What is the response to the objection that if leaving the beard is a recommended practice, how can the one who shaves it be sinful?
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The questioner : His EminenceThe Shaykh : A man has an objection regarding the ruling on leaving the beard. He says, if leaving it is a recommended practice, how can the one who abandons a recommended practice be sinful in this matter?
The Shaykh : How? What do you mean?
The questioner : How can the one who abandons a recommended practice be sinful, since the rule states that the one who performs a recommended practice is rewarded and the one who abandons it is not blamed? How do you respond to him, knowing that he has read some fatwas on this? How do we respond to this objection?
The Shaykh : First: May Allah reward you. The term "sunnah" is used for both the obligatory and the recommended. The fact that it is used only for the recommended is the usage of the jurists. For this reason, Anas ibn Malik said: "It is the sunnah that when a man marries a virgin, he stays with her for seven days, and then he rotates" meaning: he distributes [his time among his wives], and this sunnah is obligatory.
Ibn Abbas was asked about a man who prays two rak'ahs while traveling, and when he prays behind the imam, he prays four. He said: "It is the sunnah of your Prophet" even though it is obligatory.
If one of the scholars described it as a sunnah, and he is from the earlier scholars, it means it is obligatory, meaning that leaving the beard is obligatory. As for the one who described it as a sunnah from the later scholars, after this terminology that the jurists adopted, he means it is a sunnah for which one is not sinful if abandoned, meaning that leaving the beard is a sunnah for which one is not sinful if abandoned. But this opinion is the weaker and weaker position, and the correct one is that it is an obligatory sunnah, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He made shaving it part of the way of the polytheists, and the way of the polytheists is obligatory to avoid, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Sunan Abi Dawud 4031Hasan Sahih (Al-Albani).
The Shaykh : How? What do you mean?
The questioner : How can the one who abandons a recommended practice be sinful, since the rule states that the one who performs a recommended practice is rewarded and the one who abandons it is not blamed? How do you respond to him, knowing that he has read some fatwas on this? How do we respond to this objection?
The Shaykh : First: May Allah reward you. The term "sunnah" is used for both the obligatory and the recommended. The fact that it is used only for the recommended is the usage of the jurists. For this reason, Anas ibn Malik said: "It is the sunnah that when a man marries a virgin, he stays with her for seven days, and then he rotates" meaning: he distributes [his time among his wives], and this sunnah is obligatory.
Ibn Abbas was asked about a man who prays two rak'ahs while traveling, and when he prays behind the imam, he prays four. He said: "It is the sunnah of your Prophet" even though it is obligatory.
If one of the scholars described it as a sunnah, and he is from the earlier scholars, it means it is obligatory, meaning that leaving the beard is obligatory. As for the one who described it as a sunnah from the later scholars, after this terminology that the jurists adopted, he means it is a sunnah for which one is not sinful if abandoned, meaning that leaving the beard is a sunnah for which one is not sinful if abandoned. But this opinion is the weaker and weaker position, and the correct one is that it is an obligatory sunnah, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: