—that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Ten practices are part of the fitrah,” and among them he named trimming the moustache and letting the beard grow. The term fitrah here denotes the Sunnah followed by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and by the prophets and messengers before him. We also quoted Ibn Ḥazm’s statement of unanimous agreement that trimming the moustache and growing the beard is obligatory. All of the authentic reports and consensus already cited offer the strongest rebuttal to the writer’s slander against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and to the confusion and deception he spreads among those of weak discernment.

As for his claim that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) supposedly uttered a hadith only to reprimand people who had marred their looks with thick beards, this too is a fabrication against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet’s mass-transmitted warning is plain: “Whoever deliberately lies about me, let him prepare his seat in the Fire.”

His further assertion that full beards spoil a man’s appearance is a reversal of the truth. What truly disfigures a man’s face is assaulting the beard by shaving or plucking it, so that the face of a young man comes to resemble that of a young woman, and the face of an elder that of an old crone. A stern threat has been recorded against mutilating the hair, and we have already cited it earlier in this book.