Bigotry: The Dark Danger

The Killing of People Who Shave

Kill those who shave even though they read the Qur’an. (4816-Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Malik’s Muwatta, Sunan an-Nasai,
Sunan Abu Dawud)

The presence of these hadiths among trustworthy hadiths in such prestigious sources as Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim makes the false hadiths even more valid in the eyes of the fanatic world. First and foremost, the Qur’an praises being clean and well-groomed. Therefore, trimming the beard in various ways – short or long – and keeping it well-groomed is a conception of cleanliness and grooming that is completely compatible with the Qur’an. In addition, however, while there is not one single pronouncement about shaving the beard in the Qur’an, such a pronouncement has been added by way of this false hadith. It is clearly impossible for someone who shaves his beard to be killed in our lovely faith, which says, “...If someone kills another person – unless it is in retaliation for someone else or for causing corruption in the earth – it is as if he had murdered all mankind...” (Qur'an, 5:32) How can it be possible to make this a pretext for killing when there is not a single verse on the subject in the Qur’an?

Of course such a thing is impossible in the true conception of Islam. We also need to remember here that a great many people in the Muslim world go around with well-groomed and nicely trimmed or shaved beards. According to that way of thinking, some 80% of the Muslim men would need to be killed. The problem is that there are currently a great many radical Muslims who believe in the truth of that false pronouncement and who describe other Muslims as “deserving of death” solely because they shave their beards. They live with that terrible mindset despite the Qur’an.