and a path to Allah, and regards them as completing the religion and as practices prescribed for the penitent, the ascetic, and the worshipper, is misguided, departing from the path of the Most Merciful and following in the footsteps of the devils.

The fourth type is shaving one’s head outside religious rites, without any need, and not as an act of devotion or religious observance. Scholars hold two views on this, both reported from Ahmad.

The first is that it is disliked. This is the position of Mālik and others.

The second is that it is permissible. This is the well-known position among the followers of Abū Hanīfah and al-Shāfi‘ī, because:

“The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—saw a boy whose head had been partly shaved and said, ‘Shave it all or leave it all.’”

And:

“Young children were brought to him after three days, and he shaved their heads.”

Moreover, he prohibited shaving only part of the head, which indicates that shaving the entire head is permissible.

Those who hold the first view say that shaving the head is a distinguishing mark of the people of innovation. The Khawārij used to shave their heads, and some of them consider shaving the head part of completing repentance and religious devotion. It is established in the two Sahīh collections that:

“While the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was making a distribution in the year of the Conquest, a thick-bearded, shaven-headed man came to him.”