# If Muslims focus too much on the beard, what deserves more focus?

*Too much focus on the beard: al-Mutanabbi on trimmed moustaches*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/s/31/
- Date: 2020-08-24 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #179 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (2:17:34–2:20:36)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmtt2TQAO0&t=8254s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/

**Topics:** Beard, moustache and hair; Arabic poetry and men of letters

**Question as asked:** You once said the beard has had too much focus. Which part of Islam do you feel has not had enough focus?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth answers by mocking the focus on beards and shaved moustaches, quoting al-Mutanabbi that such an ummah has become a laughing stock.

## Longer summary

After chat banter about his moderators, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question: since he once said the beard has had too much focus, which part of Islam has not had enough? He calls it an interesting question and answers through the beard itself, describing the look of a fully shaved moustache with a grown beard as horrible and citing Imam Malik's [?] remark that even the devil could not have made them look more ridiculous. He quotes al-Mutanabbi's line asking whether the height of their religion is to trim their moustaches, an ummah that other nations laugh at, and says that is what Muslims have become.

## Sources and names cited

- al-Mutanabbi
- Imam Malik [?]

## Transcript (machine tier, 2:17:34–2:20:36)

[2:16:54] [Laughter] you know you just keep wishing it and then you're like i'm sure there was something like that there was something i heard once there is there is a teaching that's the kind of evolution of some of these hadith yes so right what is going on people right [Music] i'm just trying to see some questions people uh right more people seem to be interested in uh the female mods

[2:17:33] i've got than they do in my show [Laughter] see this is this this is what you get there's more questions being directed at them are you kashmiri i am a kashmiri yes right so mufti is a somebody saying you secret chav a super chat you mean have i missed a super chat um

[2:18:04] music no the the gangutili one i'm gonna come to that in just a moment yep so a lot of love ahori you're doing it you're doing it all the way from is that all the way from germany yep you're doing it youtube right um you once said that the beard is having too much focus which part of islam do you feel has not had enough focus avaroeus dude has asked that's an interesting question i said that the beard in islam seems to have had too much

[2:18:43] focus uh what part of islam does not have enough focus uh there's uh in the words of muttanabi the arabic poet he says because you know with the beard they trim their tash and they kind of some of them shave honestly it's a it's a absolutely horrible sight they end up with but anyway they do that they completely shave their tash and they grow the beard and just looks horrible but imam malik actually said to them that you know even

[2:19:22] if the shaitaan tried to do a number on you he couldn't have made you look more ridiculous than you made yourself look so but people do that so the poet says and that's associated with the beard usually so he said yes that he says is this the depth of your deen that you should just trim your tash he says oh what an ummah it says an ummah that other umams other civilizations just laugh at

[2:20:00] now that's what we've become a laughingstock right right so some pashtuns look hindu too i don't know what that means right so people seem to be more obsessed right guys can you focus huh focus

[2:20:35] [Laughter] you know i was trying to bring up a uh i was trying to bring up this comment but i couldn't find it it was so funny damn i wanted to take a screenshot when it was there and i thought i'll do it later on in the day and and i couldn't find it i was like damn somebody had asked me a question in my comment he said uh mufti is it uh before the marriage is the is the sax sax he said can one uh uh have the can one do the sacks i was like yeah this this

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment KWmtt2TQAO0/s/31. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kwmtt2tqao0/s/31/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.