The Shafi‘i Position on Shaving and Trimming the Beard
The relied-upon position of the later Shafi‘i madhhab is that growing and preserving the beard is Sunnah/mustahabb, while shaving it is makruh rather than haram. This is not a modern position and it is not an isolated statement of one late scholar; it is explicitly found throughout the authoritative Shafi‘i corpus.
At the same time, a significant number of classical Shafi‘i authorities understood shaving as prohibited. The issue therefore represents a genuine internal disagreement within the madhhab, followed by a later process of tarjih through which the position of karahah rather than tahrim became the muʿtamad.
Imam al-Shafi‘i himself states in al-Umm:
«وَهُوَ وَإِنْ كَانَ فِي اللِّحْيَةِ لَا يَجُوزُ...»
“And that, even though it concerns the beard, is not permissible...”
This occurs in the discussion of shaving another person's beard without permission in Kitab al-Jirāḥ wa al-Diyāt (al-Umm 6/88). Ibn al-Rif‘ah and al-Isnawi understood this wording as evidence for prohibition, although the passage occurs within a discussion of injury and liability rather than as an independent chapter on beard grooming.
More importantly, Imam al-Shafi‘i also states in al-Umm, in the discussion of leaving iḥrām:
«وَأَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ لَوْ أَخَذَ مِنْ لِحْيَتِهِ وَشَارِبَيْهِ حَتَّى يَضَعَ مِنْ شَعْرِهِ شَيْئًا لِلَّهِ، وَإِنْ لَمْ يَفْعَلْ فَلَا شَيْءَ عَلَيْهِ...»
“It is more beloved to me that he take something from his beard and his moustache, so that he removes some of his hair for Allah; and if he does not do so, there is nothing upon him...”
Thus, the early Shafi‘i material cannot simply be reduced to an absolute prohibition on every form of trimming.
Al-Ghazali in Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn (1/143) records the disagreement concerning taking from the beard, including the practice of Ibn ʿUmar and a group of the Successors of removing what exceeded a fist. He says:
«وَالْأَمْرُ فِي هَذَا قَرِيبٌ إِنْ لَمْ يَنْتَهِ إِلَى تَقْصِيصِ اللِّحْيَةِ وَتَدْوِيرِهَا مِنَ الْجَوَانِبِ»
“The matter in this is close, so long as it does not reach the point of cutting the beard very short and rounding it from the sides.”
He also places reducing the beard among the disliked practices:
«وَفِي اللِّحْيَةِ عَشْرُ خِصَالٍ مَكْرُوهَةٌ... وَالنُّقْصَانُ مِنْهَا وَالزِّيَادَةُ»
“In the beard there are ten disliked characteristics... including decreasing from it and increasing it.”
Al-Nawawi in al-Majmūʿ (1/290–291) says:
«وَالصَّحِيحُ كَرَاهَةُ الْأَخْذِ مِنْهَا مُطْلَقًا، بَلْ يَتْرُكُهَا عَلَى حَالِهَا كَيْفَ كَانَتْ؛ لِلْحَدِيثِ الصَّحِيحِ: وَأَعْفُوا اللِّحَى»
“The sound position is that taking from it is disliked absolutely; rather, it is left as it is, whatever its condition may be, because of the authentic hadith: ‘Spare the beards.’”
In Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (3/149–151), he likewise says:
«وَالْمُخْتَارُ تَرْكُ اللِّحْيَةِ عَلَى حَالِهَا وَأَلَّا يَتَعَرَّضَ لَهَا بِتَقْصِيرِ شَيْءٍ أَصْلًا»
“The preferred position is to leave the beard in its natural state and not to subject it to any shortening whatsoever.”
Thus, al-Nawawi clearly prefers leaving the beard untouched, but expresses the ruling in terms of karāhah, not taḥrīm.
The Linguistic Meaning and the Legal Force of the Commands
The principal Prophetic expressions are:
«أَعْفُوا اللِّحَى»
“Spare the beards.”
«وَفِّرُوا اللِّحَى»
“Leave the beards abundant.”
«أَوْفُوا اللِّحَى»
“Let the beards grow fully.”
«أَرْخُوا اللِّحَى»
“Let the beards hang freely.”
The linguistic meanings all point in the same direction. Iʿfāʾ carries the meaning of allowing something to increase and leaving it without interference; tawfīr means leaving something abundant and full; īfāʾ conveys completeness and fullness; and irkhāʾ means letting something hang and extend.
Therefore, the linguistic meaning is clear: the Prophet ﷺ instructed that the beard be left abundant and allowed to grow rather than reduced.
The Shafi‘i argument, however, does not require claiming that these words linguistically mean “recommended.” They do not. The important distinction is between the meaning of the command and its legal force.
This is part of the wider Shafi‘i discussion of the imperative in uṣūl al-fiqh. In Nihāyat al-Wuṣūl, Safi al-Din al-Hindi gives taʾdīb as an example of a non-obligatory use of the imperative:
«الثَّالِثُ: التَّأْدِيبُ كَقَوْلِهِ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ: كُلْ مِمَّا يَلِيكَ، وَالْفَرْقُ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَ النَّدْبِ فَرْقُ مَا بَيْنَ الْعَامِّ وَالْخَاصِّ؛ فَإِنَّ كُلَّ تَأْدِيبٍ مَنْدُوبٌ إِلَيْهِ»
“The third [use of the command] is taʾdīb (instruction in proper manners), such as his ﷺ saying: ‘Eat from what is near you.’ The difference between it and nadb is that between the general and the specific, for every act of taʾdīb is something recommended.”
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in al-Maḥṣūl fī ʿIlm al-Uṣūl and al-Baydawi in Minhāj al-Wuṣūl ilā ʿIlm al-Uṣūl likewise discuss nadb and other recognized uses of the imperative, showing the broader Shafi‘i usuli principle that the form ifʿal is not restricted to one unavoidable legal meaning in every context.
To be continued.
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