Is a short back and sides or faded haircut haram?

{Arabic} {Arabic} {Arabic} we're going to be taking a look at some questions that have come these at times are quite common and I have have been repeatedly asked some of these I'd like to go through them offering an explanation {Arabic} a question that has come to me quite often is to do with the haircut that a haircut

which is quite often described as 'short back and sides' so having shorter hair round the sides round the back is this Haram? And there is quite commonly an understanding amongst people that to have such a haircut is Haram so you see that many people when they go into the masaajid they're going to the madaaris they're going to all of these places, especially the younger younger lot, if you like, they get told off quite often that this is a haram haircut you can't have things like this and then all of a sudden they'll probably see someone like me and they'll then tell me

as well that isn't that Haram and hence all these questions and a lot of these comments as well at times people will say look I just totally can't understand how this person being a Mufti or being whatever, can have his hair in a manner that is Haram so I'd like to take a quick look at this as a question biithnillah now what they're referring to is called al Qaza' in arabic okay Qaza' that's with an 'Ayn at the end now there is a hadith so the source or the origin of this understanding comes from this hadith which is in sahih Muslim is transmitted on the authority of Ibn Umar (RA)

it's also in Bukhari that the Prophet (SAW) he prohibited Qaza' now Qaza' what is the definition of Qaza'? Qaza' was understood to mean linguistically patches and it comes from the word in Arabic referring to clouds that clouds that they appeared in certain types of patches almost and so that's this understanding that the Prophet (SAW) he forbade Qaza' and he was talking about the hair at the time therefore this is haram this is the understanding that what people are conveying what they you know what

they're taking from this hadith now that is not necessarily accurate okay I'm not saying that some people are not entitled to an opinion like that they may be and people do hold that opinion, some, that is not necessarily accurate in terms of this hadith many our ulema understood this hadith to be different this hadith is also transmitted the same type of one from Ibn Umar in the version in Nisaai actually mentions which is also in Abu Dawood as well that a child kind of runs

past or comes past the Prophet (SAW) and this child has a strange type of haircut where he's got like a plait almost like a certain amount of his hair coming out and the rest is completely shaved off now he's got this patch on the top of his head full of hair and everything else around on his head is shaved off and the Prophet (SAW) says in the hadith that you know what is this {Arabic} that he says that {Arabic} that either shave or remove all of his hair or leave all of his head that what are you doing? this is a form of almost

like a disfigurement that's going on that you are you know you're getting this child and you're kind of distorting his hair like that in response in line with that in line with this hadith Ibn Umar transmits the general version saying Prophet (SAW) forbade this action Qaza' Nafi' along with Obeidallah when transmitting that hadith or when commenting on it is explained Qaza' is to shave in patches okay now Obeidullah Himself he mentions that that as to a Qassa to just shave as

to just cutting of the hair, or he says al Qaffa that like for example the the back of the head {Arabic} he does actually mention for the boy he says these type of things do not actually come into that hadith furthermore we have a narration the same so here on one on one hand you have Abu Dawood transmitting this hadith from Ibn Umar Abu Dawood is also transmitting a hadith from an Anas Ibn Malik (RA) who explains that he had almost like a plait of hair, he had this braid {Arabic}

they call it in Arabic and his hair kind of plaited and braided and he says that and that does not mean {Arabic} isn't we're talking about the whole we're talking about it coming out of the back on the side a kind of plait or braid if you like cool it's called a {Arabic} in Arabic now that the {Arabic} he says that my mother said to me that I will not cut this {Arabic} of yours for I have seen she says {Arabic} that I will not cut it I will not remove it I've seen that the Prophet (SAW) at times held you by it and he would kind of like whilst he's kind of taking you sometimes

hold onto your plait and he would kind of this braid and so out of love and honour for the Prophet (SAW) I won't shave or remove this {Arabic} furthermore you have some narrations from other companions Zaid ibn Thaabit (RA) for example who is explained who is described in certain hadiths as a when he was a young person engaged in the Deen that when he was coming to listen to learn that he was described as he had {Arabic} he had two kind of plaits and braids main kind of coming out now this what the point of mentioning that before I even get to the rulings of

the scholars the point of mentioning that is when a person can kind of plait ot braid his hair from let's say here from the sides or from the back this shows that their hair is unquestionably of different lengths you cannot have for example long hair and all of the hair on your head is of equal length we know from the description of the Prophet (SAW) that he had long hair on some in some narrations it was a {Arabic} they would usually say is up to the earlobe just round there or {Arabic} and there's a different

some say that {Arabic} is longer than the {Arabic} but the point is that at some times the Prophet (SAW) had hair that reached his up to his shoulders other times was just long enough to to hang probably about the at the bottom of the the neck if you like and other times with slightly shorter as in it hanged just below the earlobes now anybody who has had long hair or understands long hair will realize that you cannot have it at equal lengths you see so for example I personally have had long here and I will and anybody that is aware of this will understand that when as you hair is growing long the hair for example in the sideburns or round here cannot be the same length as

the hair that's growing over here because this hair will grow and reach right towards the back this here at the same time can't be of the same length it gets trimmed so this argument that every single hair the head of a person must be of equal length is a redundant argument actually I mean it has no basis no clear basis at all in the quran or sunnah the hadith that they're talking about are referring to Qaza' which is a form of disfigurement it's not in any way talking about having here which is of unequal length even then the ulama said that this Qaza' was in essence

prohibited because it shared some resemblance with certain non Muslim practices and when we say non Muslim practices practices that were almost deemed associated with their religion so having hair in a particular way as certain monks did of certain times so you find that certain monks would do things like they would shave off the entire head and leave a certain patch of hair now having an answer and several places and customs on a religious basis continue to do that till today whether it's going to be aspects of you know Buddhist monks or other monks you will see throughout history some

Christian monks and things like this but the point being that many of the ulama said this prohibition came in line with that the {Arabic} and the type of similarities it carried to non-muslim religious practices, as to somebody who just does Qaza' and I'm not even talking about unequal hair let's not confuse the two Qaza' in itself if you were shaving so let's say somebody is not just doing 'short back and sides' because 'short back and sides' does not fall under Qaza' that is a distorted understanding taken from this

hadith to say well Qaza' is talking about unequal length, it is not, it's talking about patches where parts are completely shaved and parts are left so even if we take if we take this understanding of Qaza' so sometimes you've seen I don't know how popular it is now but many years ago there was a trend for a hairstyle like a step cut so people would have they would completely shave a portion of their head like around the sides and they would leave this on top and I think these variations of that type of hairstyle still around so the point is what about something like that now that at least at least it

ties in a bit more accurately with the hadeeth 'short back and sides' and these type of things don't even tie in with the Hadith okay that's just a misrepresentation but something like a step cut is at least it falls into in line with the Hadith so what do Ulama say about people who do actually do Qaza' now if we categorize that as Qaza' there is a difference of opinion amongst the Ulama even then many of the Ulama including from the Maliki mathhab from Imam Malik it is understood and and Ulama before him in Medina like from the tabieen Qasim and so on these other people they have spoken about either

they have said that qaza' was specific that it wasn't the Prophet (SAW) was not saying it was forbidden in terms of it being Haram just per se because of itself they've given the same explanations that this was due to {Arabic} or things like this and then they have been some Ulama that have said that this is regardless of the intention this will be discouraged it is makruh Imam An Nawawi as well adds light sheds light on that saying that this karaha (dislike)that the Ulama speak of is {Arabic} the Malikiya just have {Arabic} anyway regardless I mean in the in the main

understanding of the mathhab so when things are makrooh by makrooh they do not mean haram, I was saying Imam Nawawi also just clarifies as well saying that this karaha is a {Arabic} meaning it is discouraged as in because there's some hadith that still ties into it there's a sense of discouragement but it is not forbidden okay now so that's to summarize once again that having a haircut like 'short back and sides' or something like this which is very common this is in no way forbidden it is absolutely that is permissible and it does not fall under the hadith of Qaza'

however to do Qaza' as in if somebody was completely shaving parts of his head and leaving patches that at least falls under the categorization of the hadith at least then in the main understanding it's still not haram because it is not done to distort it is not done to kind of make resemblance with another religious practice of another religion so based on these two understandings at most it will be makruh a lesser a very light what is called {Arabic} according to other mathhabs or makruh (disliked) according to some of the Ulama

of the mathhab which is still a part of what they call Ibaha permissibility so just to clarify you are allowed to have a haircut like that the key I mean just to simplify here as well before we close this question the key point and objective the Sharia has maqasid it has objectives and the key maqsad here is to avoid disfigurement to avoid Distortion okay something that is done - almost mutate and make somebody on purpose kind of look ugly or - kind of like these type of things are have been have been kind of warned against in the

Sharia that the Deen is a natural Deen and it is not about enhancing it was about the opposite about making so that child that the Prophet (SAW) saw is about making them appear to be almost disfigured in a way and these and it's those type of actions that are condemned within the Deen {Arabic} for that inshallah we will continue with other questions at another time Salam aleikum