of fear of them still lingered in his ﷺ mind.

Fifthly: Allowing the beard to grow and become full does not, as the author of that spurious article imagines, disfigure a person; rather, it is an adornment for men and a clear distinction between them and women. The leader and model of all who let their beards grow is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. It is authentically reported that his beard was thick, full, and ample, filling his upper chest, yet he remained the most handsome of human beings and the fairest in countenance. Allah the Exalted says: “Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for whoever hopes in Allah and the Last Day” (Qur’an 33:21).

By contrast, shaving the beard mars a man’s face: the youth’s visage comes to resemble that of a young woman, and the elder’s to that of an old crone. Shaving or plucking the beard is a form of mutilation (tamthīl) for which a severe warning has been transmitted. In the hadith recorded by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever mutilates the hair has no share with Allah.”

Al-Zamakhsharī explained that this may mean shaving the hair of the cheeks; others said it refers to plucking it, and yet others, to dyeing it. Ibn al-Athīr stated in al-Nihāya that the Prophet ﷺ forbade mutilation: one says muthiltu bi-l-ḥayawān when one cuts off an animal’s extremities and disfigures it. Hence the hadith: “Whoever mutilates the hair has no share with Allah on the Day of Resurrection,” and mutilating the hair here means shaving it.