Question:
Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah.
Is it Waajib or only Sunnah to keep beard? If I don’t have beard then I commit major sin or minor sin. Please explain with proof.
Answer:
To keep a beard is Waajib. This means that if one has to remove his beard he will be committing a sin. It is said that a person who removes his beard is in perpetual sin. It has been mentioned that two (Majoosi) men came to Nabi SAW. Both of them were clean shaven. Nabi SAW turned his face away from them saying that I have been ordered by my Allah to grow my beard. The scholars of the past derived from this Hadith that the beard must be grown and not shaven or trimmed. However the beard shouldn’t be kept untidy. If the beard is over one fist in length, then only is one allowed to trim it, that too if it is untidy. To trim the beard when it is less than a fist in length or shave it is impermissible.
And Allah Ta’ala knows best
Mufti Muhammad Ashraf
Darul Iftaa
Jameah Mahmoodiyah
Springs
07 July 2006
10 Jumaadul Ukhraa 1427