Discussion of the hadith: "Let the beards grow" and the practice of Ibn 'Umar in that regard.

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 "The lack of knowledge about a thing does not imply knowledge of its non-existence". Have you ever heard 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 discussed this and said "If a man is naked and stands to pray and finds nothing to cover his 'awrah with, and his beard is long enough to cover his major 'awrah, then 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 you the possibility of such a thing happening through a story I mentioned recently on some occasion. I read in a magazine and saw a picture of a rooster on a wall that was four meters high, and its tail touched 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 Islamic prophetic miracles. For example, he cannot conceive that the Messenger, peace be upon him, could pass through the first and second layers of the heavens in one night—layers that science does not know about even today—and return in the same night. He says this is not reasonable. So I discussed this with the 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. The lack of knowledge about a thing does not imply knowledge of its non-existence. I asked 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 in the past, 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 asked: Do you conceive that a rooster could be this size, say a span or two spans, with a tail of four meters reaching the ground? He said, we have seen this, we have seen its picture. So, from this type of thing, it is possible that our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, who breaks the order of nature 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 . Therefore, 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 also refer 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. He used to take what was below his fist from his beard and cut off what exceeded it. He was not the only one to do this; it is authentically reported from Abu Hurayrah and from a group of the Companions, without any mention of a contradiction from any of them. And we are accustomed to some jurists, such as Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi and other scholars, when they bring an action from a Companion that clarifies a ruling, to say "And we do not know of anyone who contradicted him, so it is consensus". What do you say when the issue is reported not from one Companion, but from Companions, and no contradiction is mentioned from any of them? 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 from the perspective of reality, not from the perspective of knowledge. This is a second point, and Abu Faris, you must pay attention to this.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : This is from the perspective of reality.

The questioner : Of course.

The Shaykh : Yes, not from the scientific perspective. Ah, the most eager of the Companions to follow the Messenger, peace be upon him, in everything they knew he did, was 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. If he, having lived with the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, for many years, had seen him letting his beard grow no matter how long it got, do you think he would have followed him in that? They saw his shirt with the buttons undone and said, "Why is it like this?" He said, "I saw the Messenger of Allah do it this way." They saw him come to a tree and urinate near it, and they were asked why, and he said, "I saw the Messenger of Allah do that." This Companion, whose attention reached such examples, saw the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, let us suppose he saw the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, let his beard grow and leave it in the absolute, comprehensive sense, and then he, after that, whenever his beard grew, took what was below the fist. This is almost impossible for such a person. But if it were that Bedouin or that Najdi who asked him what Allah had 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 and blessings 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, the forty, and the four hundred by his strict adherence to the Sunnah. Who is he? Perhaps you know him: Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who stood firm during the trial, the fitnah of the claim that the Qur'an is created. He also said 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, and both of them agree 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 someone 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 something different? Do you have many questions, perhaps.