The length of the beard and its ruling in detail

Question

Question: (1) Is growing the beard fard, wajib or sunna, and why? (2) The jurists have set the length of the beard at four fingers. Is this textually stipulated (mansus)? If so, which text (nass) is it? (3) The consensus (ijma‘) of the Umma, which is a proof of the Shari‘a — whose consensus is taken into account? (4) Does the Umma still retain the possibility of consensus on any matter or not? If not, why? (5) The definition of ijma‘. (6)

Answer

(1) Growing the beard is wajib, and shaving or cutting it before it reaches the prescribed limit is haram. [ar]يحرم على الرجل قطع لحيته[/ar] “It is unlawful (haram) for a man to cut his beard” (al-Durr al-Mukhtar). [ar]حلق اللحية مثلة في حق الرجال، والمثلة حرام، فحلق اللحية حرام[/ar] “Shaving the beard is mutilation (muthla)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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