Islam : The Truth

Praise be to Allaah.

Shaving the beard is haraam because of the
saheeh ahaadeeth that clearly state this, and
because of the general application of texts that
forbid resembling the kuffaar. One of these
reports is the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Umar who said that
the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) said: “Be different from the
mushrikeen: let your beards grow and trim your
moustaches.” According to another report: “Trim
your moustaches and let your beards grow.”
There are other hadeeth which convey the same
meaning, which is to leave the beard as it is and
let it grow long, without shaving, plucking or
cutting any part of it. Ibn Hazm reported that
there was scholarly consensus that it is an
obligation (fard) to trim the moustache and let the
beard grow. He quoted a number of ahaadeeth
as evidence, including the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Umar
(may Allaah be pleased with him) quoted above,
and the hadeeth of Zayd ibn Arqam in which the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon
him) said: “Whoever does not remove any of his
moustache is not one of us.” (Classed as saheeh
by al-Tirmidhi). Ibn Hazm said in al-Furoo’: “This
is the way of our colleagues [i.e., the Hanbalis].”

Is it haraam (to shave it)? Shaykh al-Islam Ibn
Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
“The Qur’aan, Sunnah and ijmaa’ (scholarly
consensus) all indicate that we must differ from
the kuffaar in all aspects and not imitate them,
because imitating them on the outside will make
us imitate them in their bad deeds and habits, and
even in beliefs, which will result in befriending
them in our hearts, just as loving them in our
hearts will lead to imitating them on the outside.
Al-Tirmidhi reported that the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said,
“He is not one of us who imitates people other
than us. Do not imitate the Jews and Christians.”
According to another version: “Whoever imitates
a people is one of them.” (Reported by Imaam
Ahmad) ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab rejected the
testimony of the person who plucked his beard.
Imaam Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said in al-Tamheed: “It is
forbidden to shave the beard, and no one does
this except men who are effeminate” i.e., those
who imitate women. The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) had a thick
beard (reported by Muslim from Jaabir). It is not
permitted to remove any part of the beard
because of the general meaning of the texts
which forbid doing so.

Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 5/133