May Allah reward the brother who sent the following text from `Ali Al-Mardawi's Al-Insaf:

The important part of this text is that Ibn Al-Jawzi (may Allah have mercy upon him) also considered it unlawful to shave the beard. Ibn Al-Jawzi is a pre-Ibn Taymiyyah scholar, lending more support to the statement that this ruling is by agreement ("bi ittafaq") of the Hanbali scholars.

wa al-salamu `alaykum
--musa