He says in his first question: How is the duration of wiping over the leather socks determined? Is it by hours or by prayers? How does this apply to the traveler and the resident? And is the turban, which is tied tightly on the head and not easily removed at every ablution, measured by the same standard or not?

The questioner : He says in his first question: How is the duration of wiping over the leather socks determined? Is it by hours or by prayers? How does this apply to the traveler and the resident? And is the turban, which is tied tightly on the head and not easily removed at every ablution, measured by the same standard or not?

The Shaykh : This issue is one of the most important matters that people need clarified, and for this reason, we will make the answer broader than the question, if Allah wills.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : We say: Wiping over the leather socks is established by the evidence of the Book and the Sunnah. As for the Book, it is from the saying of Allah the Exalted: with the lam kasrah (short vowel).

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Thus, it is conjoined to His saying: so it falls within the scope of what is wiped. The reading that people recite in the mushafs is: with the lam fathah (long vowel), so it is conjoined to the face, to your faces, and thus it falls within the scope of what is washed. In that case, the legs, based on the two readings, are either to be washed or to be wiped. The Sunnah has clarified when the washing occurs and when the wiping occurs. The washing occurs when the foot is exposed, and the wiping occurs when it is covered by a leather sock or something similar.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : As for the Sunnah, wiping over the leather socks has been transmitted from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in a mass-transmitted manner, and the scholars have counted it among the mass-transmitted reports, as said by the one who composed a poem on the matter:
"Among the mass-transmitted matters is the hadith of the liar, and of the one who built a house for Allah and counted it as a good deed,
And a vision, intercession, the Pool, and wiping over the leather socks, and these are some of the ".
Wiping over the leather socks is among the matters about which mass-transmitted hadiths have been reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Wiping over the leather socks, if a person has put them on while in a state of ritual purity, is better than removing them and washing the feet. For this reason, when al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah (may Allah be pleased with him) wanted to remove the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) leather socks during his ablution, he said to him: Then he wiped over them. Wiping over the leather socks has conditions. The first condition is that they must be put on while in a state of ritual purity, complete purity from both minor and major ritual impurity.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : If they are put on while not in a state of ritual purity, then wiping over them is not valid. The second condition is that the wiping must be within the duration of wiping, as the duration will be explained later, if Allah wills.
The third condition is that the wiping must be for minor ritual purity, that is, during ablution. If a person is in a state requiring the full ritual bath, he must remove the leather socks to wash his entire body. For this reason, there is no wiping over the leather socks in the state of major ritual impurity, as in the hadith of Safwan ibn 'Asal (may Allah be pleased with him). These three conditions are among the conditions for wiping, regarding the permissibility of wiping over the leather socks. As for the duration, it is one day and one night for the resident, and three days and their nights for the traveler. There is no consideration given to the number of prayers; rather, the consideration is given to the time. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) set the time at one day and one night for the resident, and three days and their nights for the traveler. One day and one night is twenty-four hours, and three days and their nights are seventy-two hours.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : But when does this duration begin? This duration begins from the first time of wiping, not from putting on the leather sock, and not from the occurrence of ritual impurity after putting it on.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : This is because the Shari'ah came with the term "wiping," and wiping is not realized except by its actual occurrence. The resident wipes for one day and one night, and the traveler wipes for three days, so the realization of wiping is necessary, and this does not occur except by the beginning of wiping at the first time.

The questioner : Is it the time by which it ends?

The Shaykh : So the beginning of the duration is from the first time of wiping. When twenty-four hours have passed from the beginning of wiping, the time for wiping ends for the resident. When seventy-two hours have passed, the wiping ends for the traveler. We give an example to clarify the matter: A man purified himself for the Fajr prayer, then put on the leather socks, then remained in a state of purity until he prayed the Zuhr prayer while in a state of purity, and prayed the 'Asr prayer while in a state of purity. After the 'Asr prayer, at five o'clock, he purified himself for the Maghrib prayer and then wiped. This man is allowed to wipe until five o'clock on the second day. If it is estimated that he wiped on the second day at five o'clock minus a quarter hour, and remained in a state of purity until he prayed the Maghrib and 'Isha' prayers, then at that time he would have prayed, within this duration, the Zuhr prayer on the first day, and the 'Asr, Maghrib, and 'Isha' prayers, and the Fajr prayer on the second day, and the Zuhr, 'Asr, Maghrib, and 'Isha' prayers. These are nine prayers he prayed. By this, we know that there is no consideration given to the number of prayers, as is understood by many of the common people, who say: "Wiping is for five obligatory prayers." This has no basis. Rather, the Shari'ah set the time at one day and one night, and this duration begins from the first time of wiping. In this example we mentioned, you know how many prayers he prayed while wearing the leather socks.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : By this example we mentioned, it is clarified that when the duration of wiping is completed, he does not wipe after this duration. If he wipes after the duration is completed, his wiping is invalid and does not remove the ritual impurity. However, if he wipes before the duration is completed, and then remains in a state of purity after the duration is completed, his ablution does not become invalid, but he remains in a state of purity until a nullifier of ablution occurs.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : This is the example we mentioned: we said that he wiped on the second day at five o'clock minus a quarter hour, that is, before the completion of the duration by a quarter hour, and then remained in a state of purity until Maghrib and 'Isha'. He prays Maghrib and 'Isha' with his purity. This is because the statement that ablution becomes invalid by the completion of the duration, that is, by the completion of the duration of wiping, is a statement with no evidence. The completion of the duration means that there is no wiping after its completion, and it does not mean that there is no purity after its completion. If the time-limited act is wiping, not purity, then there is no evidence that purity becomes invalid by the completion of the duration. In that case, we say, in establishing the evidence for what we have adopted: This man performed a valid ablution in accordance with valid Shari'ah evidence. If that is the case, then it is not possible for us to say that this ablution becomes invalid except by valid Shari'ah evidence. And there is no evidence that it becomes invalid by the completion of the duration. In that case, his purity remains until a nullifier of ablution occurs, which has been established by the Book or the Sunnah.
This is a brief summary of wiping over the leather socks. It has many branches, but this is not the place to mention them, and they are known in the books of the scholars, and praise be to Allah.
As for the traveler.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : He has three days and their nights, that is, seventy-two hours, beginning from the first time of wiping. For this reason, the Hanbali jurists (may Allah have mercy on them) mentioned that if a man puts on his leather socks while he is a resident in his country, then he becomes ritually impure in the same country, and then travels and does not wipe until after he has traveled, they said: He completes the wiping of a traveler in this case. They considered the beginning of the duration to be from the wiping, from the first time of wiping. This indicates the weakness of the statement that the beginning of the duration is from the first occurrence of ritual impurity after putting them on.
As for the issue of the turban, it has been established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that wiping over it is permissible. It is, from the perspective of consideration, more deserving of wiping than the leather socks, because it is worn over a wiped part. So the purity of this organ, which is the head, is lighter than the purity of the feet, because its purity is by wiping, and the branch from it, which is the turban, is also by wiping. But is it required in it what is required in the leather sock, that it be put on while in a state of purity, and that its duration be limited to one day and one night for the resident and three days and their nights for the traveler? Or is wiping over it absolute, so that whenever it is on the head, it is wiped, whether it was put on while in a state of purity or not, and without a time limit, except that in the case of major ritual impurity, he does not wipe over it, because the full ritual bath is necessary for the entire body? There is disagreement among the scholars on this. Those who said that it is not required to put it on while in a state of purity, and that it has no duration, said: Because there is no evidence from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding that, and its analogy to the leather socks, as they say, is an analogy with a difference. Because the leather socks are worn on a washed organ, whose purity requires washing, whereas this is worn on a wiped organ, whose purity is lighter. For this reason, purity is not required for putting it on, and it has no time limit. But there is no doubt that caution is better, and the matter in this is easy. It should be that he does not put it on except while in a state of purity, and that he removes it when the duration of wiping is completed, and wipes his head, and then puts it back on.