Sanctity of Beard

It pains me when I see very respectable Muslim brothers with long flowing beards, park their huge shining SUV’s right in the middle of the road because they are in a hurry to offer Juma prayers. It pains me when I see such people breaking traffic signals in Ramazan because they are in a hurry to break fast or in a rush to offer Maghrib prayers. I feel pained when I see a noble looking man with a great white beard breaking a queue so that he can be the first one in line. I see respectable man sporting a beard sending his son to Iqra School to become a Hafiz, yet he never had the time to read the Quran. I see another endorsing potato chips as halal and asking four million rupees, three shalwar suits and a pair of shoes for the ad (that’s what someone from the ad agency told me). I can go on and on here as the list is very long but I see………hypocrisy!

Big deal, you may say, we are Pakistanis and that makes us natural hypocrites but why is my anger specifically directed towards men with beards? Now that, is a very valid question and I will try to explain.

It is indeed very unfortunate that a very ‘weak’ Muslim like me needs to explain this but do these people realize that when they decide to keep a beard they are representing something sacred? Do these people know that by keeping a beard they are under obligation to God that their words and actions which should be inline with the teachings of Islam? Do they forget their obligation to humanity is first and foremost? Does their Islam absolve them of their duties to their society? Are they setting an example for other to follow?

So why can’t a “good Muslim” be a “good person” first, I ask? Unfortunately, Muslim scholars, thinkers and philosophers over the ages have only stressed upon our obligations to Allah while understating or altogether neglecting obligations to humanity. Only a few reformers like Abdus Sattar Edhi and Dr. Zakir Naik really stress that in order to be a good Muslim one has to be a good human first. As usual, these thinkers have often been labeled as non-believers by “enlightened ones”, for speaking something unconventional.

Do we really need some divine signal to make us realize that parking cars properly should also be considered as a Sawab? Or, that patience is virtue cherished by Islam? Or, that by stopping on a red light we are following yet another teaching of Islam; discipline?

Lets not embarrass ourselves anymore……lets think !!!!