What is the ruling on taking what exceeds a handful?

The questioner : I say, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says in more than one hadith regarding letting the beard grow, letting the beard grow. So, is there, meaning we have heard from some of the brothers that 'Umar ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) used to trim what exceeded a handful when he performed Hajj or 'Umrah. Please inform us about this issue: how is one an innovator when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says in more than one hadith that he commanded letting the beards grow?

The Shaykh : This issue is, in fact, one of the precise jurisprudential issues that depends on understanding it, and it is based on a legal principle. Whoever understands this principle will find it easy, first, to understand this branch, and consequently many, many branches. So I say on this occasion: "Whenever there is a general text established from the Messenger (may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him), and a part of it falls under this general text, and we know by one means or another that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or our righteous predecessors did not act upon this part, then acting upon this part, despite it being included in the general text, constitutes introducing something new into the religion." The truth is that negligence of this rule, and this rule is derived from many, many texts, is what entangled Muslims in the later centuries, especially in that they expanded upon themselves by introducing innovations into the religion and drawing near to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, with the innovations and new things they introduced. And I give examples, and many, many examples. The most important of them is an example that has not been acted upon to this day among Muslims, and its like are in the tens, indeed in the hundreds, indeed in the thousands. But the difference is that this example I will mention has not been acted upon, so it is condemned, not because it is an innovation, but because it has not been acted upon, whereas the other innovations are exactly like it; they took them lightly and acted upon them as if custom had been established for that. What is the example? We all know the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): regarding congregational prayer, and the more general and comprehensive hadith is . So if a man entered the mosque at the time of a prayer, like our prayer yesterday, the 'Isha' prayer, with one praying here and one there, the pre-prayer sunnah. If a man decided to call out to these scattered people in the pre-prayer sunnah and said, "O people, come, let us pray in congregation; it is better than this scattering," and he (may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him) said: and so on. What do you say now?

The questioner: It is not permissible.

The Shaykh : Why?

The questioner : Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do this, nor did any of his Companions.

The Shaykh : And the general hadith?

The questioner : This is for the obligatory congregational prayer. Gathering people for the obligatory prayers, not for the...

The Shaykh: And upon you peace.

The questioner : ...pre-prayer sunnah.

The Shaykh : So, did you act upon the general text here?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : Fine, the proof is that the Salaf did not act upon this general text.

The questioner: Correct.

The Shaykh : It is the answer to exactly what you asked, if they had known.

The questioner : Did, with the same...

The Shaykh : Clarification?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh A general text like congregational prayer is a general text, but if one's beard grew long and reached his navel, he acted upon the general text. But did the Salaf act upon it? The answer, except for one who knows: No. For one who does not know: I do not know. The one who does not know remains with the general text, whereas the one who knows says, "This part of the general text was not acted upon by the righteous predecessors." So now, the summary of the answer is: We do not know of anyone from the righteous predecessors, let alone their master and imam, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), that he let his beard grow with a general letting grow. This is first. And second, we know of many of them the exact opposite, that they used to trim, and among them was 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. But here, regarding the narration reported from Ibn 'Umar, there is a doubt, because there are two narrations. The first narration is the one you mentioned, regarding Hajj or 'Umrah. Whereas there is another narration, established from him absolutely, and some of the Tabi'un received that from him, among them Salim ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar, who used to trim from his beard. And narrate from Abu Hurayrah and a group of the Tabi'un, and even Ibrahim ibn Yazid al-Nakha'i, who is from the younger Tabi'un, who narrates from the Companions that they used to trim from their beards. Therefore, the existence of this trimming and the absence of absolute letting grow makes letting grow what exceeds a handful from the innovations of matters, like congregational prayer in the rawatib and voluntary prayers.