on top of their sandals, so that they neither carry impurity nor come into direct contact with it. Some refrain even from this out of scrupulousness, since there is a well-known disagreement over praying on something whose underside is impure; a covering is therefore spread on the ground for such a person. This degree is the furthest removed from the Sunnah.

The second degree:
To pray on a woven mat or the like, rather than on the ground or anything that comes into contact with it.

The third degree:
To pray on the ground, but not in sandals that have repeatedly come into contact with the roads. The patch of ground one carefully selects may be pure, and the likelihood of its having become impure is slight, unlike the soles of sandals.

The fourth degree:
To pray in sandals and, if any filth is found on them, to rub them against the earth, as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, instructed. This is the degree established by the Sunnah.

It is therefore clear that, for one whose regular practice was this fourth degree, it could not be recommended to place a prayer rug or some other barrier between himself and the ground to guard against impurity. Thus, the hadith concerning the small prayer mat cannot be interpreted as meaning that he laid it down to avoid impurity. Their use of it as evidence for that practice is therefore invalid. If, however, it was used to protect against the heat, then it should be used when needed for that purpose, and not used when there is no need for it.

Fourth:
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not instruct the Companions to use the small prayer mat