Is Having a Long Goatee Beard Permissible if One Cannot Keep a Full Beard Clean?

Answered by Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan

Question

Is having a long goatee beard permissible if one cannot keep a full beard clean?

Answer

In the Shafi’i school, having a beard is a great sunna; shaving it off is makruh or reprehensible. [Tuhfat al-Muhtaj]

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) exhorted Muslim men strongly to have beards, to the extent that most other schools of jurisprudence deem it compulsory.

By way of example, he (Allah bless him and give him peace) once asked a Persian whose mustache was overgrown and whose beard had been shaven off, “who instructed you to do this?” The Persian responded, saying, “My lord instructed me to do so.” The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) replied, “And my Lord instructed me to shorten the mustache and lengthen the beard.” [Ibn Sa’d in his Tabaqat]

Nonetheless, regarding your question, if you are asking whether you may have a long goatee and shave the hair on your jawbone, this is permissible, though disliked, in the Shafi’i madhhab. If you say that you only grow hair on your chin and not your jawbone, then having such a beard is desired. [Tuhfat al-Muhtaj]

The Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “When I instruct you to do something, then execute it as best you can.” [Muslim]

And Allah knows best.

[Shaykh] Abdurragmaan Khan
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan received ijazah ‘ammah from various luminaries, including but not restricted to: Habib Umar ibn Hafiz—a personality who affected him greatly and who has changed his relationship with Allah, Maulana Yusuf Karaan—the former Mufti of Cape Town; Habib’ Ali al-Mashhur—the current Mufti of Tarim; Habib’ Umar al-Jaylani—the Shafi’i Mufti of Makkah; Sayyid Ahmad bin Abi Bakr al-Hibshi; Habib Kadhim as-Saqqaf; Shaykh Mahmud Sa’id Mamduh; Maulana Abdul Hafiz al-Makki; Shaykh Ala ad-Din al-Afghani; Maulana Fazlur Rahman al-Azami and Shaykh Yahya al-Gawthani amongst others.