# Do I have to grow a beard?

*Do you have to grow a beard? Arab custom, the 'be different' hadith and selective application*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vf5yueyz9vo/s/1/
- Date: 2018-06-12 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Do You Have to Grow a Beard? -Mufti Abu Layth (0:00–4:34)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF5yuEYz9Vo&t=0s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vf5yueyz9vo/

**Topics:** Beard, moustache and hair; Hadith in legal reasoning and hadith absolutism; Legal theory and method

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The beard was the custom of all Arabs, not something the Prophet introduced, and the 'be different from the Jews and Christians' wording is applied selectively, since the same words command dyeing hair and praying in shoes. The Prophet never defined what a beard should look like, and scholars disagree whether the command was binding.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that the beard was the common custom of all Arabs including the disbelievers of Quraysh rather than something the Prophet introduced, that the 'be different from the Jews and Christians' wording is applied selectively since the same words command dyeing the hair and praying in shoes, and that the Prophet never once defined what the beard should look like.

**Evidence, his words at 3:15:** “yet the wording is the same in all of them but we have selective application like we reject where the Prophet said it here and we accept it where he said it here so that's not consistency” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF5yuEYz9Vo&t=195s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet did have a long beard, about a fist, but so did everybody in Arabia, including the disbelievers of Quraysh, so the beard was not something the Prophet introduced and the question is how one knows it is Islamic. To those who say the Prophet commanded growing a beard he answers that most people in the room have a beard of some sort, a goatee is still a beard, and whether it is the type worn in Arabia is beside the point. He takes the hadith 'be different to the Jews and the Christians, grow the beard', noting that the wordings differ and some narrations say 'the mushrikin', and remarks that since Jews today wear very long beards, practising that hadith would mean shaving. He then shows the same wording used elsewhere: 'be different to the Jews and the Christians, dye your hair', which people treat as voluntary and not even Islamic, and 'be different to the Jews and the Christians, pray with your shoes on', which people would condemn; the wording is identical in all three, yet one defines a person's Islam, one is optional and one is forbidden, which he calls selective application and not consistency. He argues that if the beard were so important, in some twenty-three years of prophethood the Prophet would at least once have defined what it should look like, and notes that scholars disagree: some took it as a command, some as a recommendation like dyeing the hair, and some as a matter of custom.

## Sources and names cited

- lihyah (beard)
- report: be different to the mushrikin trim the moustaches and let the beards grow
- report: be different to the jews and the christians and dye your hair
- report: be different to the jews and the christians and pray in your shoes
- Quraysh
- reports with the same wording must be applied consistently
- urf (custom)

## Transcript (machine tier, 0:00–4:34)

[0:00] the point so this beard saying that the Prophet had a long beard he did and when you say long as in like maybe like a fist but then everybody in Arabia had that the robber didn't introduce the beard it is a okay I've introduced something everybody had it the kuffar of Quraish had had beards just as long so the question comes how do you know it's Islamic like that's the question so people say yes but the Prophet said grow a beard okay so look like most people in this room have got a beard of some sort like if you were describing them you would say yeah you know somebody asked

[0:38] you let's say we've got to describe you - I don't know Crimewatch say yeah the guy had a beard I probably say like I'd say yeah he had like in the Upstate he had like a little goatee kind of beard so it's a beard now people will say yes but it wasn't the type that they used to have in Arabia and no I mean what's that got to do with anything the other thing is that people say no but the Prophet said have a beard so you said well okay well show me these are hadith so they show you the hadith of the Prophet said you look like the beard grow first of all this some debate because these come with the wordings be

[1:17] different to the Jews and the Christians yeah so the hadith comes and in some narrations holliford mushrikeen but hardly full yahuda oneness honor go against the Jews in the Christian arguably today the Jews have beards very long beard so if you're gonna practice that hadith you probably shave your beard because obviously you're imitating them by having a beard today the other thing is okay let's look at some other things that the Prophet used this same wording same wording he said be different to the Jews and the Christians grow your beard one oh it's an obligation it's what they find Islam

[1:57] it's everything if you don't have a beard you're a forsake this is the attitude okay let's talk to rule number two be different to the Jews and the Christians and do what dye your hair color you here what that's not Islamic to Kalia what is it Islamic as it defines your Islam it's the same wording yeah yeah but this is just oh this is just voluntary oh it's not even Islamic it's just up to you it's up to you if you want to color your hair but the Prophet said be different

[2:36] to the Jews and the critical no no but he was just saying this if you ask this is just saying this today it's ok you don't need to dye your beard it's not Islamic so now anything hmm let's look at the third example be different to the Jews and the Christian pray with your shoes on what the hell have you lost your mind you'd be condemned this one isn't even a choice this one's a hell no you better not do that so look how we've gone we've gone from it identifies your Islam now the Prophet just said they behave you know you don't need to go dying you hear

[3:15] all these more funky colors prophet was just saying you know color your hair dye your hair third one oh you better not do that you lost your mind then pray with your shoes on yet the wording is the same in all of them but we have selective application like we reject where the Prophet said it here and we accept it where he said it here so that's not consistency so that and my point is this tell me the Prophet the beard was that important throughout the entire lifetime of the Prophet wouldn't he have even once made it clear what the beard should look like at least one

[3:54] honey they should be at least one where the Prophet said by the way guys by the way people have your beard like this up to here looking like this you would have said it at least once think about it all those years 23 years approximately give or take of prophethood and not even once he said to grow the beard properly like defining and people say yeah but and the scholars disagree some people said this was the beard some people said look that was just a command like the coloring the hair they said it was just a ball three c'mon like roll the beer some people said it was because it was the custom

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment vF5yuEYz9Vo/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vf5yueyz9vo/s/1/

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