I request clarification of what was stated in the treatise *Wiping over the Leather Socks*, which mentioned the permissibility of wiping over sandals, and many scholars have differed on this?

The questioner : Your Eminence, in your treatise *Wiping over the Leather Socks*, you mentioned the permissibility of wiping over sandals, and many scholars have differed on this. I request clarification?

The Shaykh : Yes, many scholars have differed on this, and some agreed. So what was the case?
And is there any issue on which the scholars did not differ except for very few? So disagreement should not cause a Muslim to doubt what has been authentically established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or from our righteous predecessors, without there being in the Book or the Sunnah anything that contradicts what may have been established from some of the righteous predecessors.
Wiping over the sandals has come in many hadiths from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and from others among his Companions. Among the most famous of these hadiths is what Abu Dawud narrated in his *Sunan* from al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah (may Allah be pleased with him):
And when I mention this hadith, I recall that some of those who stipulate that the footwear on the feet must cover the part of the feet that is obligatory to wash, which is up to the ankles as in the text of the Noble Qur'an, have interpreted this hadith of al-Mughirah by saying: The wiping that occurred on the socks and on the sandals was intended to be wiping on the socks, and the intention was not wiping on the sandals.
We say: This hadith can be interpreted in many ways, but when we gather the hadiths narrated from al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah regarding wiping, we find them to be in three categories. The most famous and most authentic is what came in the two Sahihs: , so this is one type of the types of wiping that al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
The second type: What I mentioned earlier, that he said: and they were worn. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would sometimes wipe over the leather socks, sometimes over the socks, and sometimes over the sandals. Wiping over the socks, as it came from al-Mughirah, also came from others, and Abu Dawud narrated it from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and others.
Likewise, wiping over the sandals alone, without mentioning wiping over the socks with them, came from the narration of a famous Companion, Aws ibn Aws al-Thaqafi, and it is also in *Sunan Abu Dawud*.
The fourth and final wiping: It also came from al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah: , so if wiping over the sandals has been established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), it is not permissible for us to hesitate in accepting it, because many or few scholars have not held the view of the permissibility of wiping over the sandals, as I mentioned earlier.
And I say: If we did not have except the report extracted by Imam Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi in his famous book *Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar*, and Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi in his well-known book *al-Sunan al-Kubra*, they have extracted with their authentic chains from Ali (may Allah be pleased with him): "That he performed ablution and wiped over his sandals, then he went to the mosque and took them off and led the people in prayer as imam". This is Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs and one of the Ten Promised Paradise, doing what you have heard is reported in those hadiths regarding wiping over the sandals.
So after all this, how is it permissible for a Muslim to hesitate in accepting this dispensation? And what is such hesitation in accepting this dispensation except like the hesitation of many in accepting the dispensation of wiping over the socks, by stipulating conditions that did not come in the Sunnah, let alone the Book, such as their saying: It must be thick, it must stay on the legs by itself, it must be able to walk on them, meaning: on the socks for such and such a distance. All of these are conjectures; nothing of them came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or from the righteous predecessors. Rather, more than one of the people of hadith narrated from al-Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him) that he said: "The socks of the Muhajireen and Ansar were nothing but torn", indicating by that the rejection of the condition that it not be torn, because water passes through this tear. All of this is complicating a dispensation that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) undoubtedly granted by revelation from his Lord, and clarifying such as His saying, the Exalted: . So if the hadith is authentic and is also confirmed by the action of some of the righteous predecessors, especially if it is from the Ten Promised Paradise, and even from the Rightly Guided Caliphs, then there remains no room for hesitation in accepting this dispensation. And it came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) his saying: and in another narration: . A Muslim should maintain that he takes advantage of what the Lawgiver has permitted, because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, loves that from His servant, Blessed and Exalted is He. This is the answer to the question.