Issue One – Permissibility

With regard to permissibility, the jurists expressed three opinions:

1. The well-known view is that wiping over leather socks is unconditionally permissible; it is the position adopted by the great majority of jurists across the various regions.

2. The second view allows it while travelling but not when one is settled.

3. The third—and strictest—view deems it impermissible altogether.

All three opinions are reported from the earliest generation of Muslims and from Mālik himself.

The root of their disagreement lies in what some take to be a conflict between the Qurʼānic verse on ablution, which commands washing the feet, and the Prophetic reports that permit wiping, coupled with the fact that the verse on ablution was revealed later. This dispute already existed among the Companions: some of them, Ibn ʿAbbās among them, held that the verse abrogated those reports.

Those who permit wiping cite as proof the report transmitted by Muslim that “they found delight in the ḥadīth of Jarīr,” for Jarīr related that he saw the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—wipe over his leather socks. When someone objected, “That took place before Sūrat al-Māʾidah was revealed,” Jarīr replied, “I did not embrace Islam until after al-Māʾidah had been sent down.”

Later scholars who upheld permissibility argued that there is no contradiction between the verse and the reports: the command to wash applies to anyone not wearing leather socks, while the concession applies to the one who is. Some added that reciting the word “feet” in the genitive case points precisely to wiping over the socks.

Those who distinguished between travel and residence did so because most of the sound reports describing the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—wiping were set during journeys. Travel itself suggests concession and ease, and wiping over the socks is a form of ease, for removing them is burdensome to the traveller.

Issue Two – The Area to Be Wiped

The jurists of the various regions also differed over how much of the sock must be wiped:

• Some maintained that the obligation is to wipe the upper part of the sock, while wiping its underside is merely recommended. Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī hold this view.

• Others obliged wiping both the upper and lower surfaces; this is the position of Ibn Nāfiʿ, a disciple of Mālik.

• Still others obliged wiping only the upper surface and did not even recommend wiping the sole. This is the view of Abū Ḥanīfah, Dāwūd, Sufyān, and a number of other scholars.

• A singular opinion is attributed to Ashhab, who said that what is obligatory is to wipe the underside—or the upper side, whichever of the two one happens to wipe.