Jimāʿ al-ʿIlm - Al-Shafi'i - (57)

up to the elbows; wipe your heads, and (wash) your feet up to the ankles” (5:6).

523 – When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, wiped over leather socks, we understood that Allah, exalted is He, made washing the feet obligatory only for some of those performing wudu’, not for all. The concession of wiping applies to one who has put his feet into the socks while in a state of complete purification, as indicated by the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah. For he would not have wiped were washing still incumbent upon him—just as the prescribed amputation is not lifted from certain thieves, nor the hundred lashes from certain adulterers, once the legal conditions for cutting and flogging are met.

524 – If someone objects, saying that it has been reported from some Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, that “the Book preceded (and therefore overrides) wiping over the socks,”

525 – then we reply: Sūrah al-Mā’idah was revealed before the incident in the Hijaz during the expedition of Tabuk that firmly established the practice of wiping over the socks; al-Mā’idah therefore predates that incident.

526 – And if he claims that one form of wudu’ was obligatory before the wudu’ in which the Messenger of Allah wiped over the socks, and that yet another form was prescribed afterward, thereby abrogating the wiping,

527 – let him produce evidence for two separate obligations of wudu’ in the Quran, for we know of only a single prescription.

528 – And if he alleges that the Prophet wiped before wudu’ itself had been made obligatory, he is in effect maintaining that prayer was performed without wudu’, whereas we know of no time when prayer was ever lawful without it.

529 – Which scripture, then, could possibly have preceded (and thus annulled) the ruling on wiping over leather socks?

530 – Wiping, as we have shown, is established by inferring from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, just as every other practice the Prophet instituted represents Allah’s prescribed obligations—such as the penalties for the thief and the adulterer we discussed earlier.

531 – Al-Shāfiʿī said: Never can a Sunnah contradict the Quran. Allah alone grants success.

إِلَى الْمَرَافِقِ وَامْسَحُوا بِرُؤُوسِكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ إِلَى الْكَعْبَيْنِ﴾ [المائدة: من الآية٦] ٥٢٣ - فلما مسح النبي ﷺ على الخفين استدللنا على أن فرض الله – Exalté soit-Il – غسل القدمين إنما هو على بعض المتوضئين دون بعض وأن المسح لمن أدخل رجليه في الخفين بكمال الطهارة استدلالا بسنة رسول الله ﷺ لأنه لا يمسح والفرض عليه غسل القدم كما لا يدرأ القطع عن بعض السراق وجلد المائة عن بعض الزناة والفرض عليه أن يجلد ويقطع. ٥٢٤ - فإذا ذهب ذاهب إلى أنه قد يروى عن بعض أصحاب النبي ﷺ أنه قال: سبق الكتاب المسح على الخفين؟. ٥٢٥ - فالمائدة نزلت قبل المسح المثبت بالحجاز في غزاة تبوك والمائدة قبله. ٥٢٦ - وإن زعم أنه كان فرض وضوء قبل الوضوء الذي مسح رسول الله ﷺ وفرض وضوء بعده فنسخ المسح. ٥٢٧ - فليأتنا بفرض وضوءين في القرآن فإنا لا نعلم فرض الوضوء إلا واحدا. ٥٢٨ - وإن زعم أنه مسح قبل يفرض عليه الوضوء فقد زعم أن الصلاة بلا وضوء ولا نعلمها كانت قط إلا بوضوء. ٥٢٩ - فأي كتاب سبق المسح على الخفين؟!. ٥٣٠ - المسح كما وصفنا من الاستدلال لسنة رسول الله ﷺ كما كان جميع ما سن رسول الله ﷺ من فرائض الله (تعالى) مثل ما وصفنا من السارق والزاني وغيرهما. ٥٣١ - قال الشافعي: ولا تكون سنة أبدا تخالف القرآن والله تعالى الموفق.