the one who described it as a sunnah from the later scholars, after the convention established by the jurists, he means that it is a sunnah for which the one who leaves it does not sin.Meaning: That leaving the beard is a sunnah for which one does not sin, but this opinion is the weaker and weaker position. The correct view is that it is an obligatory sunnah.Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: [Differ from the polytheists, let your beards grow, and trim your mustaches], so shaving it is from the way of the polytheists, and the way of the polytheists is something that must be avoided.By the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): [Whoever imitates a people is one of them].