Salams, As far as growing beards for the muslim man, all of the major madhabs/schools of fiqh say that it is Wajib to grow one. You can go to your local muslim bookstore and inquire. I am not an alim but as a muslim, if inshallah, u know something then you should not be afraid of to share it with your fellow muslims (With some wisdom ofcourse, there is the right time for everything and wisdom is knowing what to do at the right time, inshallah). There are many hadiths that point out to the fact that muslims should not follow the ways of the nonmuslims and differentiate themselves. To reject the sunnah of the rasul (salah allahu caliyahi wa salam) whilest telling people to follow the shariah and the quran, is hypocritcal. I know that some of the ahl ul-daleel (show me your proof folk!) might be disagree with me. '...were you rasul (salah allahu caliyahi wa salam)severe or harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from about you.' 3:159

The notion of freedom and Equality are both falsehoods that have been drummed up by western civilization. Equality is a liberal notion that is doesn't exist. Just like the five fingers are not equal, no two people are equal. In Islam, a hierarchy exists, with the Ulama being at the top of the pyrmaid (in the muslim community), if I'm not mistaken. With respect to Freedom, u can not free your soul without putting constraints on it. To grow in being, you must first inshallah, negate your soul of the negatives (the shahawats). The western view of freedom is entrenched in hedonism and feeding your nafs. When people speak about being 'free' and feeling 'free', they are often referring to be able to do what ever they want aka Total Selfishness. This is a good topic inshallah, and it took me a while to understand it. Reason being, like most people, I didn't like hearing what I heard i.e. 'What, we are not equal?' Just think of the question-Is Hijab liberation for women? Why is it? and you might understand my explanation of freedom and equality. Salams

You know you are Somali when you had 30-50 days off sick LOL Thats jokes cause I took a day off work today cause I was sick and I caught hell from my family for it. But hey, I got my paid sick days! I think that today makes the 20th day I took a sick leave. lol 10 more to go! You know you're somali when you're parents expect you take a student loan not matter how little it is, to pay for school. You know you're somali when you where a suit everyday just to go the Coffe shop or pick up the newspaper from the store.

I personally have never been with a somali sister. Why? Simply b/c I look at them as Muslims first and foresmost and due to inshallah having a sense of shame or taqwa or whatever u might call it, I find it hard to do so. To do something Haram with another muslimah. If the somali women/girl drinks and really doesn't care about Deen, then she is different. Then I'll treat her like any other nonmuslim chick and have my way with her. But to this day, I haven't and I'm starting to find that there are alot of somali girls that don't care about deen or anything else. I'm sure that other somali men have thought like this.

I'm scurrrred of dem In laws lol Really and truly! Seen it and I just might pull of the new fad for somali men today 'Marry a sis from Somalia and bring here back to the West' so that you can be far away from the inlaws. Your own family too is a danger. Particularly your own mother and aunts. Boy, women sure can stir up heat. 'She doesn't like my cooking, She never talks to us that match, She was from that 'disabled and awful tribe anywayz' yack,yack, yack....'

I think too many somali and muslim men in general emphasize the hijab issue on the sisters and drill it on their foreheads. However, men don't see it as a duty of there's to look like muslims and follow the various sunnahs i.e. wear a beard, wear visible islamic attire such as a muslim cap, thawbs etc. It makes me sooo mad when I see a brother harassing a sister about the hijab when you can't differentiate the brother from a non muslim. I saw this sister the other day, she was a anglo-saxon (white) muslim convert and she was with her husband/muslim friend and the brother didn't look like a muslim at all, yet she did. What kind of example is he setting for the new convert? When my father talks to my sister, he rants at her for not wearing the hijab. Yet, I could swear if I saw my father across the street, I would mistake him for a nonmuslim africana. 'Whoever imitates a people is from them'. I'm a muslim, somali male and this distrubs me. However, it doesn't mean that Not Wearing Hijab is something that can be justified, neither is it for a man to shave their beard and look like a non-muslim aka Kafir, Galoo! What do the sisters think about this? 'Someday, my two cents will go up in value and be worth three cents'