al-Shawkānī said:

“The various ḥadiths in this chapter can be reconciled by taking the report of Abū Hurayrah—and those that follow it—as redirecting the previously cited commands, whose rationale was ‘to differ from the People of the Book,’ from the level of obligation to simple recommendation. Granting the worshipper a choice and leaving the matter to his discretion after those commands does not conflict with the act’s desirability, just as the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Between every two calls to prayer there is a prayer for whoever wishes.’ In my view, this is the fairest and strongest of the scholarly positions.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī said:

“The wisdom behind praying in sandals, as has been explained, is to distinguish ourselves from the People of the Book, to spare others any harm that might result were one to remove his sandals, and—by keeping them on—to protect them from a thief or from an animal that might soil them.”

Al-Manāwī transmits this in Fayḍ al-Qadīr.

5 – The place of prayer must also be pure, on account of the Prophet’s words to the Bedouin who urinated in the mosque: “These mosques are not fit for any filth, urine, or excrement.” He then ordered a man to fetch a bucket of water and sprinkle it over the spot.

This ḥadith is authentic. Muslim, al-Bayhaqī, and Aḥmad all recorded it through the chain of ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, who related that Isḥāq ibn Abī Ṭalḥah narrated from Anas ibn Mālik—his uncle—who said:

“While we were in the mosque with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, a Bedouin came and began to urinate in the mosque. The Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ cried out, ‘Stop! Stop!’ but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Do not interrupt him; leave him.’ So they left him until he had finished. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then called him and said to him…,” and the report continues.