as salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakahtu
in the name of all the most gracious, the most merciful, to whom we are from and to whom we shall all return.
those who allah guides none can misguide, and for those who are misguided no one except allah can guide. i bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except allah and that muhammed idn abdullah al qureshi is seal of all prophets.
to proceed, verily the best of talks is the book of allah, and the best of guidance is the beloved sunnah of our prophet saw.
for every newly invented matter in the deen of all islam is an inovation (bid'ah), every inovation is a msguidance, and every misguidance truly leads to the hell fire.
to proceed i speak to myself before i speak to anyone, this is an issue prevelent amongst brothers alike today. is it sunnah or wajib? well inshallah i would like to take the time now to clarify that it is wajib to grow your beard and and removing any part of it is not permissable, ie the cheeks etc and you must trim your mustache and not remove it completely.
One of these reports is the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Umar who said that the Messenger of Allaah saw(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Be different from the mushrikeen: let your beards grow and trim your moustaches.” According to another report: “
Trim your moustaches and let your beards grow.” There are other hadeeth which convey the same meaning, which is to leave the beard as it is and let it grow long, without shaving, plucking or cutting any part of it. Ibn Hazm reported that there was scholarly consensus that it is an obligation (fard) to trim the moustache and let the beard grow. He quoted a number of ahaadeeth as evidence, including the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) quoted above, and the hadeeth of Zayd ibn Arqam in which the Prophet saw(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever does not remove any of his moustache is not one of us.” (Classed as saheeh by al-Tirmidhi). Ibn Hazm said in
al-Furoo’: “This is the way of our colleagues [i.e., the Hanbalis].”
Is it haraam (to shave it)? Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “The Qur’aan, Sunnah and ijmaa’ (scholarly consensus) all indicate that we must differ from the kuffaar in all aspects and not imitate them, because imitating them on the outside will make us imitate them in their bad deeds and habits, and even in beliefs, which will result in befriending them in our hearts, just as loving them in our hearts will lead to imitating them on the outside. Al-Tirmidhi reported that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “He is not one of us who imitates people other than us. Do not imitate the Jews and Christians.” According to another version: “Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” (Reported by Imaam Ahmad) ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab rejected the testimony of the person who plucked his beard. Imaam Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said in al-Tamheed: “It is forbidden to shave the beard, and no one does this except men who are effeminate” i.e., those who imitate women.
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) had a thick beard (reported by Muslim from Jaabir). It is not permitted to remove any part of the beard because of the general meaning of the texts which forbid doing so.
for literature on this subject please refer to this ebook that i have found you. inshallah do take time to look through this book as it also has evidence from all the four popular madhabs.
http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/beard.pdf
jazakallah kahir.