from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said:

“If any of you takes off his sandals when praying, he must not inconvenience anyone with them. Let him place them between his feet, or pray in them.”

It also contains a report from Yūsuf ibn Māhak, from Abū Hurayra, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“When any of you prays, he should not place his sandals to his right, nor to his left, where they would be to someone else’s right—unless there is no one to his left. Let him place them between his feet.”

It has been said that there is some weakness in this hadith’s chain of transmission. Nevertheless, it and the first hadith agree that one should place them between one’s feet. Had taking precautions against their suspected impurity been prescribed, this would not have been the case. Moreover, the first report mentions praying in them, and the second mentions placing them to one’s left when no one is praying there. The stated disapproval of placing them to one’s own right or someone else’s right is not a precaution against impurity, but a matter of etiquette, just as spitting to one’s right is disliked.

In Sahīh Muslim, Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt said:

“We complained to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, about the intense heat of the ground against our foreheads and palms, but he did not grant us relief.”

Some have assumed that this additional wording is in Muslim, but that is not the case. The reason for their complaint was that they would prostrate on the ground, and their foreheads and palms would become hot. They asked him to delay the prayer beyond the delay he already observed to allow the heat to subside, but he did not do so. Some jurists have thought that they asked him