Perhaps Mālik—and those who agreed with him—never came across these authentic ḥadiths; otherwise, declaring reprehensible something that the Messenger ﷺ himself practiced repeatedly is difficult to justify. The Prophet ﷺ does not perform a disliked act except, on rare occasions, to clarify a ruling—such as when he forbids something and later does it to show that the prohibition is one of aversion rather than outright unlawfulness. Yet in this instance there is no prohibition at all.
The correct position is therefore that of the majority: the act is permissible without the least degree of disapproval.
“Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example” (al-Aḥzāb 33:21).
As for praying while wearing sandals, it is likewise permissible, subject to its own conditions; this was discussed earlier under the third category of permissible prayer-surfaces, so refer to it there.
- It is obligatory to build mosques in every village or neighborhood that lacks one and whose people need it, for “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded that mosques be built in residential quarters,” meaning the districts where people live.
The ḥadith is reported by ʿĀʾishah —may Allah be pleased with her—who said …, and its complete wording adds: “and that they be cleaned and perfumed.”
It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (from whom Ibn Ḥazm cited it) and by Ibn Mājah, both through the chain of Zāʾidah ibn Qudāmah; by al-Tirmidhī and Aḥmad—and, through Aḥmad, al-Bayhaqī—both through Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿĀmir al-Zubayrī; and also by Ibn Mājah through Mālik ibn Saʿīd. All three routes go back to Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from her.
This isnād is sound according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs, and it is not undermined by the transmitters who narrated it from Hishām, from his father, in a disconnected form, as al-Tirmidhī also recorded and said: