in the name of Allah the beneficent the
most merciful I'd like to welcome you
dear viewers to another in our Series in
the light of
Islam May Allah's peace and blessings be
on each and every one of you as you all
know well this program is for your
benefit to answer your questions about
Islam and anything which is related to
Islam you may contact us by phone or by
fax or by
email by any means that you have
available to you we welcome your
questions at the end of the program I'll
will give you some numbers that you may
contact us
through uh I will be continuing on uh
with a number of questions which have
been raised by uh young
students uh senior students at the
Oxford school they have given me a quite
a large list of questions we have been
trying to answer them bit by bit you
know over the various programs of course
we have other uh emails Etc that we'll
be looking at but I'll start off with
one of their questions should men grow a
beard if yes why and how long well well
the growing of the beard
is first and foremost compulsory it is a
requirement and a lot of people uh tend
to have this idea that it is Sunnah this
how they refer to it it's just Sunnah
Sunnah meaning that it was a recommended
practice or it was a practice of the
Prophet Muhammad s Ali
wasallam well the point is that this
term Sunnah needs to be understood to
really really
properly understand why it may be
referred to as a Sunnah yet some people
would still insist that it is f or
obligatory waj compulsory why would some
insist on that when it's referred to at
the same time as being Sunnah well the
term Sunnah has two
meanings there's one
meaning which uh
identifies the general methodology of
the proph
his lifestyle and all the things
connected to that it's Al that's called
Sunnah and on another
hand Sunnah is also used to refer to
specifically the acts which the prophet
M wasallam did which are recommended for
you to do this is the term used to refer
to such acts another term used is also
must or Mand these are two other terms
used and perhaps these are better
because they avoid this uh confusion
that can come with a term being used in
two different
contexts so from the point of view when
one says that it is Sunnah to wear the
beard beard it is not Sunnah from the
legal point of view which distinguishes
it from that which is obligatory or that
which is disliked or prohibited
that's not the correct usage of the term
Sunnah with regards to the beard the
term Sunnah with regards to the beard
falls under the category of the general
practices of the Prophet
Muhammad and of his General
practices there are some things which
were obligatory for example it was his
Sunnah to pray two units of prayer for f
two units of prayer for the obligatory
prayers of F this was his Sunnah I mean
you not it's not mentioned in the Quran
that for the morning prayer it consists
of two units two rat it's not mentioned
there the prophet Muhammad Ali wasallam
did it and he said pray as you saw me
pray so he did it and he instructed us
to follow his way so for the morning
morning prayers the obligatory morning
prayers it should be two units of prayer
so we can say it is from the Sunnah of
the Prophet wasallam to pray two units
of prayer for the morning prayer
Salat but that Sunnah of the Prophet m
wasallam is
wag it's
obligatory we could also
say it is from the Sunnah of the prophet
wasallam not to
eat uh Birds of
Prey and carnivorous
animals wild carnivorous animals this is
forbidden you'll not find it in the
Quran it's not there not
mentioned the prophet may God's peace
and blessing be upon him he said that
you should not eat any bird which kills
with the claw
or any animal which kills with the ey
tooth these are wild animals carnivorous
animals like the Tiger The Lion you know
these type of and the birds are like the
eagle the Osprey the hawk the Falcon etc
etc we're not allowed to eat them so we
can say it is from the Sunnah of the
Prophet may God's peace and blessing be
upon him not to eat birds of prey and
carnivorous
animals
but that Sunnah what the prophet
wasallam uh prohibited that is
Haram it is Haram to eat these things so
we have Sunnah which may indicate what
is Haram Sunnah which may indicate what
is
obligatory we also have Sunnah which may
indicate what is dislike
like the prophet M
wasallam uh said that we should not eat
and drink
standing the prophet may God's peace and
blessing be upon him said do not eat or
drink standing but he himself was seen
eat eating and drinking
standing or particularly drinking
standing there's authentic narrations
that he did so so that practice of the
Prophet Muhammad wasam which is from his
Sunnah combined with his statement not
to eat or drink standing indicates to us
that it is disliked to eat or drink
standing so here from his Sunnah we have
something which is disliked or what is
known as
makru and then we have from his Sunnah
also he said that whoever does uh add
additional units of
prayer with their daily
prayers two before
fjer two before the wh two after the
wh uh two after
Asia or four after the wh or four before
the wh whoever does these on a regular
basis Allah
will make a home for him in Paradise
this is something recommended here is
from the Sunnah of the Prophet wasallam
something which is recommended highly
recommended we also have from the Sun of
the Prophet wasallam that
when a uh desert lizard by which is
called in Arabic a dub was brought to
him to
eat because Arabs of Arabia did eat this
desert lizard
he didn't eat it when he was asked by
one of his companions is it haram he
said no I it was just not in the area
where I grew up and I don't like it so
this was his personal dislike he here
indicates by that personal dislike which
is from his Sunnah that the eating of
the dub the desert lizard
is neutral or what they call muah you
may do it or you may
not so from the Sunnah of the Prophet
wasallam we have all five categories
derived now the question is how do we
know whether growing the beard is from
the obligatory Sunnah or is it from the
recommended
Sunnah how do we know that or is it
merely from the the permissible Sunnah
mu you do it or don't do it doesn't
matter how do we know well we have to uh
look at the principles which the
scholars used to determine how things
are classified as obligatory how are
they classified as recommended how are
they classified as permissible in
general because we should
be conscious that this classification is
not done by a Eenie what they call an
een Meen miny Mo
method meaning that we get for example a
bottle and we put some balls inside or
whatever one written on it compulsory
another written recommended another
written permitted another written
disliked another written forbidden that
we put it in a bowl and whenever we have
a problem to deal with you know is
wearing such and such or doing this or
saying this or whatever how do we
classify these things that the scholar
sticks his hand in the bowl and whatever
ball he comes out with he says okay it
says forbidden so we say that one is
forbidden puts his hand and pulls out
another b ball it says okay permitted no
problem said okay that one's no this is
not the
method this is not the way in which they
determine it it's not arbitrary it's
based on principles once we understand
these princi principles then we can now
apply this to all of the various
areas and this is part of the science
known
as or the fundamental principles or
methodological principles of
law how do we determine when something
is
obligatory we know it is obligatory when
a direct command has come from the
prophet Muhammad wasallam to do this
thing he said do
it now some people say
well a command to do something doesn't
always mean you must do
it because one may command somebody to
do it and we're in fact
recommending and we may command somebody
to do something and in fact we're
pleading what does this mean for
example if we tell Allah tell
God give me success oh
God is it obligatory in God to give us
success no we are pleading for
Success if we say to somebody at work
with
us who is workmate or something like
this we say to them do a good job with
this we recommend in them are we
commanding them no we're on the same
level as they are we're you know equal
workmates we're not the boss or anything
like this so we tell
them uh do a good job
okay we're recommending we're asking
them to do a good job recommending that
they do a good
job or if the boss tells the
secretary write this
letter it means she has to write this
letter or he has to write this
letter so they go ahead and they do
it
so whether a a
command represents a plea a
recommendation or an obligation will
depend on who is talking to who as a
general
principle if a
law uh
a person of lower status is addressing a
person of higher
status people are addressing an
authority their
command is a plea they're
begging they're asking please do
this if people are of similar status and
a command is given then it means it's
recommended
or it could be a plea
too and when the higher authority is
instructing the
lore then it means
obligation that is a basic principle in
language we assume that a higher
authority instructing lower people
people of a lower status that means it
is
obligatory so so if God God is the
higher authority Prophet Muhammad
wasallam he's the higher authority they
instruct us to do something we must
assume that that instruction means
obligation why because as I said in Even
in our own dealings with language and
the world that's what we assume if we
didn't assume
this then we will have a state of
confusion where the boss tells the
secretary AR do this and the secretary
stops to think well does the boss mean I
must do this or is he just recommending
that I do it or it's a if I do it don't
do it no problem you
know if the secretary or if those
working for the manager the
boss don't take commands to mean you
must do
it unless state it otherwise then you
have confusion systems cannot function
the world would fall
apart so according to language we
generally understand an instruction to
mean obligation when it is given by a
higher
authority but if that higher authority
adds some other condition some other
qualifying
statement then this may shift that
command to
recommendation the boss says do this
letter write this letter next week means
you don't have to do it now you could if
you want to do it now that's good but
it's not rec it's not obligatory for you
to do it right now something you could
do
later or if he says write this
letter
if you
receive an instruction from that company
or the other and so on so so it means
it's not on you to do it unless you
receive it so if you don't receive that
then you don't have to do it at all so
these are qualifying statements and
circumstances which now can modify a
command to a lesser status of a
recommendation or something to
do possibly or possibly
not now when we come back now to the
issue of growing the
beard and we look in sah
alkari the most authentic book after the
Quran we find there Prophet Muhammad
wasallam in an authentic Hadith or
statement saying grow your beards and
trim your
mustaches grow your beards and trim your
mustaches distinguish yourself from the
pagans and some other
narrations so he gives a direct command
grow your beards and trim your mustaches
so from that because of the fact that
there were no uh other circumstances to
change that instruction from being
obligation then the correct
understanding is that this is an
obligation on all men of course women if
you're growing a beard Islam does permit
you to remove it I mean that to that
degree because that's not a norm for a
woman right some women grow here
and if some may be heavier some less you
know if it's just a few little hairs
here and there of course one doesn't
necessarily to worry about it you can
just you know uh use um some form of um
uh coloring or whatever which can just
make it blend and you know so you don't
want to be plucking picking and all
these kind of things on your face anyway
but if it starts to grow in heavy and
it's disfiguring making you look like a
man then most Scholars hold that it is
permissible for you to remove that ha
but for men because this is supposed to
be a symbol of their manhood this is one
of the distinguishing features between
men and
women they're supposed to grow that
beard an
obligation if one does not grow the
beard one is in
sin every
time the person takes the razor to their
face and removes the hair from their
face they are committing a sin
and this is
something which Scholars of the past
held in such uh importance or esteem
that in the courts During the period of
the Ottomans
Etc in the
courts the judge would not accept the
witness of one who shaved his
beard because they felt that if a person
would be so
bold as to openly disobey the prophet
because of course this is something open
I mean of course everybody maybe
disobeys the prophet in different ways
in their lives Etc they be they commit
sins Etc but sins are usually hidden we
hide it from others but we are person is
so bold as to just up in everybody's
face I am disobeying the prophet they
say well can we trust such a person to
give a true and honest
witness no so they wouldn't accept his
witness in the
court so the growing of the beard is
obligatory even when the prophet
Muhammad wasallam met with two
uh two uh emissaries who were sent to
him
from uh the Christians they came to him
and they had these big handlebar
mustaches and their beards were shaven
he turned away and didn't want to look
at them and they they asked why why
what's what's wrong and he asked who
told you to do do this he said well our
Lord our uh Commander he instructed us
to do this he said well my Lord
instructed that the beards are grown and
the mustaches
trimmed this is even dealing with people
from other
cultures so we understand that the
growing of the beard is an obligation on
a Muslim
man in terms of how long should it grow
because of course a beard May grow down
to your ankles dragon on the ground
should you just grow it and no don't cut
it well we then look to the companions
of the Prophet M wasallam what they
understood and it was their practice to
trim their beard whatever was beyond the
length of a fist they would trim the
beard they let it grow the maximum
length was to that of a
fist or the the the shortest they would
shorten it to the length of a fist what
is beyond that you know they would trim
that was the Sunnah of the companions of
the Prophet mham wasallam so uh from
that I hope inshallah it is clear to you
dear viewers that it is obligatory on
men to grow their beards they may trim
it if it is beyond the length of a
fist and shaving of the Beards is a
sin with that dear viewers I'd like to
thank you for being with us in this
segment of our program uh in the light
of Islam as I mentioned in the beginning
you can contact us at the
numbers uh which I'll mention here now
we have a 06 if you're calling inside
the country or 9716 calling from from
outside the country and the uh fax
number is
5323
724 or you may write to me at my website
Bilal phillips.com
or you may write to us at the station
here in the light of Islam belal
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