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This is a point which is way above me and is to do with spiritual states that I can't begin to comprehend. But once I heard from a Shaykh about this concept of Fanaa fi-sh Shaykh, Fanaa fi-r Rasul and Fanaa fi-l Llah

So he says the Mureed annihilates his ego in complete adherence to his Shaykh, and that this will take him to the stage of annihilating his ego in the Prophetic model/example alone and following the Sunnah totally will make him reach Allah.

The question here is, how can you choose a Shaykh that you know for certainty does not resemble Nabi ? Additionally, acting on the Zaahir is infinitely easier than the Baatin.

Fanaa fi-r Rasul also means that the ego no longer exists - i.e. the ego is only and only in line with the Sunnah. So who cares if there's Ikhtilaf? If I know what my Nabi practised, then ikhtilaf doesn't even come into the discussion.

Yesterday I was listening to a talk given by one of the Bengali Sufis in the tariqah of Hazrat Gangohi (ra) (Chormonai er Pir). In this talk, he mentions a story from the old times http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zauJO4tC604

He says that once there was one Pir (spiritual master) who goes to meet another Pir to ask for his Du'as. When he arrives, he finds that the Pir is absent so then asks the Mureedin "where does the Pir make 'ibadah so we can sit and take barakah from that Musalla" so they pointed towards a stone floor. The Pir used to pray so much on this stone, that the stone itself became worn out on those parts of the floor which the Pir would pray. So the visiting Pir saw that the finger marks on the floor were outspread, and he said to his Mureedin "let's leave from here, we won't get what we came for" so they asked "what do you mean" and he said "the fingers on the Musalla are outspread, in contrast to the Sunnah which is to keep the fingers closed when in Sajdah; so this person can never be a Wali".

^ I heard this same incident from a great Naqshbandi Shaykh of our time.

There's also a saying "hasanaatul abraari sayyi'aatul muqarrabeen" - the hasanaat of the pious, are the sins of the Muqarrabeen (a high class of Awliya that Allah draws them near Him). My point in narrating the above incident is not that we have such a strict criteria - it's true it'll be difficult to find nowadays; but the beard must certainly be placed in our criteria. How can it not be? Have we forgotten the Hadith when the Prophet said:

My Lord orders me to trim the moustache and lengthen the beard