Chapter
Precedence among the limbs, and the rulings on wiping and washing in wuḍūʾ
14 – They are unanimously agreed that one who begins with his left limbs before his right in wuḍūʾ is not required to repeat the ablution.
15 – They are unanimously agreed that anyone who has completed his purification, then puts on khuffs (leather socks) and subsequently breaks his state of purity, may wipe over them (1).
16 – They are unanimously agreed that if a person performs wuḍūʾ but washes only one foot, inserts the washed foot into a khuff, then washes the other foot and inserts it into the other khuff, his wuḍūʾ remains valid.
17 – They are unanimously agreed that a traveler who has water yet fears thirst may keep his water for drinking and perform tayammum (dry ablution) instead.
18 – They are unanimously agreed that tayammum with earth that carries dust (2) is permissible (3).
19 – They are unanimously agreed that whoever purifies himself with water before the prayer time begins, his state of purification is complete.
20 – They are unanimously agreed that one who performs tayammum, prays, and then finds water only after the prayer time has passed is not required to repeat the prayer.
(1) Al-Jassas states in Ahkam al-Quran, 2/491: “The permissibility of wiping over the khuffayn (leather socks) has been established from the Prophet through recurrent, widely-circulated reports that yield certain knowledge … None of the Companions ever rejected the practice, nor did any of them doubt that the Prophet wiped over them.” Ibn al-Arabi comments in Ahkam al-Quran, 2/73: “Once the interpretive basis for wiping over the khuffayn is confirmed, the ruling becomes a foundational principle of the Sharia and a distinguishing mark between Ahl al-Sunnah and the people of innovation; on this point many reports are to be dismissed.” Al-Nawawi writes in al-Majmuʿ, 1/500: “Our school, and in fact all the scholars, hold that wiping over the khuffayn is permissible both at home and on a journey. The Shia and the Khawarij, however, deem it impermissible. Qadi Abu al-Tayyib related the same view from Abu Bakr ibn Dawud, and al-Mahamili in al-Majmuʿ transmitted six different opinions ascribed to Malik … All such dissenting views are invalid and rejected.”
(2) Omitted in the manuscripts labeled (Kh, T); reinstated here on the basis of al-Iqnaʿ, 402.
(3) The consensus has also been cited by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Tamhid, 19/290. Ibn Hazm notes in Maratib al-Ijmaʿ, p. 44: “There is agreement that, apart from soil, sand, stone, walls, earth in general, minerals, snow, and vegetation, it is not permissible to perform tayammum (dry ablution) with any other substance.”