for his only ground for departing from this foundational rule in this matter is his claim that Islam pays no heed to outward appearances at all. Yet that assertion is unsupported by evidence and is in fact overturned by many hadiths, as we now say:
Second: He maintains that Islam is indifferent to every external appearance and that the beard is one such case. I reply: This claim is categorically false; no fair-minded person, free of caprice, will doubt that after considering the following sound reports:
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Ibn ʿAbbās said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ cursed men who imitate women and women who imitate men.”
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ʿĀʾishah reported that a young woman from the Anṣār was married, then fell ill and her hair fell out. Her family wanted to attach false hair to her and asked the Prophet ﷺ about it. He said: “May Allah curse the one who adds hair and the one who asks for it to be added.”
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Ibn Masʿūd reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “May Allah curse the tattooers and those who are tattooed, the eyebrow-pluckers and those who have their eyebrows plucked, and those who file their teeth for beauty, altering Allah’s creation.”
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ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw me wearing two garments dyed with safflower and said: “These are garments of the unbelievers; do not wear them.”
These hadiths were recorded by the two Imams in their Sahih collections, except the last, which Muslim alone transmitted. They are also cited in my works Etiquette of Marriage and The Muslim Woman’s Dress.
There are many more reports on this topic; they form the substance of Ibn Taymiyyah’s book Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm Mukhālafat Aṣḥāb al-Jaḥīm. Whoever wishes may consult it.
These explicit texts show that Islam most certainly does give weight to outward appearances