[USML Announce] Slate Article: Muslim Beards 101

bljansen at gmail.com bljansen at gmail.com
Tue Sep 11 11:38:15 EDT 2007


Brad Lee Bad Ass has sent you an article from Slate Magazine
<http://www.slate.com> .

Awaiting word on hair plugs......

	
 <http://letters.slate.com/W0RH020B9669EDE063B3630DEEC1A0> 

	
explainer
 <http://letters.slate.com/W0RH0208EC89FCFB9593E30D20DEA0> 

Muslim Beards 101
Are Muslims allowed to dye their facial hair?
By Michelle Tsai
Posted Monday, Sept. 10, 2007, at 6:53 PM ET



Days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama Bin
Laden appeared in a new video message
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6985086.stm>  urging Americans
to embrace Islam. Bin Laden sported a trimmed, dark beard instead of his
bushy, gray <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6370527/site/newsweek/>
trademark. Some analysts suggest that he has dyed the beard as a sign of
war <http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jd5pBOwn96OTHp62cOyOm5fkChIQ> ;
others think he now shaves to avoid detection and is just donning a wig
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20697164/site/newsweek/> . Can a Muslim dye
his beard?

Yes, although many imams believe it should be discouraged. Islam
emphasizes modesty and simplicity, but some of Mohammed's sayings (or
hadith <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith> ) recommend covering up
gray hair with henna or a dye called katam. According to the hadith of
Sahih Bukhari
<http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/> , this
would set Muslims apart from Jews and Christians, who (according to
Mohammed) didn't dye their hair. The prophet said to avoid black hair
coloring
<http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/024.smt.ht
ml> , however, probably because you weren't supposed to try to mimic a
natural hue.

The Quran says nothing on the subject of keeping beards, but believers
are urged to follow the example of the prophets, who all had them.
Mohammed in particular maintained a neat, groomed appearance, and
scholars believe he trimmed his facial hair. The general guideline from
Sahih Bukhari boils down to "Trim the mustache, keep the beard."
Followers should cut their mustaches short enough that the skin above
the upper lip is visible, and grow beards to at least a fistful in
length. A longer beard isn't automatically better, though. According to
one account in the hadith of Malik's Muwatta
<http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muwatta/051.mmt.h
tml#051.51.3.8> , the prophet sent a man with disheveled hair out of the
mosque to groom his beard. Muslims must also refrain from trimming their
hair during the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca?at least until they've
walked seven times around the Kaaba <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba>
 

In the view of modern, mainstream Islam, growing a beard is recommended
but not always required. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a respected Sunni scholar in
Egypt, says beards are optional. Taha Jabir al-Alwani, who helped found
the International Institute of Islamic Thought in the United States,
believes Muslims don't need to wear beards if it interferes with daily
functioning?like if facial hair is prohibited at your place of work or
if beards are uncommon in the country where you live. Relatively few
Muslims wear big beards in places like Turkey, Algeria, and Morocco,
where such an outward display of being Islamic might invite scrutiny
from government authorities. Imams in Northern Africa also don't tend to
have much facial hair.

On the other hand, you won't find too many sheiks or imams without
impressive beards in the Sufi tradition. The reasoning here is that the
worshippers are concerned only with their inward selves and not with
outward appearances?thus the careless beards and mops of hair. Religious
men in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh also prefer to
signal their religious devotion with their beards. Muslims from
Salafism, the literalist tradition to which Bin Laden is believed to
subscribe, have also adopted the big beard.

Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer
<mailto:ask_the_explainer at yahoo.com> . 

Explainer thanks Imam Johari Abdul Malik of Dar Al Hijrah Islamic
Center, Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid of the Council of the Islamic
Organizations of Greater Chicago, and Vernon Schubel of Kenyon College.

Michelle Tsai is a writer living in Jersey City, N.J.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2173658/

Copyright 2007 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC

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