of al-Azhari, who says: “al-najas (impurity) is the filth that comes out of the human body.” To insist, then, that what is revolting is either not impure at all, or impure yet legally excused, is sheer arbitrariness. Gabriel’s pointing out the filth while the Prophet ﷺ was already in prayer clearly shows that it was an impurity that must be avoided in the prayer itself, not a mere fear of later soiling, for had that been the concern he would have warned him before the prayer began; sitting with the sandals on was far more likely to spread whatever was on them. Nor can the majority’s reply be applied to the version of the report that uses the term khabath, for the authorities on Arabic—and others besides—are unanimous that “the two khabath things” are urine and feces.

Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, remarks in Ighāthat al-Lahfān after citing the ḥadīth:

“To explain this as referring to something loathsome yet ritually pure, such as mucus, is untenable for several reasons:

1. Such a thing is never called khubth (filth).
2. One is not instructed to wipe it away before praying, for it does not invalidate the prayer.
3. Removing one’s sandals during the prayer is an unnecessary action and, at the very least, reprehensible.
4. Al-Dāraqutnī relates in his Sunan, in the version transmitted by Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Gabriel came to me and told me that there was in them the blood of a ḥulmah.’ The ḥulmah are large ticks.”