Shaving the Entire Body upon Joining a Dervish Community

Question

In this area, when the dervish community inducts a person into their dervish group, the spiritual guide or elder of that group orders that the entire body hair of the person being inducted be shaved off with a razor, and, upon his order, the person appointed for this shaves all the body hair completely with a razor — to the point that if a person already has a beard grown, whether in accordance with the Sunna or not, it too is shaved off — and then he joins the dervish group.

Answer

This method is forbidden (haram) and a grave act of disobedience. Attributing it to Hazrat Hasan al-Basri is an outright slander — a fabrication against him.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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