even though we do differ from them by clipping the moustaches and removing whatever hangs over the upper lip. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever does not trim his moustache is not one of us.” [Ṣaḥīḥ]

If, today, some unbelievers—such as the Jews—grow their beards while others shave them, we have been instructed to differ from those who shave or shorten them, not from those who let them grow. Were the rule simply to avoid everything the unbelievers do, we would have to abandon circumcision, for the Jews practice it.

Third: The fact that most Muslims nowadays shave their beards does not weaken the continuing rationale of differing from the polytheists, for the Quran and the Sunnah stand as proof against them. Both texts show that it is forbidden to alter Allah’s creation or to imitate women, and the Sunnah makes clear that letting the beard grow is one of the traits of fiṭrah (primal disposition) that do not change with the passage of time or with some people’s deviation from it. It is therefore unsound for us to reject what Allah has legislated for us and implanted in our very nature merely because some outsiders to our faith happen to observe it, or because some who claim to belong to Islam neglect it.