Fatwa on beard keeping

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمد لله رب العالمين، والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وإمام المتقين نبينا محمد وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين. اللهم أرنا الحق حقا وارزقنا اتباعه، وأرنا الباطل باطلا وارزقنا اجتنابه، وبعد.

BACKGROUND

1.  The Fatwa Committee received a question from the Office of the Mufti dated 26 September 2017, regarding the appropriate religious guidance for National Servicemen (NS men) who wish to keep their beard for religious reasons during service.

FATWA COMMITTEE’S CONSIDERATIONS

2.  In its deliberations on this matter, the Fatwa Committee considered the following aspects:

a) Interpreting texts (hadiths - Prophetic traditions) related to beard keeping;

b) Different juristic opinions on beard keeping;

c) Different contexts

a) Interpreting texts (hadiths - Prophetic traditions) related to beard keeping

3.  There are various hadiths related to the issue of keeping beard, some of which are as follows:

عن ابن عمر رضي الله عنهما أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم قال: "خالفوا المشركين; أحفوا الشوارب, وأوفوا اللحى".

Which means: From Ibn Umar (r.a) that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said; "Distinguish yourselves from the disbelievers, trim your moustache and keep your beard.”¹

عن أم المؤمنين عائشة رضي الله عنها أنها قالت: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم: "عشر من الفطرة: قص الشارب, وإعفاء اللحية, والسواك, واستنشاق الماء, وقص الأظفار, وغسل البراجم, ونتف الإبط, وحلق العانة, وانتقاص الماء» أي: الاستنجاء, قال مصعب -أحد رواة الحديث-: "ونسيت العاشرة, إلا أن تكون المضمضة. "

Which means:  Narrated by A'ishah (r.a): the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “Ten things are connected to the fitra (i.e. natural state of being): trimming moustache, letting beard grow, using siwak (tooth cleaning stick), rinsing out nostrils with water, clipping nails, washing joints, plucking armpit hair, shaving pubic hair, washing genitals with water.’” Mus’ab (one of the narrators) said: ‘I have forgotten the tenth, but it may have been rinsing out the mouth.’”²

4.  These hadiths indicate that beard keeping is an Islamic practice. However, the Fatwa Committee is of the view that they need to be properly examined and interpreted. The hadith by Ibn 'Umar is an advice from the Prophet (peace be upon him) for a Muslim to have a clear religious identity that is differentiated from other faith communities. This also means that keeping the beard is not obligatory, as distinguishing oneself (in terms of dress and appearance) from others is not an obligation in Islam. This is supported by another hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) where he encouraged Muslims to perform their prayers using footwear so as to be different from other faith communities at the time.³ Scholars are in an agreement that this is merely an encouragement rather than an injunction which requires the use of footwear during prayer.

5.  As for the hadith narrated by 'Aishah, the Prophet (peace be upon him) described keeping the beard as one of the ten things which are considered as natural ways of being in a pure state (fitrah) such as cutting nails, thinning the moustache etc. This is a clear indication that keeping the beard is not obligatory, as the rest of the ten acts are also not considered obligatory in Islam.

b) Different juristic opinions

6.  The Fatwa Committee also considered different scholarly opinions on the issue. There are scholars from the Ḥanafī, Mālīkī, Shāfi'ī and Ḥanbalī schools of thought who are of the view that shaving of the beard is not permitted in Islam. For example, in the text of a Ḥanafī scholar, it is mentioned:

يحرم على الرجل قطع لحيته

Which means: "It is forbidden for man to shave his beard."⁴

 Another text from the Mālikī school states:

يحرم إزالة شعر اللحية

Which means: "It is forbidden to remove the beard."⁵

A text from the Shāfi'ī school states:

وقال الحليمي الشافعي لا يحل لأحد أن يحلق لحيته.

Which means: "Al-Halīmī As-Shāfi'ī mentioned: It is not lawful for a person to shave his beard."⁶

In the Ḥanbalī school, there is a text which states:

والمعتمد في المذهب: حرمة حلق اللحية.

Which means: "And the dominant view in [our] mazhab is that [it is]: haram (sinful) to shave the beard."⁷

7.  However, there are other opinions within the Shāfi'ī mazhab⁸ which state that the act of shaving the beard is not encouraged, but is also not sinful:

حلق لحية الرجل ونتفها مكروه لا حرام.

Which means: "Shaving and removing the beard for men is not encouraged, but not forbidden."⁹

8.  Muslim scholars in the modern period such as Sheikh Jād Ul-Hāq'Alī Jād Ul-Ḥāq¹⁰, Sheikh Rashīd Reḍā¹¹, Sheikh Maḥmūd Shaltūt¹², Sheikh Muhammad Abū Zuhrah¹³, Dr Yūsuf Al-Qaraḍāwī¹⁴, and more recently, Mufti of the Federal Territory¹⁵ (KL, Malaysia) and Sheikh 'Alī Gomaa¹⁶ (former Mufti of Egypt), are of the view that beard keeping is sunnah (supererogatory) but not obligatory, as it is a customary practice and behavioural norm of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). They also are of the opinion that the general instruction to keep the beard, based on the hadiths of the Prophet (peace be upon him) is in fact no more than an encouragement and guidance, i.e. not an injunction nor an order. Sheikh 'Alī Gomaa adds that beard keeping was a customary practice of the Arabs.¹⁷ As such, when one is faced with difficulty or restrictions in practising religion on disputed matters of religion, one should follow the position that provides facilitation and ease.¹⁸

 c) Different contexts

9.  The Fatwa Committee took into consideration the context of the question, including the policy that applies to NS men and the requirement to comply with policies and regulation relating to appearance and uniform.

10.  The Fatwa Committee took the position that different contexts such as time and place, should be considered to ensure benefit is earned and harm is avoided, as explained by Sheikh Maḥmud Shaltūt:

والحق أن أمر اللباس والهيئات الشخصية -ومنها حلق اللحية- من العادات التي ينبغي أن ينزل المرء فيها على استحسان البيئة, فمن درجت بيئته على استحسان شيء منها كان عليه أن يساير بيئته, وكان خروجه عما ألف الناس فيها شذوذا عن البيئة.

Which means: "And in fact the clothes and the appearance of an individual - such as shaving the beard - is a customary practice in some societies, and this must be considered by those who wish to adopt such practices. Therefore, where one finds any practice well-accepted in his context or social environment, he should act accordingly. To act differently from such customs is to deviate from the environment/context.”¹⁹

FATWA COMMITTEE’S DECISION

11.  Based on its interpretation of the hadiths relating to beard keeping and having considered the opinions of both classical and modern jurists, the Fatwa Committee is of the view that the Prophetic teaching related to beard keeping is a form of guidance and encouragement and not an obligation.

12.  As there is no consensus on the matter, Muslims may adopt a juristic position that leads to a resolution and provides solution, which is that beard keeping is not obligatory in Islam. This is based on an Islamic legal maxim which states:

لا ينكر المختلف فيه, وإنما ينكر المجمع عليه

Which means: "An act whose prohibition is disputed shall not be refused, and only acts whose prohibition are unanimously accepted shall be refused.”²⁰

13.  In view of the uniform policy that applies to those in the uniform group, the Fatwa Committee advises all NS men to adopt the opinion which allows them to shave the beard during their service.

الله أعلم ، وبالله التوفيق ، وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم.

DR MOHAMED FATRIS BIN BAKARAM
CHAIRMAN, FATWA (LEGAL) COMMITTEE
MUFTI OF THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE
MAJLIS UGAMA ISLAM SINGAPURA

[1] The Muslim community in early Islam was only beginning to emerge, and they had to distinguish their appearance to assert their new religious identity. Al-Bukhārī, Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Dār Ṭūq an-Najāḥ, vol.7, pg.160.

[2] Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-‘Arabī, vol.1, pg.223.

[3] رواه أبو داود عن شداد بن أوس -رضي الله عنه- أن رسول الله -صلى الله عليه وسلم- قال:خالفوا اليهود فإنهم لا يصلون في نعالهم، ولا خفافهم

Which means: “Narrated by Abu Daud from Shaddad bin Aus (ra) The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Act differently from the Jews, for they do not pray in their sandals or their shoes.” Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Al-Maktabah Al-‘Aṣriyyah, vol.1, pg.176.

[4] Al-Ḥaṣkafī al-Ḥanafī, Al-Dur al-Mukhtār, Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, vol.6, pg.407.

[5] ʿAlī bin Aḥmad bin Mukrim al-‘Adawī, Hāshīyāh al-‘Adawī ‘alā al-Kifāyāh Al-Ṭālib al-Rabbānī, Dār al-Fikr, vol.2, pg.446.

[6] Sirāj Al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ‘Umar bin ‘Alī Ibn Mulaqqin, Al-‘Ilām bi Fawāid ‘Umdatu al-Aḥkām, Dār Al-‘Āṣimah, vol.1, pg.711.

[7] Muḥammad bin Aḥmad bin Sālim Al-Saffārīnī, Ghudhā’ al-Albāb fī Sharḥ Manẓūmah al-Adāb, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, vol.1, pg.334

[8]Sheikh Zakariyyā al-Anṣarī, Imām Ibn Ḥajar al-Ḥaītamī, Imām Shihāb Al-Ramlī, Khaṭīb al-Shirbīnī.

[9] Muḥammad bin Aḥmad bin Sālim Al-Saffārīnī, Ghudhā’ al-Albāb fī Sharḥ Manẓūmah al-Adāb, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, vol.1, pg.334

[10] Dār al-Iftā’ al-Miṣrīyyāh, Fatāwā Dār al-Iftā’ al-Miṣriyyah, vol.2, pg.166.

[11] Rashīd Riḍā, Majallah al-Manār, vol.22/7/14/31, pg.426/ 733/29/442

[12] Mahmūd Shaltūt, Al-Fatāwā, Dār al-Shurūq, pg.229.

[13] Muḥammad Abū Zuhrah, Uṣūl al-Fiqh, Dār al-Fikr, pg.115.

[14] Yūṣuf al-Qarḍāwī, Al-Ḥalāl wa al-Ḥarām fī al-Islām, Maktabāh Wahbah, pg.85.

[15] Please refer: http://www.muftiwp.gov.my/index.php/ms-my/perkhidmatan/irsyad-fatwa/1551-irsyad-al-fatwa-siri-ke-190-hukum-mencukur-janggut-atas-arahan-majikan

[16] Please refer: http://www.draligomaa.com

[17] Please refer: http://www.draligomaa.com

[18] The full text in Arabic is as follows:

ومع هذا كله فإننا نضيف أن من كان من هؤلاء الأفراد له قناعة شخصية بوجوب اللحية؛ اتباعًا لمن قال بهذا من العلماء، فإنه والحالة هذه يتأكد عليه أن يقلد قول القائلين بالكراهة؛ ليتخلص من الشعور النفسي بالإثم؛ لما تقرر من أن من ابتلي بشيء من المختلف فيه فإنه يقلد من أجازه من أهل العلم؛ تخلصًا من الحرمة،

Which means: "In line with all this, we add that individuals who have personal confidence on the obligation of keeping one’s beards based on the opinion of the scholars who say so, should thus - and this situation ensures them - follow the opinions which states that it is makruh (to shave one’s beard) in order to prevent oneself from feeling sinful, based on the (legal maxim) which has been determined that: Whomever is tested with something which has been differed on (its ruling) by scholars should follow the opinion (of scholars) that permits in order to abstain from committing sin." Please refer: http://www.draligomaa.com

[19] Maḥmūd Shaltūt, Al-Fatāwā, Dār al-Shurūq, pg.229.

[20] Al-Suyūṭī, Al-Ashbāh wa Al-Naẓāir, Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, pg.158.