and his wife, and between one brother and another.”

The answer to this claim is that Islam forbids separating a husband from his wife or one brother from another only when both parties are in fact observing the rulings of Islam. If, however, a person merely calls himself a Muslim while abandoning the prayer or committing any of the nullifiers of Islam that make his blood and property lawful, then it becomes obligatory to part him from his wife who does adhere to Islamic law, and to warn his brothers and others against him until he repents and submits to the injunctions of Islam.

As for his words, “They have forgotten all the beauties and manners of Islam,” the reply is that among the beauties and manners of Islam is letting the beard grow and keeping away from imitation of the Magians and the like among the polytheists who shave their beards. The proofs that letting the beard grow is one of the noble traits and etiquettes of Islam are exceedingly numerous; they have already been cited at the beginning of this book and should be consulted there. Shaving the beard, by contrast, is part of Magian practice and among their blameworthy deeds, and the Muslim has been commanded to differ from them and avoid resembling them. Accordingly, those who imitate the Magians by shaving their beards are the very ones who have forgotten the beauties