Adil Najam
Given all the discussion about cricket and Islam (here), sooner or later we will come to beards and cricket and whether beards of a certain length or style are ‘religiously intimidating’ for some (related story here).
I thought I would pre-empt the discussion by sharing some images of a few ‘great beards’ of cricket. Readers are, of course, welcome to add to the list.
For that it seems to me that the obvious choice is one of Pakistan’s most graceful batsmen ever (and that is saying something!) Saeed Anwar. He is also generally considered a mentor to many of the more religiously inclined players in the current Pakistan team.
His, however, is not the only set of religiously motivated set of facial hair to adorn cricketing fields. One of my all-time favorite cricketers and all-time favorite famous persons is former Indian Captain Bishen Singh Bedi. His fine-looking facial hair and head-dress - and of many others - were also clearly religiously-motivated and a constant expression of his faith.
By way of disclosure I should add that I occasionally sprout facial hair of my own but am mostly clean-shaven. But as a deep and committed adherent of people’s right of expression (how can a blogger not be that!) I stand committed to defend people’s right to facial hair, whether they are grown for stylistic elegance or religious expression.
Adil,
Judging the three “great beardsâ€Â? on this post purely on aesthetics — and aesthetics, as you know, are subjective —, Bedi’s beard looks neat and sits nicely on his face. Grace’s beard looks like wild growth and seems a bit unruly. With his beard and cap, Grace looks more like a bear hunter than a cricketer (my image of a cricketer, that is). Saeed Anwar’s beard I first thought was a cut-and-paste job done by Adil to trick us. It looks so artificial — like a nest of bees (beehive) attached to a tree trunk. I hope I am not touching a hornets’ nest here!
I have noticed that a beard looks nice on some faces and not on others, just as a certain style of haircut looks good with some people and may not look good with others. For example, Imam Khomeni looked great with his long beard. Even Oriana Fallacci(sp?), the renowned Italian journalist, who died recently and was known for her unfriendly views on Islam, described Imam Khomeni, with whom she had a stormy interview, as one of the most handsome men she had ever met. Incidentally, Bulle Shah on this blog also looks great in his long beard.
To Khalid Sahib’s question, is beard an Islamic requirement and what is the prescribed length, if any. It is a whole new discussion and I don’t want to touch another hornets’ nest.
[quote post="377"]because the following of religion should only be for the love of God and not to fit in or to be part of the group. [/quote]
Agreed but I wouldn’t take a single person like Nasim Ashraf’s statment seriously of forcing others to follow Islam[few days later he denied all of his previous statments]. I quoted a link on other thread that players were offering prayers even in the absence of Inzy so the theory that Inzy pressures players doesn’t hold water. As i said that I wouldn’t take even take Nasim’s rant seriously while others know about his mentality and purpose of bringing a non crickter as a chairman of a cricket board. It’s like one takes Bush seriously that ‘there were WMDs in Iraq’.
Speaking of religion and applying it forcefully, History tells that no one was able to make one to follow a religion by force, even prophets couldn’t do that. Noah[AS] couldn’t convince His son while Abraham[AS]failed to save His dad. Lut[AS] failed to save his Wife while Muhammad[SAW] failed to convince his close uncles to accept Islam
like Noah[AS],Muhammad[AS],Lut[AS] and Abraham[AS] couldn’t make their own relatives follower and these stories are mentioned both in Bible and Quran. When these people couldnt make one to follow their religion then how come an ordinary person like Inzy could force other to follow it?
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However, drinking, clubbing is not an issue in this post.
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Agree
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The post was regarding beards and that is why the comments are focused on beards. Why should anybody in this particular post be discussing the issues you have just raised?
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What i meant to say was that is this point ever ever raised.
Everywhere in social discussion, at work, at school…………..it is never the other way around….
[quote post="377"]Beard for men and hijab for women! (I better duck…here comes Adnan Siddiqui ) [/quote]
you are not offending me anyway. But you might be offending several elders men[some of them would be age of your dad] and women[ of your mom's age] by making such silly statments. But I once heard that taribiat comes from home rather from some acedmic institute. You are certainly demonstrating it here. Keep it up and I am certainly enjoying your posts *grin*.
Khalid, you might soon get a reply from one of many resident liberals on this forum ;)
Now some moronic Liberal or chairman of Board in W.Indies should standup against sarwan to preach his religious festival on a CRICKET Website and ask him to “be In limits” rather preaching Hindu religion. But I guess they are not like Pakistanis, they would tolerate him and respect him like South Africans ,British and Indians respect minority players.
Getting back to bearded cricketers,Mike Gatting is another one who comes to mind, and he certainly wasn’t a role model for the spiritually minded. So long as the beard is neat and trim,it should be acceptable to all.
BTW, can someone enlighten me on the proper “Islamic” length of beard? My recollection is that it should not be longer than what can be gathered in one’s fist, but a lot of the overtly religious seem to believe in the untrimmed variety.
[quote post="377"]may it be via peer pressure…..or for incusion in a group/ team….is there anyone who has spoken about that?[/quote]
AS nasim ashraf preaching guys to visit different cinemas in Bharat?