To the original poster, it may be better if you adopted a specific school of thought; this will give you confidence and peace of mind as you would feel content seeking your answer from a qualified scholar of the madhhab, as opposed to taking incomplete (and sometimes inaccurate) knowledge from Sunniforum. As for trimming the beard, the Hanbali madhhab allows it. See: http://mac.abc.se/home/onesr/h/120.html Wallaahu A'lam.