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AL-MAHDI INSTITUTE

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Issue 6/Volume 1

The First Source: The Book (The Holy Quran)


Al-Nisa (The Women) Verse 119

"And most certainly I will lead them astray and excite in them vain desires, and bid them so that they shall slit the ears of the cattle, and most certainly I will bid them so that they shall alter Allah's creation, and whoever takes the Shaitan for a guardian rather then Allah he indeed shall suffer a manifest loss."

To base this holy verse as a proof (for the shaving of ones beard being unlawful) is dependant on proving two preludes

a  Proving that, shaving ones beard is considered as altering the creation of Allah

b Proving that, every "Alteration" in the creation is unlawful except when intercepted with rules of exemptions from within the Islamic Shariah

a As for the first prelude, there is no doubt as to shaving one's beard is equivocal to bringing  about an alteration in the creation of Allah (swt), as we mentioned earlier, that the beard was a  specific matter ordained by the All Mighty (swt) and so will it remain, and secondly, the beard  being an adornment and beauty for Adam (as) and his male offspring until the day of  judgement, therefore alterations in this particular issue except for exceptions to the rule in  Islamic law would be classified as unlawful acts

b A general understanding of meaning of the verse "alter Allah's creation" encompasses  every  possible
natural physical alteration one can perceive and it does not point to alterations  made due to other Islamic Shariah laws i.e. laws which the jurists prove with the backing of one of the four sources mentioned to be exceptions to the rule, i.e. Circumcision, trimming one's nails, trimming one's moustache etc.

Summary:  Implications of the above mentioned verse apply to natural physical alteration and not "alteration" due to other Islamic laws of exemption, so it would become difficult for one to debate about matters such as " Tattoos " or " nail polish " also being some sort of alteration and as a result categorising these also as unlawful acts, which would not be the case, because the verse implicitly refers to natural physical alteration and non other.

In Tafseer al-Qumi, Imam al-Sadiq (as) States: Allah (swt) revealed upon Ibrahim (as) "Al-Haneef" (The Upright One) ten things, five for the head and the other five for the body:-

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