I'm sorry, but I just don't get it ...
:salam2:
I met a brother the other day unexpectedly. I was with my wife (who obediently adorns the Hijaab, to please Allah) at her university. He didn't properly greet me. He didn't wear a beard. He wasn't fasting, and told me this (along with a worthless excuse, which I politely nodded and smiled to of course). He started asking me if I knew who "Samey Usef" was, saying that he has beautiful music about Islam, Allah, and the Prophet PBUH. I've come across this heretic whilst browsing through YouTube, but nonetheless I had to confirm what I was hearing by asking: "You mean nasheeds?" He replied, "No, Islamic music". I asked him just what exactly "Islamic music" was (knowing fully-well what a paradox such an assertion is) and he gave me the expected response. I guess that I must have subconsciously had a look of disappointment on my face. That's when he asked me if I was a "Sunni Muslim".
I said, "No, I'm a Muslim" and excused myself so that my wife and I could get home.
If our men can't even have the courage to wear the beard, as the Prophet PBUH and companions did, as we're explicitly told to from many different angles and from many different sources... if we can't even follow through with something as simple as this, and if all it takes is for some "comtemporary imams" to direct us away from the sunnah, surely this Ummah will remain paralyzed and diseased until we start taking our faith more seriously. And I mean
all of us, myself included.
I'm sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, but this issue of the beard is really rediculous. 97% of the brothers I come across either completely shave it off or have trimmed it down to nothing. Are they ashamed to look like a Muslim in public, to look something like Muhammad PBUH would have? I haven't ever said anything, or expressed my disappointment until now. Heck, even two of the three Imams at my masjid trim their beards down to a centimeter. But not me, no way, nuh uh! When God inspires Muhammad PBUH to say: "Those who remove their beards will be removed from the mercy of Allah" (or words to that effect)... it just doesn't compute, I just can't comprehend choosing to shave.
May Allah guide us, please, and may we choose to follow..! Ameen