[A Jurisprudential Issue Concerning Wiping over the Khuffs]

Al-Layth, Ibn Luhayʿah, Ḥaywah ibn Shurayḥ, Mufaḍḍal ibn Faḍālah, ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith and others all transmitted from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥakam, from ʿUlayy ibn Rabāḥ, from ʿUqbāh ibn ʿĀmir:

Abū ʿUbaydah had sent him as a courier with news of the conquest of Damascus. ʿUqbāh said, “I arrived before ʿUmar on a Friday. He asked me, ‘How long has it been since you last removed your khuffs?’ I replied, ‘Since last Friday, and today is Friday.’ He said, ‘You have acted in accordance with the Sunnah.’ ”

Al-Layth commented, “This is our position,” meaning that for a traveller wiping over the khuffs is not restricted by any time-limit; he may wipe as long as he wishes. This was also the view espoused by al-Shāfiʿī in his earlier opinion. A marfūʿ report conveying the same ruling has been narrated by Aḥmad and Abū Dāwūd from Ubayy ibn ʿImārah (1).

The majority, however, follow what Muslim related from ʿAlī: the traveller’s period for wiping is three days and nights, while the resident’s is one day and night (2).

Some scholars distinguish between the courier and those in a similar situation and all others. For the first there is no fixed term, whereas for everyone else the time-limit applies, reconciling the ḥadīth of ʿUqbāh (3) with that of ʿAlī. Allah knows best.

[Section: The Conquest of al-Biqāʿ, Beirut, and Tadmur]

Abū ʿUbaydah then dispatched Khālid ibn al-Walīd to al-Biqāʿ, which he took by the sword. He also sent out a detachment that met the Byzantines at ʿAyn Maysnūn (4). The Byzantines were led by a man called “Sinān” (5). He descended upon the Muslims from the Beirut pass and killed a number of them, who were martyred that day; hence ʿAyn Maysnūn came to be known as ʿAyn al-Shuhadāʾ—the Spring of the Martyrs. Abū ʿUbaydah appointed