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Wa iyyakum sidi.


Outside of the Indian subcontinent and its' offspring, many, if not most ´ulama and shuyukh lack fist length beards. That's a fact. Yes, according to the majority of classical scholars, and the so called relied-upon opinions, this sunnah is not properly fulfilled without it... unless of course, one cannot grow it. This makes many of the brothers from the Indian subcontinent look down on most Shuyukh who are not Indo-Pak. However, they do this while completely denying and ignoring some of the shortcomings and sins of their own shuyukh, often due to their own culture and surroundings. An example being some of the Deobandi shuyukh who basically allow the cast system to live on by disguising it in the garb of the Hanafi madhhab.

And there are other issues. I do not want to mention names, but allow me to demonstrate by using a very famous example: Let us take someone like the honorable shaykh Taqi Uthmani, may Allah preserve him. He is seen as a spiritual master by many on this website and elsewhere, yet he is a banker; and to many, a legalizer of Rib´a (!!!). From that point of view, how can he be a spiritual master? Now many will start to wave the flag of ikhtilaf in regards to the so called "Islamic" banking. But the fact remains, many do not believe that it is an ikhtilaf issue, but rather that it is clear cut haram, bid´ah and falsification of the Deen. However, if they were to propogate that view on this forum, they run the risk of being abused and banned.

wassalam

for your patience with my question.

I don't agree with the analogy and here are some thoughts:

1. I have met nor heard of any single scholar claim that the Prophet had a trimmed beard according to their ijtihad/conclusions: I know you have not claimed this either, but I will use this in a later point.

2. Mufti Taqi arrives at his conclusion based on ijtihad, as do other scholars that agree with him. They genuinely believe the actions they are making to be a true representation of the Sunnah and Shari'ah - this is an ijtihadi difference and we know the hadith about correct and incorrect ijtihad.

3. The harshest critiques of Mufti Taqi are his own teachers, contemporaries and juniors that are followers of the same elders of Deoband. Yet, they all attest to his incredible taqwa. Thus, a fiqhi difference does not impact on your spiritual state (I believe this was the point on which you are defending Shaykh Babikir, but the objection will be clear at a later point below)

4. The issue with finance then, is not as clear-cut as a full grown beard. The Prophet did have a full-grown beard - on this fact there is no ikhtilaf. However, in the example of Islamic Banking, the issue is not clear-cut and there truly is ikhtilaf.

5. We can't bring any discussions of Fiqh into the beard discussion because a sufi ("spiritual master") has eliminated his ego and only sees Nabi Karim as his role-model. That's it. A sufi is subject to the highest of standards - isn't that the whole point of Tasawwuf?