In 2015 Canadian Imam Abu Ameenha Bilal Philips gave a lecture in Malaysia. Below is in excerpt. Following that are the wisdoms from IslamQ&A on the subject of obediently growing the beard.
To obey him. This is how we develop a love for the Prophet Mohammad PBUP. To obey him in whatever he has told us. So if he told us grow your beards and trim your mustaches you can’t love him without growing your beard and trimming your mustache. If you claim to love him we say your claim is problematic. We can’t say you don’t have any love for him. But your love is deficient. And that external expression is simple. That is the simpler part. The true love which comes from the heart is far more difficult than just to stop shaving. That’s all growing your beard involves. Stop shaving. Not something you need to do but not do. Just stop. Simple – And you can achieve that. So since he said grow your beards ‘I know I need to do it. That it will change me. It will cause a change within me. Which for sure will make me a better person if I do it sincerely.’ Some people say ‘well you know Iman (belief) is not in your beard. The longer your bearded the greater your iman. No.’ He will say ‘I know people who have big beards and they’re evil people. And I know people who are clean shaven and they’re very good people.’ So if we say ‘I don’t need it. Grow my beard’. So then what about what the Prophet PBUH said? You mean to say he was he asking to do something you don’t need to do? You have to think about that one. He was asking us to do something which we really don’t need to do. That is a serious thought a wrong thought. It is misguidance. It is from Shaitan. Whatever the Prophet PBUH told us to do we need to do it as much as we can. As much as we can. whatever we can do we need to do. This is part of building our love for Prophet Mohammad PBUH
Islam Q&A is an academic, educational, da‘wah website which aims to offer advice and academic answers based on evidence from religious texts in an adequate and easy-to-understand manner. These answers are supervised by Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid
“It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allaah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision. And whoever disobeys Allaah and His Messenger, he has indeed strayed into a plain error” [al-Ahzaab 33:36]
I do not know how the one who says such things will be able to face his Lord on the Day of Resurrection. We must hear and obey and heed the command of Allaah and His Messenger in all cases. End quote. [al-Nisa’ 4:65]
Majmoo’ Fataawa Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (11/129-130). And he also said (may Allaah have mercy on him): Letting the beard grow is the way of the Messengers. Allaah says of Haroon that he said to his brother Moosa (interpretation of the meaning):
Dr. Bilal spent ten years teaching Islamic studies in an Islamic high school in Riyadh, and another 18 years lecturing in Arabic and Islamic studies in the American University in Dubai, UAE, the Islamic Studies Academy in Doha, Qatar, Knowledge International University of Riyadh, and Preston International College, Chennai, India.
Dr. Bilal Philips has written, translated and commented on over 50 published books on various Islamic topics and presented Islamic programs on Riyadh Channel 2TV, Sharjah TV, Peace TV, Huda TV, Islam Channel, UK, and the Deen Show, Chicago, USA and Guide US TV, from Washington USA.
But perhaps his greatest achievement, and the one for which he was listed in the Jordanian publication, among “The 500 Most Influential Muslims”, is his historic founding of the mega-university, the International Open University, which has in only 7 years since its inception over 270,000 students registered from 228 different country around the world!
Sheikh Abu Bilal Philips