Is keeping beard Fard?
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be
upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Is keeping beard a
"Fard" on every muslim or just a Sunnah? If
so where is it mentioned in the Holy Quran? Or the proper Hadeeth of our Prophet
emphasizing that?
(There may be some grammatical and spelling
errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions,
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confidentiality.)
Answer:
Is keeping beard Fard?
In the name of Allah, We praise
Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can
misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We
bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no
imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah
Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the
seal of His Messengers.
Keeping a beard cannot be
considered an obligatory command of the Prophet (saws), but rather it was his Sunnah, and the Sunnah of the all
the Prophets before him.
Growing a beard was considered
normal and natural for a man at the time of the Messenger of Allah (saws),
whether he was a believer or not. Even
the enemies of Islam like Abu Jahl and Abu Lahb had beards!
And because every man naturally grew a beard, it was not necessary for
the Prophet (saws) to give an explicit command exhorting the believers to grow
a beard.
The only specific saying of the
Prophet (saws) regarding the keeping of beards arose when he saw that the
pagans used to grow both their beards and their mustaches long; thus he (saws) said
to the believers:
Do the opposite of
what the pagans do. Lengthen your beards and cut the
mustaches short.
It was only a couple of
centuries ago, when the western culture and ideology became dominant over the
world and muslim lands, that
it became a fashion to be clean shaven.
And as with any dominant culture, people are always ready to adopt its
actions, whether they are of virtue, or of vice! But Islam has its own culture, and growing
a beard is part of the Islamic culture.
The question is why should a
believer, who professes to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and who professes
to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah
(saws), want to grow a beard?
The answer is simple. Today, you
might have seen many youngsters copy the fashion of sport-stars,
Hollywood-stars or anybody else whom they love. If you notice today, many hot
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzab verse 21:There is indeed the
best model for you in the Messenger of Allah, for every such person looks
forward to Allah and the Last Day, and remember Allah much.
In another narration, the
Prophet of Allah said in narrating a prophecy of times to come:
There will emerge
from the East some people who will recite the Quran, but it will not exceed their throats, and who will
go out of the deen of Islam as an arrow passes
through the game. They will never come back to it unless the arrow comes back
to the middle of the bow by itself (i.e. impossible!). The companions asked,
"What will their signs be?". The Prophet
(saws) said: "Their sign will be the habit of shaving off of their
beards".
Thus the keeping of beards is a Sunnah of the Prophet (saws) and every muslim must strive to keep a beard, if his model is
indeed the Prophet of Allah (saws). He will get his due reward from Allah, Insha Allah, if he keeps the beard to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws).
But if a believer does not want
to sport a beard for whatever reason, the other believers should not make an
issue out of it. What is important in
Islam and in the sight of Allah, is that one truly
believes and does good righteous deeds.
And when that happens, it is expected that the beard will follow soon
after!
The beard is nothing more than a
sign that the believer truly wants to follow a Sunnah
of the Messenger of Allah (saws).
There are many people who have long beards, but do deeds against the
commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws).
And there are many people who are amongst the best believers, but do not
have beards! Allah will not decide the
recipient of His Mercy and His Forgiveness from the appearance of the
individual; but rather He will decide whether the person believed and did
righteous deeds, as he was commanded by Allah and His Messenger (saws).
The only place in the Quran where the issue of beard is mentioned is from the
incident when Hadrat Moosa
came back from his meeting with Allah Subhanah, and
found his people worshipping a golden calf.
He then grabbed the beard of his brother Prophet Haroon
in anger demanding to know why had he not stopped the Bani Israel from taking the calf as a deity for
worship.
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 20 Surah Ta
Ha Ayaat 94:... And Haroon said, "O son of my mother, do not seize me by
my beard nor pull the hair of my head."
Following are the list of hadiths regarding the beard:
Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 7.780 Narrated
by Nafi
Ibn Umar said:
The Prophet said, "Do the opposite of what the pagans do. Keep the beards
and cut the moustaches short."
Sunan of Abu-Dawood Hadith 4053 Narrated by Abdullah ibn
Umar
Zayd ibn Aslam said: Ibn Umar used to dye his beard with yellow colour
so much so that his clothes were filled (dyed) with yellowness. He was asked:
Why do you dye with yellow colour? He replied: I saw
the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) dyeing with
yellow colour, and nothing was dearer to him than it.
He would dye all his clothes with it, even his turban.
Sunan of Abu-Dawood
Hadith 145 Narrated
by Anas ibn Malik
Whenever the
Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) performed
ablution, he took a handful of water, and, putting it under his chin, made it
go through his beard, saying: Thus did my Lord command me.
Sunan of Abu-Dawood
Hadith 52 Narrated
by Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin
The Apostle of
Allah (peace be upon him) said: Ten are the acts according to fitrah (nature): clipping the moustache, letting the beard
grow, using the tooth-stick, cutting the nails, washing the finger joints,
plucking the hair under the arm-pits, shaving the pubes, and cleansing one's
private parts (after easing or urinating) with water. The narrator said: I have
forgotten the tenth, but it may have been rinsing the mouth.
Sunan of Abu-Dawood
Hadith 36 Narrated
by Ruwayfi' ibn Thabit
The Apostle of
Allah (peace be upon him) said: You may live for a long time after I am gone, Ruwayfi', so, tell people that if anyone ties his beard or
wears round his neck a string to ward off the evil eye, or cleanses himself
with animal dung or bone, Muhammad has nothing to do with him.
Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 9.651 Narrated
by Abu Said Al Khudri
The Prophet said,
"There will emerge from the East some people who will recite the Qur'an but it will not exceed their throats and who will go
out of (renounce) the religion (Islam) as an arrow passes through the game, and
they will never come back to it unless the arrow, comes back to the middle of
the bow (by itself) (i.e., impossible). The people asked, "What will their
signs be?" He said, "Their sign will be the habit of shaving (of
their beards).
Whatever written of Truth and
benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error
is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He
is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Wister