The Shaykh’s warning regarding the issue of shaving the beards in this chapter, and the Shaykh’s warning regarding men imitating women and women imitating men, which is an apparent cause

The Shaykh : Likewise, and this is what concerns me to reach as well, after warning about the etiquette of listening to religious lessons, is that when a man adorns himself in his clothing and imitates women thereby, or rather when he imitates the most distinctive characteristic of women in appearance, which is shaving the beard, and thus imitates the woman, we must know that shaving this beard—I do not wish to enter into the topic of the ruling on the beard, for I think you are aware of that—but I wish to draw attention to the fact that this sin which a man commits against himself when he shaves or trims his beard and imitates the woman, without doubt, this sin will create in his nature a tendency toward trivial matters and a lack of concern for the obligations of matters, because this is the nature of women, whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) created to achieve a goal in life, and among that is to be a wife for this husband or this man, and to settle with him and he settles with her. But Allah singled her out for a task and did not burden her with the task of men, as is well known, for example, that jihad is obligatory upon men and not women, and working outside the homes is obligatory upon men and not women. And as it was said: "Killing and fighting were written for us, and for the women, the trailing of the tails". So this man who imitates the woman and shaves his beard, and may go further by plucking out the hair of his mustache, so that the resemblance between him and the women is completed in general, and at that time we are not surprised by the hadith of Ibn Abbas, which the Imam al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih from 'Uqaylah and in another hadith which means the women who imitate men. And as we observe in the men who imitate women a softness ... which is not befitting for men, likewise we feel, rather we touch, in the women who imitate men that they become bold and become like men in strength and manliness, forgetting their femininity and softness because of the imitation of men. And all of this meets with the fact that the apparent is connected to the hidden. And therefore, what I want to conclude with is that we always and forever remember not to underestimate the rectification of the apparent. Included in this is not only the imitation of men by women, but also the imitation of Muslims by disbelievers. And this imitation also has tangible effects in that this imitator of the disbeliever does not retain that Islamic dignity and strength that carries him to fight the enemies of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), even if only intellectually, because he imitates them. And it is established in the philosophy of history, which the famous historian Imam Ibn Khaldun discussed in his Muqaddimah, that the weak imitating the strong is a real fact; the one who imitates the other is the weak one imitating the strong. And therefore, it is not permissible for the Muslim to imitate the disbeliever either, because he will take from the nature of this disbeliever, and at that time it is as if it is a preparation for the occupation of the disbelievers of those lands that have tasted the customs of the disbelievers and considered them light, rather have deemed them permissible. So it is necessary that we stand by the guidance of Islam in that the apparent, as the scholars say, is the title of the hidden, due to the connection between each of them in health and weakness. And the first to hold fast to this Islamic guidance are the scholars and students of knowledge, and those who teach among them, who are hoped to be a good example for the confused and lost ummah today, between the Muslims' ignorance of Islam and their imitation of the Westerners. It is upon us to understand our religion and to call people to act upon what is in them of guidance and light, so that it is written for us with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) the reward of those who follow us and those who take our example until the Day of Judgment, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: And perhaps this amount is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.