RE: Hadith on beard - lies reaching their peak!

[Enquirer]

Assalamualaikum and Eid Mubarak,

RE: http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=652.0

In the above topic, you have eloquently discussed the status of beard in Islam and rebuked the practice of growing long unkempt beards.

A major argument used was that unkempt beards are similar to fundamentalists and extremists of other faith, namely Hinduism and Judaism hence they should be avoided.

My question is, while the above is true, it is also true that the people most averse to facial hair are the kuffar, like the Christians of Europe and North America and the heathens of China and its neighbouring countries.

Hence, wouldn't keeping a beard that is well groomed and neatly trimmed be a reliable identity marker of being Muslim? Islam strongly encourages good self hygiene and science has found that beards can help fight dangerous bacteria and germs, and shaven faces harbor more bacteria than unshaven ones.

Moreover, Quran says we shouldn't take the kuffar as allies, which can also include not adopting their cultural practices such as removing facial hair unnecessarily. It is of course perfectly ok to shave for certain circumstances such as surgery, joining specific jobs, army etc.

[Ruhi_Rose]

Walaykum As-Salam and Eid-al-Adha Mubarak. 

Brother, if you read that post carefully, it's not about recognition.  It's about what the Noble Quran says and in comparison, what the Hadith says.   This comparison is relevant because any assertion that clashes with the Quran is sure to reflect values that are questionable, unnecessary or incorrect. 

Needless to say, I absolutely disagree prohibiting anyone from growing a beard (regardless of its style) as much as I would disagree making it obligatory.  It's a personal choice.  That's exactly what I understand from the Noble Quran, and beard (by itself) does not have any bearing on one's morals or principles.   It's an aspect which extra-Quranic traditional sources contradict again and again by judging a person by their appearance of beard.  There are some traditional mindsets that don't even accept a neat, trimmed beard.  It simply has to be left to itself growing naturally with an unkempt look.   

"it is also true that the people most averse to facial hair are the kuffar, like the Christians of Europe and North America and the heathens of China and its neighbouring countries."

You're right.  But this is an issue of modern times, a mentality which has emerged with the rise of Islamophobia.  In China the zeal to crush Islam and persecute the Uighurs of Turkmenstan have reached such limits that even the name "Muhammad" is banned.  For all non-Muslim societies, a Muslim wearing a beard is  synonymous with someone practicing the Islamic Faith, and beard among Muslims has arisen from non-Quranic sources.  Also, those non-Muslim societies fail to distinguish between the original Quranic values and traditional sources.  In countries like China, other non-Muslim far-east states and India, they will discriminate if they see a Muslim with a beard but won't bother if they see a European or Israeli Jew with a similar beard.  In fact, nowadays, in most of these non-Muslim societies things have come to a point that even if Muslims don't have a beard (and many don't), yet they are discriminated.   Needless to say, the approach of these kuffar societies amounts to outright madness, and we, Muslims, are not obligated to adjust our appearance to please them.  Our Benchmark is the Noble Quran which doesn't mention a beard nor a shaven face as an identity (not even one of the identities) of a believer.  Either way, a believer simply needs to be physically clean and neat;  their identity comes from the Faith in their hearts and the implementation of the values of our Faith in our lives.

For further clarification on our precise stance of this topic, you may also want to read our post Culture of spiritual beard originated from Jewish/Christian raditon and others in our Various Islamic Topics board.