✍🏻 Muhammad Saim Talib Qureshi
📅 21/02/2025 — Friday
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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah.
To proceed!
All praise is for Allah, the Pure, who sent His beloved ﷺ as an "excellent example" for mankind, and blessings and peace be upon the one who is the Seal of the Prophets ﷺ.
Allah the Pure says in the Holy Quran:
> "O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger."
(Part 5, An-Nisa, Verse 59)
It is necessary to act upon the things that the Prophet ﷺ commanded, and people act upon some of the actions of the Prophet ﷺ because it is the action of our Prophet ﷺ and a means of salvation for us.
It should be known that Islam is a religion that has guided man in terms of living life.
Every command of the religion has countless benefits in this world and the hereafter, which are not understood by us common people or come to us late.
In any case, it is obligatory for us to act upon the commands of Sharia, whether we understand it or not, because we are bound by Sharia.
🌿Keeping a beard is one of the symbols of Islam 🌿
In today's era, people shave their beards, or some ignorant people do not keep them at all.
Keeping a beard is "one of the symbols of Islam and is the Sunnah of all the Prophets, peace be upon them."
We can estimate its importance from the fact that "the Holy Prophet ﷺ himself and all the previous prophets kept beards and ordered to keep them. Approximately 70 hadiths have come about growing a beard."
When its importance is known, then let us also know its rules so that we can achieve salvation by acting upon the Sharia, because sometimes we make mistakes due to ignorance.
The following is a summary of the answers to approximately 40 questions asked in thirteen fatwas regarding beards in Waqar-ul-Fatawa:
🕌 Beard:
The hair on the lower jaw, between the cheeks and the throat, is the beard.
🕌 The ruling on keeping a beard:
Keeping a beard is obligatory.
🕌 The length of the beard:
The Sharia length is one fist, that is, one handful.
Referring to Bukhari Sharif, the action of Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) has been narrated that he would hold the beard in his fist and cut off what was longer than that.
And with reference to Durr-e-Mukhtar, it is narrated: والسنة فيها القبضه
🕌 The ruling on keeping a beard of one fist:
Keeping it equal to one fist is Sunnah Muakkadah, close to Wajib. According to the researchers, it is Wajib.
🕌 Not keeping a beard:
Not keeping a beard or keeping it less than the Sharia limit is fisq (transgression). And the one who does so is a fasiq (transgressor).
🕌 The ruling on a fasiq:
The justice (testimony) of a fasiq is rejected, and the imamate of a fasiq is Makrooh-e-Tehrimi (highly undesirable).
It is obligatory to repeat the prayers offered behind such a person, even if it is for many years.
It is a sin to make a fasiq an imam because making him an imam is honoring him, while it is obligatory to humiliate a fasiq according to Sharia.
The same is the ruling for Taraweeh and other prayers.
The adhan and iqamah of a fasiq are Makrooh. Those who are satisfied with the adhan, iqamah, and imamate of such a person are also sinners.
🕌 Is shaving the beard a minor sin or a major sin?
Shaving the beard is a minor sin. Insisting on a minor sin makes it a major sin. The justice of a person who commits a major sin is forfeited.
🕌 Insistence:
To do an act three times without repentance.
🕌 Hair under the chin:
It is obligatory to keep a fistful of beard under the chin and around its sides. If it is more than a fist, it can be cut.
🕌 Line:
The hair on the cheeks and the hair on the throat below the neck — these can be shaved.
🕌 Buchi:
The hair that is between the lower lip and the chin.
Shaving the hair on its sides is Makrooh, a bad innovation, and against the Sunnah.
🕌 How to trim the beard?
It is written with reference to Fatawa Shami that a person should hold the beard in his fist and cut off as much as is extra.
A saying of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) is narrated:
"A person's happiness lies in lightening the beard."
It is a well-known fact that having a very long beard is foolishness.
🕌 The ruling on neck hair:
There is no harm in cleaning the neck hair from below the jaw bone.
🌿 In today's era, people shave their beards due to fashion, or some ignorant people do not keep them at all, so it is said for them:
"The practice of all the Companions, religious elders, scholars, and all righteous Muslims has been that they consider shaving and cutting the beard to be a sin."
It is further stated:
"According to those who consider keeping a beard to be obligatory, shaving it is haram. And abandoning what is obligatory is a major sin and there is punishment in the fire for it."
And according to those who consider it to be Sunnah Muakkadah, it is still a sin.
There are also warnings in the hadith sharif for abandoning the Sunnah —
> من رغب عن سنتی فلیس منی
It is written with reference to Al-Tawdih al-Talwih:
"The rebuke for abandoning the Sunnah is deprivation of the intercession of the Holy Prophet ﷺ."
One of the questions included in our prayers is to receive the intercession of the Prophet ﷺ.
What will become of us if we do not receive the intercession of the Prophet? Where will we go?
🕌 Keeping a beard and then shaving it:
Some people shave their beards at the behest of someone or on the occasion of a wedding without any Sharia compulsion.
It is said about them:
"Shaving the beard at the behest of someone or for a wedding is haram."
It is further stated:
"After keeping a beard once, shaving it or reducing it below the Sharia limit for any worldly purpose is strictly haram and tantamount to preferring the world over religion."
🕌 Parents' responsibility:
It is said:
It is obligatory on parents to prevent their sons from shaving their beards and to act on the command of the Quran, "enjoining good and forbidding evil."
Order your children strictly to act upon the Sunnah.
When we have heard that shaving the beard is a sin, even then if someone does not consider it a sin, then it is said for such people:
"The one who does not consider sin to be a sin is misguided"
Or if someone says that "Islam is not in the beard" — this is extreme ignorance.
🤲 A prayer to Allah the Pure:
May He grant us the ability to act on these things and to do all our work according to Sharia and to avoid actions contrary to Sharia.
Ameen, by the grace of the Seal of the Prophets ﷺ
📖 (Waqar-ul-Fatawa, Volume 1, pages 138 to 148, Publisher: Bazm-e-Waqaruddin)
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✍🏻 Written by: Muhammad Saim Talib Qureshi
📘 Saim Qureshi Official