The System of Mushawarat in Jama'at-e-Ahmadiyya — Page 134
I cannot say it with certainty about the Holy Prophetsa, but the Promised Messiah (as) would cut and trim his beard regularly. I do the same. If I allowed my beard to grow it could grow much bigger. The Promised Messiah (as) used to trim his beard every week, and some people collected the hair from his beard as Tabarruk [sacred relic]. I also had some which I kept in a bottle, but someone took it. Once I told some students not to shave their beards. They stopped shaving, but they would trim their beards so fine with scissors that they looked as if they had shaved. When I spoke to them, they said they had not shaved, they had only trimmed their beards. The thing is that one should wear a beard, no matter how big or how small, or o f which fashion. We know that some o f the Companions had small beards, and the Shariah does not tell us how long a beard should be. We also know that the Holy Prophetsa had a long beard, and if someone follows his example in this regard he does so as an expression o f love for him. The beard may be o f any size, the size o f a grain or a handful, it depends on one’s own liking. N o one has the right to interfere in this matter; anyone who does so interferes in the Shariah. . . The Holy Prophet53 did say that one should lengthen one’s beard, but this does not imply that one should keep oiling and grooming it until it virtually sweeps the ground. The H oly Prophet’ssa injunction was in fact with reference to the Jews who used to shave their beards. . . This has become a very interesting issue, per haps it has always been so. Some are saying the Mullahism is trying to impose itself, while the religious scholars are agitated and keep sending me notes to sanc tion the keeping o f long beards. But the discussion is not ________ T he S ystem of M ushawarat in J ama ‘ at - e - ahmadiyya ________ 134