Shaving the beard off completely

Q: What is the ruling on shaving off the beard completely?

Hanafi:

The Prophet ﷺ said, “Differ from the Pagans, remove the moustaches and excuse the beards.”[1]

“Excusing of the beards: Muhammad said, narrating from Abu Hanifah: “Leaving them until they become thick and plentiful.” The trimming of them is sunnah which is that a man grasps hold of his beard and cuts off what is more than his fist because the beard is adornment and it being plentiful is from the completion of adornment, but it being extremely long is opposed to the Sunnah.”[2]

“Shaving the beard is a type of disfiguration because Allah (exalted is He) has adorned men with beards and women with plaits.”[3]

Maliki:

“The Prophet ﷺ said, “Differ from the Pagans, make the beards plentiful and remove the moustaches. Whenever Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) performed Hajj or Umrah used to grasp his beard and cut off whatever was excess.”[4]

“It is prohibited for a man to shave his beard or his moustache and the one who does it is disciplined. A woman must shave both of them according to the dominant opinion.”[5]

Shafi’i:

“The Prophet ﷺ said, “Differ from the Pagans, make the beards plentiful and remove the moustaches. Whenever Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) performed Hajj or Umrah used to grasp his beard and cut off whatever was excess.”[6]

Imam al-Dimyati comments on the statement in Fath al-Mu’in:

“And it is forbidden to shave the beard.” by saying, “The dominant opinion with al-Ghazali, Shaykh al-Islam, Ibn Hajar in al-Tuhfah, al-Ramli, al-Khatib, and others is dislike.”[7]

Hanbali:

“The Prophet ﷺ said, “Differ from the Pagans, make the beards plentiful and remove the moustaches. Whenever Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him) performed Hajj or Umrah used to grasp his beard and cut off whatever was excess.”[8]

“It is recommended to excuse the beard because of what we mentioned from the hadith, but is cutting what is more than a fist’s length disliked? There are two views regarding it, one is that it is disliked…and the second is that it is not disliked.”[9]

“It is not disliked to cut off what is surplus of a fist’s length and what is less than shaving. He removes his moustache which is better than trimming it.”[10]

Answered by Shaykh Bilal Brown

[1] (Muslim, 256).

[2] (Al-Ikhtiyar li Ta’lil al-Mukhtar, Chapter of Disapprobation “al-Karahiyah”).

[3] (Al-Bada’i al-Sana’i, Chapter of Hajj).

[4] (Al-Bukhari, 5892).

[5] (Hashiyah al-Dasuqi, Chapter of Obligatory Acts of Wudu).

[6] (Al-Bukhari, 5892).

[7] (I’anatu al-Talibin ala Hall Alfaz Fath al-Mu’in, Chapter of Hajj).

[8] (Al-Bukhari, 5892).

[9] (Sharh al-Kabir ‘ala matn al-Muqni’, Chapter of Wudu).

[10] (Al-Rawd al-Murbi’, Chapter of Purification).