Bismillahi Al-Rahmani Al-Rahim

 Shaving The Beard Revisited
Q
 Jazakallah Khairann for your reply I found it very informative. Unfortunately I cannot furnish you with a citation - its something I read where no specific citation is given - However what about the soundness of this citation? Shaykh As-Saffarrani(rh) said: "It is agreed in our mazhab that it is prohibited to shave" [Ghitha ul-Albab 1:376)

[edited for typographic purposes]

 A
 The annual book fair just opened so I picked up a copy of Al-Alfiyah Fi Al-Adab Al-Shar`iyah by Imam Shams Al-Din Muhammad bin `Abd Al-Qawid Al-Mardawi Al-Hanbali (620 - 699 AH). This is the poem that Ghidha Al-Lubab is a commentary of. Unfortunately, I cannot find a decent copy of Al-Ghidha.

In any case:

I have little doubt that there is ittifaq (agreement) among the post-Ibn Taymiyyah scholars. But I am having a bit of trouble finding something explicit from scholars like Ibn Qudamah, Ibn Al-Jawzi, `Abd Al-Qadir Al-Jaylani, Ibn `Aqil, and Al-Qadi Abu Ya`la. I have found related rulings with Ibn Qudamah (in Al-Mugni) and `Abd Al-Qadir Al-Jalyani (in Al-Ghunyah) and something very close attributed to Ibn Al-Jawzi-- but I cannot find something explicit.

Since the person asserting the agreement is Al-Safarini, I have no reason to believe that it is not sound. But I wonder why the issue wasn't mentioned before. Shaving the head for absolutely no reason is makruh, and some say the same about shaving the back of the neck. You would expect these same books to mention something about shaving the beard--but that's assuming that people then are similar to the way they are today. My hunch is that no one mentioned this issue because no one did it, and no one would consider doing it since it is not only effeminate but totally goes against the sunnah which is to just let it grow naturally. Just a hunch, mind you.

This does happen sometimes. I have never seen men baring the head being mentioned as an innovation or maruh in older books, and then one day I came across a passing in Jami` Al-`Ulum Wa Al-Hikam where Al-Hafiz Al-Imam Ibn Rajib mentions something like: "And one of the recent innovations seen in our age is men baring the head". And suddenly uncovering the head becomes mentioned among the things that ruin ones social uprightedness (muru'a).

And Allah knows best.