Wearing the beard and raising the hands in prayer
9-9-2004 | IslamWeb
Question:
May Allaah bless you all, Ameen. My question is, how many Hadeeth are there regarding beard, I mean how many Sahaabah, may Allaah be pleased with them, reported about it? And how many Sahaabah about the Rafagh' al-yadayn in the Salat? Please answer me along with the evidence, I mean exact Hadeeth numbers. Hope you answer my question as soon as possible.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
If the questioner means the Hadeeths about the beard, meaning the Hadeeths ordering to wear a beard, then there are several in the books of Sunnah narrated by many companions 
.
1) 'Abdullaah Ibn 'Amr 
: the Hadeeth narrated by him is reported by Al-Bukhari, Muslim, and many others
. He narrated that the Prophet 
said: "Be different from the polytheists. Trim the moustache and grow your beards." This is Al-Bukhari's wording.
2) Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet said: "Trim your moustache and let your beards grow. Be different from the Magi." [Muslim, Ahmad]
3) 'Aa'ishah 
narrated that the Prophet said: "There are ten acts of human natural instinct:"… Trimming the moustache and growing the beard." [At-Tirmithi, Ibn Maajah, Ahmad and others] This is At-Tirmithi's wording.
4) Jaabir Ibn 'Abdullaah : The Hadeeth he narrated is reported by Ibn Abu Shayba
with the following wording: "We used to be ordered to grow the beards and to trim the moustache."
5) 'Abdullaah Ibn Utayba narrated that the Prophet said: "In our religion, we have to trim the moustaches and to grow the beard." [Ibn Abu Shayba]
6) Anas Ibn Maalik reported that Prophet said: "Trim your moustache and grow your beards and do not imitate the Jews.'' [At-Tahaawi]
It is also possible for a questioner to find other narrations by other companions all of which are about growing the beard.
As regards the narrations about raising the hands in prayer while saying 'Allaahu Akbar' upon starting the prayer, when bowing down, and when standing up from the position of bowing, there are so many. Ibn Hajar stated: 'Al-Bukhari stated in his book in the chapter of 'raising the hands' that it was narrated by 17 companions . Al-Haakim and Abul-Kassim Ibn Mandah mentioned that the narration is reported by the ten companions, who were promised paradise . Shaykh Abu Al-Fadhl Al-Hafith stated that he traced the narrators and found out that it was narrated by up to fifty companions . Among these many narrations are the following:
1) Al-Bukhari and Muslim reported that Ibn 'Umar narrated that the Prophet used to raise his hands up to his shoulders when starting the prayer, when saying 'Allaahu Akbar' before bowing down, and when he stood up from bowing down.
2) Imaam Muslim reported that Maalik Ibn Al-Huwayrith used to say 'Allaahu Akbar' when he prays and then raises his hands, and when he bows down he raises his hands too, and when he raises his head from Rukuu' he raises his hands as well. He (the companion) said that the Prophet used to do so.
3) Waa'il Ibn Hujr said: "I prayed with the Prophet and when he says 'Allaahu Akbar' to start the prayer he used to raise his hands ……and when he wants to bow down, he also raises his hands, and when he wants to stand up from Rukuu', he raises his hands too…...''. [Abu Daawood and others]
Imaam At-Tirmithi said: 'In this chapter of raising the hands, many companions reported raising hands in these three situations, among whom are:
'Umar, 'Ali, Waa'il Ibn Hujr, Maalik Ibn Al-Huwayrith, Anas, Abu Hurayrah, Abu Hameed, Abu suhayl, Sahl Ibn Saa'd. Muhammad Ibn Maslamah, Abu Qutaadah, Abu Moossaa Al-Ash'aree and Jaabir Ibn 'Umayr Al-Laythi .'
Allaah knows best.