A young man working in a government institution who is observant in appearance but faces harassment from some of them on the grounds that he should have a proper appearance, such that

The questioner : A young man works in a government institution, such as the army or the police, for example. This young man is committed to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and he lets his beard grow, but he faces what is almost daily harassment in this regard on the grounds that an officer must appear with a proper and good appearance, meaning that by letting his beard grow, his appearance is not good. Is this young man permitted to resign from this job or shorten his beard?

The Shaykh : I say to him: You must stand firm where you are and remain as you are with your blessed beard, and do not take from it. Stand firm to show people that Muslims today are holding fast to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) no matter what the harassment is. What is the value of this harassment? We are not flogged, we are not imprisoned, and no harm befalls us in the path of Allah except words. Unfortunately, in Amman, a man’s beard is shaved against his will, and in Syria, incidents occurred, including one involving our son-in-law, whom they could not shave the beard of until they shackled him with chains and tied him to a pole, and then they shaved his beard against his will. Nevertheless, after two or three days, may Allah bless him, it returned to its original state. What prevents you in this country? I feel that you are living in a great blessing compared to other countries. I fear that the full question is that they shave his beard against his will. But if the matter stops at them disputing with him about his beard and... some words, and they say words, I say this frankly because the matter is as Allah the Exalted said: I mention those leaders or commanders in the army who say to the bearded men who hold fast to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when they tell him that a Muslim soldier, especially, must appear with a proper appearance. I say to these commanders who order contrary to the command of their Prophet: If you knew what you are saying, you would disbelieve, because you find it strange and ugly the appearance of the Messenger (peace be upon him), where his beard was a noble beard, and where he (peace be upon him) did not limit himself to ordering people to follow him, but he said to them: So this system in the Islamic armies today, unfortunately, varies from region to region as I mentioned earlier, is not, is not a Muslim system at all. But as I told you, you are still in much good as long as you see soldiers holding fast to their beards, then you are in good. But in Jordan, for example, you cannot see a bearded soldier. In Syria, and this is one of the wonders of the situation there in that the rule is disbelief, nevertheless, there are some freedoms for some soldiers because they are excused from their beards. Therefore, we advise both the commander and the commanded mentioned in the question. We advise them not to contradict the law of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). The bearded man does not obey the commander by throwing away his beard and casting it to the ground, because the Messenger (peace be upon him) says: And we remind the commander that it is not permissible for him, if he is a Muslim, and I think that you are also in another blessing where a disbeliever does not rule over you as is the case in some other Islamic countries where the officer is not Muslim and he controls the Muslim and directs him in the direction that suits his disbelief and misguidance. You do not have, praise be to Allah, anything of this, but it is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers.