A lot of people wonder if the beard is mandatory in Islam or not. I’m no scholar, so I’m not going to say whether it is or isn’t. But I will try my best to lay out all of the evidence.
Generally, whenever I’m trying to find some information on Islam, I usually use two online sources. I choose these two sources because they represent two different ends of the spectrum when it comes to Islamic rulings.
Funny thing though, even though I consider one to be more strict and the other to be more conservative, these two sites usually agree.
For the strict point of view, I utilize IslamQA.com. IslamQA stands for Islam Question and Answer. This website generally answers questions on a wide range of Islamic topics. The primary scholar on this site is Shaykh Muhammad Salih Al-Munajjid.
For the more liberal position, I go with Islam-Online.net. Islam Online is one of the most popular websites amongst Muslims. It is partially owned by prominent Egyptian scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. Islam Online has a fatwa section, but also has various other functions including news, culture, and science.
Alright, now here we go.
I went to Islam QA and entered the word “beard” in the search box and found several relevant question. But I believe this one pretty much sums it up:
Q: What is the ruling on shaving the beard or removing part of it?
I won’t put the entire answer as it is very long, but I will include part of it.
A: 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.
So obviously, from the viewpoint of IslamQA, shaving the beard is expressly forbidden in Islam.
I went to Islam Online, then to their Ask the Scholar section, and then to the Fatwa Bank. This is where they keep previously submitted rulings and questions from the past. The Ask the Scholar segment of Islam Online is similar to the one on IslamQA where people can send in questions to be answered by the scholar.
Here’s one of the questions I found regarding the beard:
Q: What is Islam’s view on growing a beard?
The answer is very long also, so I will only include the relevant parts, Inshallah.
A: “…we’d like to state that growing beard is a great Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)…Muslims differed regarding its ruling some of them state that it is mandatory and shaving it is forbidden while others view that it is an optional Sunnah…
…no Muslim should take the issue of the beard lightly. At the same time…one should not conclude from what has been said earlier that growing a beard…has the same religious significance as that of the other prescribed rituals.”
There you have it. I can conclude from this that it is at the very least a strong Sunnah that Muslim men should take care to apply. Obviously, most scholars throughout time have had the opinion that growing the beard is mandatory in Islam.
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