However, theoretical investigation is one matter, while practical application is another. If a person avoids removing any of his hair—such as his moustache, underarm hair, and pubic hair—as a precaution, that is good. But to make this binding upon him and deem him sinful if he removes it, despite the absence of evidence overriding the presumption of permissibility, is open to question.

His statement, “and trimming the nails”: this is the second prohibition. Had he said, “removing the nails,” it would have been more comprehensive, encompassing their removal by trimming, cutting, or otherwise.

Trimming them means cutting them. In earlier times, nails were trimmed with a small knife, by which the nail would be cut just as a pen is trimmed.

No textual proof—whether from the Quran or from the Prophet—has been reported concerning the trimming of nails. Rather, they analogically equated it with shaving the hair on the grounds that both involve comfort and grooming. If Dawud (1) disputed extending the ruling concerning the rest of the body hair to the hair of the head, then this case is even more so. For this reason, it is mentioned in al-Furu' that there is a possible view that it is not among the prohibitions, based on the view that the rest of the body hair is not among the prohibitions.

However, some scholars have reported a consensus that it is among the prohibitions. If this consensus is sound, then there is no excuse for opposing it; rather, it must be followed. If it is not sound, then trimming the nails should be examined just as we examined shaving the rest of the body hair.

His statement, “trimming the nails,” includes removing them by any means, whether through trimming, cutting, something else, or pulling them out.