Can you really wipe over your shoes in wudu?

This evening, Salat-ul-Ishaa will be at 8:45. Salat-ul-Ishaa this evening, tonight, will be at 8:45.

[Arabic recitation]

Yesterday morning in our introduction to the rulings on al-masah alal khuffain, wiping over the footwear. Yesterday, I spoke about the general Sunnah of how the Prophet, our messenger, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, would wipe over his footwear and how the companions, radiyallahu anhu, did that. Now, we're going to take a peek into the technical side, which is we're going to look at what is the bare minimum, what is the maximum, and what are some of the specifics. However, keep in mind, if you paid attention very well yesterday, which I think were about 10 minutes, we took 99% of what we're going to be reading now. And if you paid good attention yesterday, then you should be in a very good position to easily understand the rest of what we're going to discuss in this chapter. There are few of conditions. Just as we've mentioned before, every act of worship has conditions and pillars. Every act of worship. Every act of worship has conditions and pillars. If that's the if that is the case, then what are the conditions for wiping over a person's footwear? The author tells us, The first thing is that in order for you to wipe over your footwear, socks, shoes, leather socks, whatever it is, you have to have put these on initially having made full wudu and washed your feet. So, there is no such thing as wiping over your socks or your footwear and then putting on a different pair of socks or footwear. That doesn't exist. You will only have put that particular pair of socks or shoes on that you're going to wipe over. You put them on after having made wudu fully and washed your feet. You were in a state of full wudu, then you put on your leather socks. When we say full wudu, I don't want you to imagine that wiping over the footwear is somehow lesser. It's not. It's the same reward, same full wudu, right? It's just that in order for that to count, you have to have put them on in a state of wudu. yesterday.

[Silence]

We mentioned this yesterday. Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah, an interesting man, Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah. Did you know that Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah was a bandit and a killer before Islam? He was a terror for any traveler that went out in his direction. He was known by name. And Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah was an absolute nightmare. He was a bandit, qatta' tariq. You and yours, you're traveling unbeknownst to you, you know, hee-hawing or whatever, and then Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah pops out and you have a very bad day. Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah actually did one last job before he became Muslim. And this shows you the mentality of people before Islam. And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala teaches us. And so, that one last job, he made quite a bit of money, and then he came and accepted Islam. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam heard about that. And so, he said, "Do not attempt to give us any of that money that you took." Right? We will not accept any of that money from you. Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah accepted Islam, and he then became one of the best companions in all of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam's companions. And he was very skilled in the avenues of war. This was his language. And so, he was an official guard of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, especially in the negotiations of al-Hudaybiyyah. Also, al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah radiyallahu anhu was a servant, as we see here, of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He used to travel with him often. And he is one of the great martyrs of Islam. Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah radiyallahu anhu, he says, "I was with the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam one evening as we were traveling. And so, I poured the water for his wudu. So, he went, used the restroom, you know, he relieved himself, he came back, and al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah is pouring the water for him to make wudu." He says, "And so, he washed his face and his arms and he wiped over his head and then I went to take off his khuffain. His leather footwear. And he said to me, "Dahuma, leave them." Fainni adkhaltuhuma ya'ni adkhaltu qadamayya. Fainni adkhaltuhuma tahiratayni. Leave them for I put my feet into those in a state of wudu. And so, al-Mughirah says he then proceeded to wipe over them. Now, why does the Sheikh keep saying footwear? Why doesn't he just say leather socks? This is an interesting thing. When it comes to what we wipe over, it doesn't matter what it is. The material doesn't matter in the correct opinion. It doesn't matter if it is shoes, if it is leather, doesn't matter if it's thin, doesn't matter if it is sheen, if you can see through it, doesn't matter if it's thick, doesn't matter if you wear it independently or wear it with shoes. Anything that you wear over your feet is permissible to wipe over with a few conditions that we will get to. Now, the most common thing that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and the companions would wear is al-khuffain. Al-khuff. And al-khuff is a leather shoe. It's not a leather sock. It is a leather shoe. It's made out of hard leather, usually lamb or steer hide that has been tanned and hardened. And so, when you look at the earlier fuqaha, Abu Hanifah rahimahullah, Malik, Shafi, when they when they identify the type or describe the type of khuff that the prophet would wear, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, they have different descriptions of it. They say, "It's only considered to be a khuff if it stands on its own." Meaning, when you take it off, it stands boots. They stand up on their own. Right? Or you have to be able to walk in them without shoes for it to be considered a khuff. Or you have to be able to walk such and such distance in them. Now, because of the weak translation of leather sock, in the West, we wear socks with shoes. Right? We don't walk around outside with just socks on. So, some people in in some madhhab, you can only wipe over leather khuff. It has to be that. And so, the idea then is, "Well, let's design a leather sock." And the translation comes as leather socks. And so, they start producing this leather sock. It's very fine, thin leather, usually made out of lambskin. Most of them are just really pleather, just plastic leather, fake leather. It's not real leather. And you put it on and, you know, you you wear them with shoes. And this is so that we can wipe over them. You go to what we call a Muslim store or an Islamic store. We've all seen them, right? And it'll be this very soft leather and you put them on and they usually have a zipper and that has no relation to the khuff that was worn in the prophet's time, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. That is more appropriate to have come from the region of Persia. And is that bad? No. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not. Can you wipe over them? Yes. But do you have to particularly go out and find those and buy them so that you can now practice the sunnah of wiping over your socks or shoes? No. And if that were your intention, you would have failed miserably because that is not in any way related to the khuff that were was worn in the prophet's time, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. The khuff is very hard leather. And leather used to be take the place of most plastics today. Leather is very hard and it has the potential to be extremely hard. Most soles until about 60 years ago on all shoes were made out of leather, leather soles. And even shields and armor that were designed to repel sword strikes and light arrow hand hand bow strike were made out of of thick steerhide and leather. So, leather took the place of most of what we use today as plastic, right? Arguably much better than plastics are. so, that is enough for today.