the underside is the part that comes into direct contact with the ground and may therefore be touched by impurity, so it would seem more deserving of removal. Yet the obligation is to place sound transmission ahead of personal opinion, for the One who legislated the ruling knows best where the true benefits lie. This does not mean that the Sacred Law ignores or dismisses the intellect; far from it. The honour bestowed upon the mind in the Qur’an, the ways it cultivates its faculties and addresses it, are too numerous to enumerate. Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Will they not then reason?” (Ya Sin 68), and: “Indeed in that are signs for a people who reason” (Ar-Rum 24), and: “Indeed, the worst of creatures in the sight of Allah are the deaf and dumb—those who do not reason” (Al-Anfal 22). The intellect is therefore a tremendous blessing that Allah has granted humankind. The point, rather, is that the intellect is not an autonomous legislator; it submits to and receives Allah’s Law with a content heart, striving to understand the divine wisdom it contains. If it grasps that wisdom, this is a favour from Allah; if not, it adopts the stance of those who said, “We believe in it; all of it is from our Lord” (Al ʿImran 7).

4 – A sound intellect agrees with authentic revelation. The Law that Allah has revealed seeks exactly the same objective for which the intellect itself was created—provided the intellect remains healthy, unclouded by caprice and desire, and untouched by weakness or frivolity. It is nonetheless clear that reason is not the yardstick by which the Shariʿah is measured; rather, the Shariʿah is the criterion by which minds themselves are judged. If a particular intellect accepts the rulings of the Law, this indicates that it is sound and free of defects; if it refuses them, that refusal betrays an ailing and infirm condition.

5 – One must submit and yield to the commands of Allah the Exalted and to the commands of His Messenger Muhammad ﷺ. Such submission is the essence of worship and the perfection of obedience and surrender.

6 – Perhaps—and Allah knows best—the wisdom behind this ruling is that washing would damage the leather socks, so wiping was deemed sufficient as a concession and an ease, and to preserve their monetary value. Moreover, wiping is not a wash that removes impurity and cleanses the khuff. Since wiping cannot eliminate the dirt that clings to the sole, and wiping it with water might in fact cause one to carry that impurity, the wipe was prescribed on the upper surface so as to remove