Praise be to Allah

From the sayings of the Ulama (may Allah have mercy on them), there are six types of shaving:

The first type of shaving is that which is done as part of a worshipful act intended to bring one closer to Allah and which results in a reward. This is the case in the following four situations:

1/ Pilgrimage

2/ Umrah (minor pilgrimage)

In this regard, the Most High has said: « Allah was truthful in the vision in which He told His Messenger in all truth: you shall enter the Sacred Mosque if Allah wills, in safety, having shaved your heads or cut your hair. (Qur’an, 48:27)

3/ The shaving of the baby’s head on the seventh day of its birth based on this hadith reported by at-Tirmidhi (1439) according to which Ali ibn Abi Talib (P.A.a) said: When baptizing Hassan, the Messenger of Allah (blessings and salutations be upon him) had a sheep slaughtered and said: O Fatima! Shave its head and give an alms consisting of a quantity of money, equal in weight to the weight of the shaved hair (declared good by Al-Albani in Sahih of at-Tirmidhi, 1226). See Tuhfat al-mawdoud by Ibn al-Quayyim, p. 217.

4/ On the conversion of a disbeliever

Abu Dawud reported (356) that the Prophet (peace be upon him) ordered a disbeliever who had just converted to Islam to remove the hair of disbelief and circumcise himself (declared correct by al-Albani in the Sahih of Abu Dawud). See al-Mughni, 1/276 and Sharh al-Umda by Shaykh al-Islam, 1/350.

The ulama are unanimous that shaving the head is not recommended outside of these four situations. See al-istiqama by Sheikh al-Islam, 1/256.

The second type of shaving

This is associational. That is, the act of shaving one’s head in this case is a way of associating other deities with Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. This is the case of the one who shaves his head in submission to another than Allah the Most High. Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said in Zad al-Maad, 4/159: « This is the case of the Sufi followers who do it for their masters. One of them says, for example, ‘I shaved my head for so-and-so and you did it for so-and-so. It is like saying: I prostrated myself to worship so-and-so. Shaving the head is an expression of humility, submission and worship. That is why it is part of the rites of pilgrimage. It is about putting one’s head in the hands of one’s master as a sign of veneration and submission to His power. It is one of the best expressions of servitude. That is why when the Arabs wanted to humiliate a prisoner, they shaved his head before releasing him, etc. »

The third type

It is a detestable innovation and takes many forms:

– Shaving one’s head with the intention of making it a religious act of worship outside the four situations mentioned above. This is the case of the one who considers shaving the head as a distinctive practice of the pious or as a sign of reaching the peak of renunciation, as the Kharidjites did. That is why the Prophet (peace be upon him) said in his description of the Kharidjites that they were characterized by shaving their heads. (Al-Bukhari, 7007 and Muslim, 1763).

Al-Qurtubi said: The expression: they are characterized by shaving their heads means that they (Kharidjites) made it the sign of their rejection of worldly adornments and the mark by which they could be recognized. This shows their ignorance and their tendency to introduce into the religion something that is contrary to the practice of the Messenger of Allah (blessings be upon him), the Rightly Guided Caliphs and their successors. See Sharh al-Umda, 1/231 and Madjmu al-Fatawa, 21/118.

The fourth type

It is a shaving that takes several forms including:

1/ shaving one’s hair in case of misfortune such as the death of a loved one or other such event.

According to Abu Musa al-Ashari (pbuh), the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) denounced the woman who shouts at the top of her voice in case of misfortune and asks for misfortune to befall her, and the woman who shaves her head in case of misfortune and the woman who tears her clothes (reported by Muslim, 149).

In his book az-Zawadjir an iqtarafi al-kabair, Ibn Hadjar says: « The 117th major sin is shaving one’s head in the face of misfortune, since it expresses displeasure and disapproval of the (divine) judgment.

2/ Shaving one’s head in such a way as to resemble the infidels and perverts who are famous for shaving their heads. Some people smear oil on their heads to look like these people. Some people cut their hair on both sides of their head and leave the middle long. All this is a prohibited assimilation, a manifestation of the loosening of morals. We ask Allah to preserve us from it and to provide us with security.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Whoever assimilates with people becomes like them (reported by Abu Dawud, 4031 and declared authentic by Al-Albani in Sahih Abi Dawud, 3401). Al-Fari (may Allah have mercy on him) said, « Whoever seeks to be like the disbelievers and the perverts and the debauched is like them. That is, in relation to sin.

The fifth type

This is the authorized shaving, the one that meets a (legitimate) need. This is the case of one who shaves as part of the treatment of an ailment or to get rid of lice (qaml) etc. Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) said: This shaving is permitted in the Book, Sunnah and Consensus. See Madjmou al-Fatawa, 12/117).

The sixth type.

This is shaving without a specific need or without any of the reasons mentioned above.

This type of shaving is the subject of divergent views among the ulama. Some of them, such as Malick (may Allah have mercy on him) have disapproved of it and have cited as an argument the fact that it is a distinctive practice of the Kharidjite heretics as mentioned above. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Whoever seeks to assimilate with people becomes like them.

Those who argue otherwise quote a hadith reported by Abu Dawud (4192) that the Prophet (peace be upon him) went to the family of Jaafar ibn Abi Talib (pbuh) three nights after Jaafar’s death and sent for a shaver and ordered him to shave the heads of the sons of the deceased (declared authentic by Al-Albani in Sahihi Abi Dawud, 3532). They also rely on the hadith (4195) of Abu Dawud according to which the Prophet (peace be upon him) saw a boy whose head was partially shaved and said: shave it completely or leave it completely (Declared authentic by al-Albani in Sahih Abu Dawud, 3535).

An-Nawawi (May Allah have mercy on him) said: This indicates unequivocally that it is permissible to shave the head. See Sharh Muslim.

However, it is questionable to derive from these two hadith an argument that it is permissible to shave the head without a specific need. Firstly, because the shaving in question in the hadith fulfills a need and is permissible because children are more exposed to the onslaught of lice because of their humility and the dirt that clings to them. See Zad al-maad, 4/159. Then it is a small child. Such a child has a dispensation that cannot be extended to adults. See Hachiatu as-sindi ala an-Nassai. See also Madjmu al-Fatawa, 21/119 and Sharh al-Umda, 1/230.

This dispute over the fifth type boils down to these questions: Is shaving the head permissible or impermissible? Is it better to abstain from shaving? Al-Fawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: « It is better to shave one’s head only in the minor and major pilgrimages according to the practice of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions (pbuh). See Awn al-maaboud, 11/248.

Allah the Most High knows best.