The Beard

I just came back from my trip to Dallas, TX... We had gone there for Eid. After tarawih all the uncles would establish a little mehfil situation in the parking lot. They'd mainly tell cultural uncle jokes and stuff. But this one uncle, who was a very interesting character, would tell people about Islam. So any way Ateeq Uncle (which was his name) said:

"The beard is in Islam, Islam isn't in the beard"

... he said it in urdu, but that's a good translation, but it flows a little nicer in urdu.

It's true, my buddy mustafa umar ( www.mustafaumar.com ) once made an observation that the ummah seems to be very concerned with the beard, but the biggest sunnah is tahajjud -- but you don't see people focusing on it as much.

... but yeah, i liked his quote.

... and i don't mean to de-emphasize the beard.