Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
My husband says that he follows the hanafi school of thought but he doesn’t keep a long beard . I try to urge and persuade him to keep a proper beard and say “the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) had a long beard, Why is yours short?” But he doesn’t seem to listen and says, “I have seen many Hanafi scholars who have short beards then it must be ok to keep a short beard”. When he says this I can’t respond as I am not as learned as him . Is he correct to keep his short beard or must he have a long beard? I do not want him to be living in sin.
Walaikum assalam,
There is difference of opinion about the beard across the madhhabs. The Hanafis are the strictest. [For more details, search for “beard” in the Hanafi Fiqh archives at http://www.sunnipath.com]
According to the Shafi`is and Malikis it is not sinful to have a short beard.
A Muslim is not legally bound to follow one madhhab in all their affairs, as mentioned by great imams of fiqh and usul like Kamal ibn al-Humam, Muhib Allah al-Bihari, Abdal-Ghani al-Nabulsi, al-Tahtawi, and Ibn Abidin. What the majority of scholar hold to be impermissible is to pick and chose dispensations systematically, following one’s whims.
The path of taqwa, of course, is to follow the strictest of rulings. However, this is something we should demand of ourselves, and encourage others to do when wisdom would indicate that such encouragement would be of benefit.
However, we cannot demand others to follow any given opinion if there is a difference of opinion between the Sunni schools of law on the issue.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani.