❖ Difference Between the Obligation of Ṣalāh and Keeping the Beard – Shar‘i Clarification ❖
Source: Aḥkām wa Masāʾil fī Ḍawʾ al-Qurʾān wal-Ḥadīth, Vol. 1, p. 517
✿ Question:
You have written that keeping the beard is farḍ, which I do not dispute. However, a scholar has asked: since both praying ṣalāh and keeping the beard are farḍ, is there any difference between the two obligations or not? Kindly explain both separately for clarity.
✿ Answer:
Al-ḥamdu lillāh, waṣ-ṣalātu wa-s-salāmu ʿalā Rasūlillāh, ammā baʿd:
① Keeping the Beard
- Keeping the beard is farḍ.
- Whoever shaves his beard or is pleased with others shaving it, while not considering it wrong in his heart, such a person exits from īmān — because he no longer possesses even the lowest degree of faith (aḍʿaf al-īmān).
② Performing Ṣalāh
- Ṣalāh is among the pillars of Islam.
- Its deliberate abandonment removes a person from Islām.
- The Prophet ﷺ said:
بَيْنَ الْعَبْدِ وَالْكُفْرِ تَرْكُ الصَّلَاةِ
“Between a person and disbelief stands the abandonment of prayer.”
Conclusion:- Both keeping the beard and praying are obligations (farḍ).
- The difference is that:
- Neglecting the beard is a grave sin, and denial of its obligation removes a person from īmān.
- Abandoning ṣalāh itself constitutes kufr and exits a person from Islām directly.
