And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Every creation of Allah is beautiful.” [Authentic]

Thus the very form in which Allah has fashioned us is a blessing from Him, exalted is He, and an honor He has bestowed upon us. There is therefore no doubt that shaving the beard and removing it altogether is ingratitude for this tremendous favor, a rejection of the Sunnah of the one whose guidance is the best of guidance ﷺ, and a descent to the level of those unbelievers whose evil deeds have been made attractive to them, so that they imagine progress and perfection to lie in eliminating the greatest outward distinction between men and women:

A man, in days of trial, is judged so sternly
that he comes to deem fair what is not fair at all.

The jurists’ reverence for letting the beard grow reached the point that the Imams Abu Hanifah, Ahmad, and al-Thawri said: “If a person attacks another’s beard so that it is completely removed and no hair grows back, the aggressor must pay the full diyah (blood money), just as if he had killed its owner.” Ibn Muflih (d. 763 AH) explained, “Because he has eliminated its intended benefit, it is akin to destroying a person’s eyesight.”

Qays ibn Saʿd had no beard, so the Ansar would say, “Qays is indeed an excellent leader, renowned for his bravery and chivalry, but he is beardless; by Allah…"