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Abdulwahhab,

The ´ulama are the inheritors, but not only in the outer aspects, also the inner aspects; or is all that they inherited a beard and short pants? Rather, they should not be deficient in any Sunnah if they are true embodiments of their inheritance, this includes their inner states. And I assure you, every single ´alim or shaykh on earth fails to live up to the Nabawi standard. The Shuyukh are not only emulated in their beard and dress, but in their akhlaq and other aspects. When I mentioned "hidden" I did not mean those which Allah Ta´ala has concealed from people, rather their acting contrary to the Sunnah in things other than the outer aspects (beard, clothes etc), such as displaying poor akhlaq etc. This is something we sometimes see from big bearded shuyukh as well. Some of them manage to conceal it in front of the masses, while those who get to sit and associate with them get to see their shortcomings. Other shuyukh have this bad akhlaq in public, speak ill, slander, talk down to people etc, and people do not raise an eyebrow; and if you do you are often being told that you cannot speak against the ´ulama etc. This is hypocrisy at it's best which is found in most communities, Deobandis included. I know clean shaven scholars who have the greatest akhlaq; and I know those with big beards who lack basic adab; yet they are hailed as Sufi Masters by tens of thousands.

wassalam

But the issue is, keeping a beard is one of the easiest things that can be done to fulfill a sunnah whereas changing one's akhlaaq and other such internal matters are not so easy to remedy. None of us can be perfect models of good akhlaaq, that is true, but we should try to be perfect in areas where we can be, such as the beard. We can't justify leaving some sunnah because of the ills of others - the fact that bad akhlaaq and aadaab are being brought in as a counter-argument for justifying people who have difficulty fulfilling a relatively easy and effortless sunnah should already be a good indication that it should not be acceptable, just how bad akhlaaq isn't acceptable in a Sufi shaykh.

And you're right. A good shaykh won't waste his time talking down to people or demeaning them. But a great shaykh would also refrain from such things while having a sunnah beard (and not just the beard, but almost all the dhaahiri sunan, especially ones that are as easy to carry out as the beard, such as sitting down to drink water, entering the masjid with the right foot while sending salawat upon Rasoolullah and reciting the masnoon du'a, eating with three fingers [although this can be difficult for some as well]). The fact of the matter is, most people already get turned off by those people given the title of "shaykh" that use it as a platform to attack everyone under the sun and are generally ill-mannered (and this usually leads to stereotyping of ulama by laymen, especially of the modernist/progressive persuasion), but most ulama are not like that since it should be the goal of every Muslim to better his or her akhlaaq.

Also, I don't know of any Sufi master who has a beard but also bad akhlaaq. Tasawwuf is all about purifying the self and you cannot do that if you have bad akhlaaq, let alone be a master at guiding others.