a painful punishment.” Let the writer—and anyone like him who makes light of the Messenger’s ﷺ command to grow the beard—beware, lest a trial strike them or a painful punishment overtake them.

As for his comment, “They do not realize that the beard represents the Arab nation in the best possible way, and they have forgotten that the rabbis of the Jews, the monks of the Christians, the unbelievers of Quraysh, the Hindus, and the communists all grow beards,” the answer to this has already appeared at the beginning of the book; let him return to it.

Regarding his statement, “And so do the primitive peoples of mankind,” the reply is this: If the writer believes that anyone who lets his beard grow is primitive, that necessarily means he considers the truly advanced people to be those who shave their beards. No rational person would say such a thing. I have already explained that letting the beard grow is one of the sunnahs of the prophets and messengers and part of their guidance, which Allah the Exalted has commanded us to follow. On that basis, is the writer prepared to say that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was primitive because he grew his beard, that the prophets and messengers were primitive because they grew theirs, and that the advanced ones were the Khosroes, their Magian people, and whoever imitates them and follows in their footsteps?