who—judging from his book—appears sincerely devoted to Islam and keen that it remain as pure and sound as it was in the Prophet’s ﷺ time. Yet after reproducing authentic hadiths that command Muslims to grow their beards in opposition to the polytheists, he goes on to state:
“The instruction to grow it is nothing more than a recommendation; it belongs to the class of purely outward matters to which Islam attaches no great weight and which it never imposes on its followers. Instead, it leaves such things to their personal tastes and to the requirements of their particular environments and eras.”
Consider, then, how this zealous defender of Islamic rulings paves the way to abolish the command to grow the beard: first by reducing it to the level of mere recommendation, and then by claiming that Islam has left this recommended act to the tastes and circumstances of the Muslims themselves—so that if they happen to like it they may practice it, not because the Prophet ﷺ ordered it, but simply because it agrees
1 – Your claim that the above-mentioned reports are not mutawatir (mass-transmitted) is inadmissible—whether it comes from you or from earlier writers such as Shaykh Shaltut—because it was not issued by specialists in hadith. In fact, it contradicts the testimony of recognized experts such as the hadith masters Ibn Kathir, Ibn Hajar, al-Shawkani and others, all of whom state explicitly that the hadith of the Divine Descent is mutawatir. If that report is mutawatir, then a fortiori the hadith concerning the emergence of the Dajjal is mutawatir, for its chains are even more numerous, as every student of this noble science knows. On one occasion I gathered only the sound isnads for the Descent hadith and they exceeded twenty chains narrated by nineteen Companions. If that is not mutawatir, what is?
2 – You—and others, whoever they may be—divide sound hadith into two categories: (a) reports the Muslim must accept and act upon, namely those dealing with legal rulings, and (b) reports he need not accept or believe, namely those concerning creed and the unseen. I say: this is an innovative division with no basis in the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of His Messenger, nor was it known to the pious predecessors. The general proofs that obligate acting upon hadith apply equally to both categories without distinction. Whoever alleges an exception must kindly present his evidence—yet none exists!
I later wrote two highly important treatises refuting this spurious division: The Obligation of Accepting Lone-Narrated Hadith in Creed, and The Hadith as an Independent Proof in Matters of Creed and Law.