Hurayrah the name of Ishāq, the freedman of Zāʾidah. Ishāq is trustworthy and listed among the narrators of Muslim, as al-Taqrīb states. In any case, therefore, the chain meets the required standard, whether Abū Ṣāliḥ heard the report directly from Abū Hurayrah or through this Ishāq.
A third route: Ibn Abī Dhiʾb also narrated it from al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbbās, from ʿAmr ibn ʿUmayr, from Abū Hurayrah. Abū Dāwūd recorded it (2-62), and Ibn Ḥazm cited it (2/23). All its transmitters are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ except for ʿAmr ibn ʿUmayr, who is unknown, as noted in al-Taqrīb.
A fourth route is mentioned by Ibn Ḥazm (1/250; 2/23): Ḥammād ibn Salamah from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, from Abū Hurayrah. This chain is hasan.
In short, the ḥadīth is sound beyond doubt, despite the objections raised against it.
- Wiping over leather socks (al-khuffayn)
The permissibility of wiping over the leather socks is established from the Prophet ﷺ through tawātur (mass-transmitted reports). It is authentically reported that he wiped over them after the revelation of the verse in Sūrat al-Māʾidah: “O you who believe, when you rise for prayer…” (5:6). According to the genitive reading of the word “your feet,” the verse is clarified by the Sunnah; thus the intended meaning is wiping over the leather socks. This is the view toward which Ibn Taymiyyah inclined in al-Ikhtiyārāt ⦗8⦘.
It is permissible to wipe over them even if they are torn, so long as they still bear the name “leather socks” and one can walk in them, for the wording of the Lawgiver is unrestricted. Shaykh al-Islām has detailed the matter in al-Fatāwā (1/257–263).