Speaking about the beard

The Shaykh : What is our excuse today, if we are young men or middle-aged, for shaving our beards? What is our excuse? We have found an excuse for the trousers, and this cost: every day, or two days, we stand in front of the mirror, shave our beards, and throw them on the ground. What is our excuse for this? There is no excuse, there is no excuse at all. It is merely customs and traditions. And therefore .

The questioner : ... Islam came, and the Arabs were all growing their beards. We cannot say that Islam came upon a custom and approved them for this custom.

The Shaykh : No, you cannot say that. You can say it, and you cannot say it. You can say it in the sense that you are a person who has the freedom to say what you want to say, but you cannot say it as a correction to yourself. You cannot say it by virtue of being a Muslim, because it is not permissible for a Muslim to make his desire his religion. Rather, he must make his desire follow the Shari'ah. So now, a word has come out of you that we heard from many people: the Arabs, what were they doing? They were growing beards. Also, the Arabs were covering up. We do not cover up anymore, because the Arabs were covering up, whether men or women. We do not cover up, because the Arabs were ... .

The questioner : This is the order of society.

The Shaykh : This is part of the Islamic social system. He (peace be upon him) said: This is the Islamic social system to this day. You see the Christians, and you see the Jews, and some of those who were called hippies, and so on, they grow beards, but they do not grow them in the Islamic manner. Look at the images of the Jews now, like the Druze; you find their mustaches almost covering their mouths. But Islam tells you: The Muslim, my brothers, must be a Muslim in both appearance and inner reality; his outward appearance must not contradict his inner state, nor his inner state his outward appearance. I say that a true Muslim, if he were taken by helicopter from his Islamic country and placed in a land of disbelief, the first thing people would see would lead them to say, "This is a Muslim." Why? Because he has a distinct dress code. The scholars who are called psychologists or philosophers of the soul say that the foundation of nations lies in preserving their history, their language, and their customs. If they do not preserve these foundations, they become weak and are absorbed into other nations, and this means their destruction. Therefore, we see the Messenger (peace be upon him) urging the Muslim community not to dress in the dress of the disbelievers, but to preserve their Islamic dress. For this reason, I mentioned to you earlier some hadiths, including his saying (peace be upon him) So we must not say that Islam is not based on the beard; Islam commands the beard. Islam is, above all, based on correct tawhid (the oneness of Allah). May Allah reward you with good. But Islam is not only tawhid. Tawhid comes from the first testimony, "There is no god but Allah." But if a person says "There is no god but Allah" and does not say "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," he is not a Muslim. First is tawhid, and second is following. Tawhid is "There is no god but Allah," and following is "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." The Messenger commanded us, and he said He forbade us from imitating the disbelievers, so we must obey Him; otherwise, when we say "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," we are not confirming by our actions that we are truthful when we say "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." Then, what is the obstacle, my brothers, if it has become a trend among the disbelievers today that they shave their beards? Why do we Muslims not preserve this Islamic symbol, especially since it is the Sunnah of Allah in His creation? We believe that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is Wise and All-Knowing, and we read in the Surah Do you think He created the male and the female in vain, or for a profound wisdom? It is for a profound wisdom. This profound wisdom is that He differentiated between the male and the female in the physical aspect in several matters. Here, for example, in external appearance, He created the male with a beard and the female without a beard. Is this the work of the Lord of the Worlds? If it is not the work of the Lord of the Worlds, then it is the work of some of the servants of the Lord of the Worlds when they mess with their beards and throw them to the ground. In doing so, they make the man resemble the woman. By Allah, there is a difference between them. We are truly, Abu Usamah, heedless, living in a terrible, terrible state of heedlessness. If a knowledgeable person were to sit and research this topic, it would take him many days and nights. But now that this topic has been raised, we must take a lesson and not imitate the disbelievers, neither in wearing trousers nor in shaving the beards.