Did Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) act in accordance with the Sunnah when he trimmed what extended beyond a fistful from his beard, or was this his personal independent legal reasoning?

The questioner : The Shaykh says in response to the second question:

The Shaykh : Yes

The questioner : Did Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) act in accordance with the Sunnah when he trimmed what extended beyond a fistful from his beard, or was this his personal independent legal reasoning? And what is the ruling on trimming what extends beyond a fistful?

The Shaykh : Yes, there is no practical Sunnah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding trimming the beard or not trimming it. We have only two things: the first is his command (peace and blessings be upon him) to let the beard grow, and the second is what is established from Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), who is one of the narrators of the hadith commanding the beard to be let grow. The action of Ibn 'Umar is viewed by some scholars not as his independent legal reasoning, but as an application of what he saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) doing. It is only said that this was independent legal reasoning by Ibn 'Umar if he were interpreting a hadith that discusses a theoretical legal ruling, not a practical matter that he saw with his own eyes throughout the life he spent in the company of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). To put it more clearly, 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) whenever he sat with him, and his beard was either left by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in its natural state without him taking anything from it, or he saw him taking something from it. If we assume the first case, meaning he saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) not taking anything from his beard, then it would not be for Ibn 'Umar to contradict the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he sees him (peace and blessings be upon him) with his own eyes, not through narration or transmission from others, but seeing him himself not taking anything from it. In that case, he would have contradicted a Sunnah he witnessed with his own eyes, and this is the furthest thing from someone like Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), who is known by all scholars to be among the most eager, if not the most eager of the Companions, in following the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), even in matters where some of them differed from him, indicating his exaggeration in following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), even in ordinary matters, even in matters where no aspect of worship is apparent in them. It is well known that he (may Allah be pleased with him) was seen once intending to go to a place to urinate, and he was told about it, so he said: "I saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) urinate in this place". So his matter reached the point of following the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) even in such a matter where it does not appear that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) intended to urinate in that place intentionally, but rather it appears that it happened to him by chance. With such a thing, Ibn 'Umar sought to follow the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in such an action. And as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah mentions, this is contrary to what is known of his father 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), who used to prohibit following the traces of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). As Ibn Abi Shaybah narrated in his Musannaf with his authentic chain, that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) went out on Hajj in one of the years of his caliphate and stopped at one of the stations, where he saw some people taking a certain path and following it. He asked them where these people were going? It was said to him that they were intending places where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had prayed. So 'Umar addressed the people and said: "O people, if any of you catches up with prayer in any of these places, let him pray, and if not, let him not follow them, for what destroyed those before you was their following the traces of their prophets". 'Umar prohibited this following, while his son 'Abdullah saw that this following was part of the Sunnah or among the recommended matters for which its doer is rewarded. The point of this is that it is very, very far-fetched that Ibn 'Umar saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) not taking anything from his beard at all, and then he insisted on contradicting the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in this Sunnah, especially since there is a general text: How could Ibn 'Umar contradict this general text unless he saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) clarifying by his action that this generality was not intended? Therefore, in such a matter, the scholars say that the narrator is more knowledgeable about what he narrates than others. So Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) is the one who narrated this hadith to us: So either this command is in its absolute and comprehensive sense, or the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) took upon himself to clarify it by his action and practice, and this is what Ibn 'Umar followed. It is established from Ibn 'Umar in "al-Muwatta'" that he used to take from his beard what was less than a fistful, and this was not only in Hajj and 'Umrah, but also in other times. So in summary, we consider that the scholars who went to the ruling of limiting the letting grow of the beard to a fistful looked at the action of Ibn 'Umar as an action that conveys to us what he saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) doing, because we have known that he is among the most eager of people in following him (peace and blessings be upon him) in his actions. It is far from the truth that he saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) not taking from his beard and then he contradicted him to the contrary.