Dalail al-Athar ala Tahrim al-Tamthil bi al-Shi'r
- Author died
- 1413 AH
- Editions
- Maṭābi‘ al-Qaṣīm
Dalāʾil al-Athar ʿalā Taḥrīm al-Tamthīl bi al-Shaʿr (Textual Proofs on the Prohibition of Mutilating Hair) is a legal treatise by the Hanbali scholar Hammūd ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tuwayjirī (d. 1413 AH / 1992 CE) examining the Islamic rulings on hair, the obligation of growing the beard, and the prohibition of imitating non-Muslim customs .
Subject and Content
The treatise focuses on Islamic legal rulings pertaining to hair, particularly facial and head hair . The central subject is the obligation of letting the beard grow (iʿfāʾ al-liḥyah) and the prohibition of shaving or trimming it, which the author frames under the concept of tamthīl (disfigurement or alteration) of hair . The work also addresses related issues, including trimming the mustache (qaṣṣ al-shārib / iḥfāʾ al-shawārib) and the prohibition of qazaʿ (shaving parts of the head while leaving other parts) .
A major theme in the book is the prohibition of imitating non-Muslims (al-tashabbuh bi al-kuffār or al-mushrikīn), such as Zoroastrians (Majūs), Jews, and Christians, in their grooming practices . Al-Tuwayjirī compiles scriptural texts from the Quran and Sunnah, as well as narrations (āthār) and consensus reports cited by classical jurists such as Ibn Ḥazm, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, and Ibn Taymiyyah, refuting the claim that maintaining a beard is merely a cultural habit rather than an established religious requirement .
Reception and Scholarly Citations
The book was prefaced by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bāz, who commended it as a valuable work that collected scriptural evidences rarely gathered together in other sources, highlighting its discussions on the beard, qazaʿ, and the prohibition of imitating non-Muslims .
Al-Tuwayjirī referred readers to this work in his other books, including al-Īḍāḥ wa al-Tabyīn and Taghlīẓ al-Malām, characterizing it as one of the most comprehensive compilations of textual proofs on the topic . Bakr Abū Zayd listed the work in al-Madkhal al-Mufaṣṣal among the standalone legal monographs composed by Hanbali scholars in the fifteenth Hijri century . The book was printed by Maṭābiʿ al-Qaṣīm .
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