Sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ

Question:

I am a born Muslim living in London and I have just recently started to practice Islam through my five daily prayers and I have grown a beard which is still small and I am hoping to do Umrah in Ramadan.
My family do not like the fact that I am growing a beard and they tell me to shave it off and they say that it does not look nice. This makes me very weak but I would like to carry this sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ.
My friends also say that it does not look nice and this also makes me very weak at times.
Sir can you please advise me on how I may overcome this problem and how I may make myself stronger in Iman.
(Zahid Mahmood)

Ans:
I am sorry for the inordinate delay in answering your email message but it was due to the heap of messages that I have to answer. I congratulate you that you have started to practice Islam in your daily life and have started to perform daily Salah. Your growing beard is not only the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet but it is verbally emphasized by him so that the Muslims can be distinguished from the non-Muslims even in their appearance. The objection, that it does not look nice, is not tenable because the nice look is a relative term and nobody can give a universal definition of it. There was a time when the beard used to be treated as a sign of masculine beauty and it is only during the last century that the practice of shaving beard became rampant. A person should decide on his own about what is the correct attitude and once this decision is taken the objections of the people should not be an impediment in his way because one cannot eliminate such objections any way.

April-2002