What is the ruling on shaving the back of the head?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : Shaving the back of the head, Imam Ahmad said ... .
The Shaykh : My brother, this was imitating the disbelievers at that time. The ruling on imitation, as the jurists say in matters where there is no explicit text of worship, is a rational ruling, meaning it is based on a cause. So if the cause increases, the effect increases. Imitation at one time is imitation, but at another time it is not. For example, do you know the red fez?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : This was originally the dress of the infidel Austrians. When Austria was conquered or raided by the Ottoman army in the past, and they occupied and plundered it, the Muslims began wearing fezes. Do you understand this? At that time, wearing the fez was forbidden because it was imitating the disbelievers. Over time, the situation reversed, and the fez became the symbol of the Muslim Turks, even to this day. You may still see in Lebanon some Muslims who have no character and no religion wearing fezes. So at that time it was imitation, but today it is not imitation.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So at that time it was imitation, but today it is not imitation.
The questioner : ... O our Shaykh.
The Shaykh : ... permissible. I want to say that shaving the back of the head is of this nature. At that time it was imitation, but today there is no such phenomenon.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Is that clear?
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner : Shaving the back of the head, Imam Ahmad said ... .
The Shaykh : My brother, this was imitating the disbelievers at that time. The ruling on imitation, as the jurists say in matters where there is no explicit text of worship, is a rational ruling, meaning it is based on a cause. So if the cause increases, the effect increases. Imitation at one time is imitation, but at another time it is not. For example, do you know the red fez?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : This was originally the dress of the infidel Austrians. When Austria was conquered or raided by the Ottoman army in the past, and they occupied and plundered it, the Muslims began wearing fezes. Do you understand this? At that time, wearing the fez was forbidden because it was imitating the disbelievers. Over time, the situation reversed, and the fez became the symbol of the Muslim Turks, even to this day. You may still see in Lebanon some Muslims who have no character and no religion wearing fezes. So at that time it was imitation, but today it is not imitation.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So at that time it was imitation, but today it is not imitation.
The questioner : ... O our Shaykh.
The Shaykh : ... permissible. I want to say that shaving the back of the head is of this nature. At that time it was imitation, but today there is no such phenomenon.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Is that clear?
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.