the effeminate among men.” End of citation.

Thus, the beard is a man’s adornment; it completes one’s natural form, and through it Allah has distinguished men from women. It is among the hallmarks of perfection. Plucking it when it first appears is an imitation of beardless youths and counts among the major offenses (1). The same holds true for shaving it, clipping it, or removing it with depilatory paste—these are among the gravest abominations, an open act of disobedience, a direct violation of the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ command, and a perpetration of what he forbade.

Al-Ghazālī notes in al-Iḥyāʾ that plucking the two fanīkayn—that is, the hair on either side of the soul-patch—is an innovation. He reports that a man who used to pluck his fanīkayn once testified before ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who rejected his testimony. Likewise, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may Allah be pleased with him, and Ibn Abī Laylā, the judge of Madinah, both refused to accept the testimony of anyone who plucked his beard.

Imām Abū Shāmah said: “A group has emerged who shave their beards, and this is worse than what has been reported of the Magians, for they merely used to trim them. Such was the case in his own time—so what would he say were he to see how widespread the practice is today! May Allah fight them; how deluded they are! Allah commanded them to emulate His Messenger ﷺ, yet they opposed and disobeyed him.”