And clarifying the rationale behind the ruling yields three benefits:
1 – It reassures the heart and puts the soul at ease with the ruling.
2 – It highlights the loftiness of the Islamic law, for there is no ruling in it but that it rests on a cause and a wisdom.
3 – It establishes the ruling for every case that resembles the case whose ruling has been reasoned, by virtue of the generality of the cause.
Shaykh al-Islam said: “Effective causes relate to the intended meanings, not to specific individuals; therefore the Prophet’s distinctive rulings, peace and blessings be upon him, came about only because he is a Prophet.”
3 – Al-Nawawī said: “If someone wears the khuffs while in a state of minor impurity, wiping over them is invalid by unanimous agreement.”
4 – The narration reported by al-Nasāʾī suggests that wiping should be done over both the upper and lower surfaces of the khuff, but the leading hadith scholars have deemed this additional wording weak. The sound position is that wiping is confined to the upper surface only. Al-Wazīr said: “There is consensus that wiping is restricted to the outer surface of the khuff.” Ibn al-Qayyim added: “No authentic report shows that he wiped their soles; the only report to that effect is a mursal ḥadith, and the sound narrations contradict it.”
5 – The obligation to wash the feet in ablution is affirmed by the Companion’s instinctive act of removing the khuffs in order to wash the feet, and the Prophet’s approval of this—were it not that he intended to wipe over them.
6 – The khuff must cover the portion of the limb whose washing is obligatory; this is inferred from the very term khuff. If it fails to cover the limb because of a tear, slit, or the like, the stronger opinion is that wiping over it is still permissible, even though part of the limb is exposed, for what is exposed follows what is concealed: something that cannot stand independently may be established as a subsidiary.
7 – Performing ablution in front of others does not contradict general decorum, especially when one is among one’s companions, attendants, or followers.