Allah, exalted is He, also says: “Follow the path of those who turn to Me” (Luqmān 31:15). The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The best of my community is my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them…” (agreed upon). He ﷺ further said, “Hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Caliphs after me; cling to it with your molars.” (sound)

It is firmly established that the rightly guided Caliphs—and other Companions and their virtuous Followers—wore sizeable beards. Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him) had a dense beard; ʿUmar possessed an abundant beard; ʿUthmān had a large beard; and ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) had a broad beard that spanned the space between his shoulders. By unanimous agreement of the scholars, these men were the most intelligent members of the entire ummah. After them came their righteous successors and the sincere warriors who seized the treasures of Chosroes and Caesar, and to whom the East and West of the earth submitted—yet among them there was not a single man who shaved his beard (1), even if you were to search far and wide