Re: Shaving The Beard:
what should muslims do, use their brains. lets get out of this madhab usiness and make it so formal .. all this is is a varoied set of interpretations which can be wrong, and which are not mutually exclusive.
I niether shun nor embrace these gentlemen. as ai said they were well intentioned, knowledgeable people from what I have read, but prone to human error, limitations of knowledge etc anyways. what has been rather interesting is that all this important stuff was not agreed upon in the prophets time or immediately after, same for the hadeeth, that it was not sorted out during or soon after. but decades and centuries later.
I am not subcintracting islam as I am not creating a 'madhab; and asking ppl to follow it, nor am I asking anyone to take my views and make them into a madhab, nor am I expecting anyone to make it into some madhab later.
big difference.
that is what is preplexing about you. You are asking us to use our heads yet fail to mention exactly how. You are not making your own madhubs but want people to forget about four gentlemen so they should take your advice and then dance in rain? i mean who is going to tell them detail about every other issue? you think beard is a non issue, some might consider it as a sunnah and no sunnah is less rewarding than any other. its all about perspective.
there is a hadith where Prophet saw encouraged to grow beard and somebody mentioned it in the thread, when you say these four people were prone to human error it is a possibility that so are you or me for that matter. But you dont give any clear answers as to what is sunnah and what is not, nor do you put up a good case that makes any sense.