Beard

Our lecturer for Company Laws & Islamic Ethics during MBA Executive classes at IBA, Punjab University, Lahore, was totally unimpressive. Always wearing a skull cap, he had a long, multicoloured and thin beard, touching & intermingling with his upper stomach hair through the large cleavage between buttons of his white, thin/transparent & old “Malmal ka Kurta”. He would wear white shalwar with exposed ankles, and bathroom slippers (Hawai Chappal) in his feet. His heels were dark and cracked. Otherwise he was a good teacher with an excellent English accent.

Those who have studied Company Laws would agree that this is one of the few boring subjects that always compelled students to either yawn relentlessly or put their heads down on desks to enjoy short naps. Once during such a moment of dull class, one of us asked the teacher why he wears a long & unmanageable beard. His reply was interesting. He said:  

I was a clean shaved person and would dress up like most of you i.e. pants, shirt, tie etc., till just a few years back. My non-regular Namazi (Prayers offering) friends insisted me that since I was a regular Masjid-goer Namazi therefore I must look like a Namazi i.e. with a long beard and skull cap. Usually I laughed at this cap & beard idea but intrinsically I had a guilty conscious that if I have to follow the life of Muhammad (PBUH), I ought to put on beard. Eventually, I began to carry out research on this subject, and as I went deep into it, so did my resolve got firmer and stronger that I must wear beard. After having deciding in the favour of beard, I started growing it. My wife got furious over it and vowed that as a token of protest she would put on Burqa (fully covered hijab) when going outside and would remain under the complete veil unless he gave up growing beard. This was a blessing in disguise for me. Hence, I kept growing beard and my wife getting used to wearing a Burqa.

Listening to the teacher made us feel sorry for him and most of us in our late 30s and early 40s years of age had no immediate impact of his beard-growing story on any of the students.

Alhamdulillah I was a regular Namazi (but an infrequent Masjid-goer) but still liked to remain clean-shaved and the idea of putting on beard was simply out of the world thing. However, some years later, I began realizing that people around me at the work place treat me and pay respect according to the position I hold but they do not consider my age. This could have been owing to the reason that pace of career development like promotions in public organizations is too slow, therefore, one may feel oneself relatively senior with the passage of age and acquisition of experience but unless one holds a senior position the colleagues would not extend due respect. The experience of being not treated respectfully or less-respectfully was also evident from off-the-office activities and other gatherings.    

And then, one fine morning, I didn’t shave and wouldn’t shave in the next two weeks. Initially it looked awful and my colleagues laughed at me considering that he would shave it off soon. But as they made fun and laughed at me, my resolute kept getting stronger that come what may I was not going to shave it off anymore. After two weeks I went to the barber for giving my small beard a proper shape. He too looked at me smilingly but remained silent and started working on it. Once having completed his job the barber looked at me with a liking look in his eyes and said; congratulations for raising the beard and following the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). I just smiled back to him thinking why he said about the Sunnah since purpose of my growing the beard was different from what he thought about.

Next day everyone started extending congratulations to me when they sensed that my beard is going to stay. My beard brought much-awaited due respect from everyone around but soon I realized that they were being over-respected as if I had suddenly grown into a senior citizen. The revelation of becoming a senior citizen at the age of 45 years turned into reality by the following incidence:

            I was standing in a queue to get my passport renewed. The queue was quite long. As I waited, a new queue was ordered to me formed for the old people aged 60 plus. Some old applicants left our queue and made a new formation. Hey you! What are you doing there? An old gentleman from the senior citizens’ queue yelled at me. It was shocking. Do I look like a senior citizen? I knew that my beard was grey but I was never ready to be taken into the category of old people. I turned down the offer politely but remained uneasy throughout the hours I spent at the passport office.

I knew that I had grown the small beard to earn much-deserved respect but people were having different meaning; the barber thought that I was following the Sunnah and old people considered me of their age group. Should I undo it to evade these misunderstandings?

It’s almost 8 years now since I raised the small beard. I couldn’t shave the beard off because the idea of removing it means I would not be having the identity, though the least one, of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The purpose of raising beard was different but undoing it meant a lot to me. I have never grown beard into a length of full fist that is largely considered as the minimum to be taken as per Sunnah requirements but maintaining a smaller one is also soothing and satisfying. Besides, it will be easier someday to grow beard into a bigger, thicker & longer one, and dying with it.