not wear anything on either foot, or he should put both of them on. Let everyone know that wearing sandals is a sunnah, and that going barefoot at times is also a sunnah. For this reason the Prophet ﷺ forbade excessive irfāh (self-indulgent pampering) and ordered that one go barefoot occasionally. Thus the sunnah is to wear sandals—there is nothing wrong with that—but a person ought, from time to time, to walk barefoot among people so that this sunnah becomes evident. Some people object when they see someone walking barefoot and say, “What is this? Only the ignorant do that.” This is a mistake, for the Prophet ﷺ discouraged excessive irfāh and instructed us to go barefoot now and then.

When you put on your sandals, begin with the right foot; when taking them off, start with the left. Likewise, if you are wearing sandals and wish to enter the mosque in them, inspect them at the door: if they contain any dirt or impurity, wipe them against the ground until it is removed, then pray in them, for that is part of the sunnah. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Differ from the Jews; pray in your sandals, for the Jews do not pray in their sandals.” Hence the sunnah is to pray while wearing one’s sandals, just as many people pray while wearing their khuffs; there is no difference between a khuff and a sandal. People only find sandals objectionable because this sunnah has been allowed to die out.

All of this applied when mosques were furnished as they used to be—with stones, gravel, sand, and the like—so that sandals caused no harm. Nowadays the mosques are carpeted; if people were to enter wearing sandals, they would visibly soil the mosque, because most people pay no attention to whether their sandals carry dirt or filth. For this reason the scholars have considered