Can you wipe over your socks instead of washing your feet?
8 min read
Short answer
Yes. If you put your footwear on while you were in a complete state of wudu, then the next time you make wudu you may wipe over the top of them with wet hands instead of washing your feet. It lasts one day and a night if you are at home, and three days and nights if you are travelling.
The wipe is for the footwear the schools call khuffayn, which were leather. Whether ordinary cotton socks qualify is the question everybody actually asks, and the schools answer it differently. That is set out below.
Wiping over footwear instead of washing the feet is one of the best attested concessions in the whole of Islamic law. It is reported from a very large number of Companions, which is why scholars describe the practice as beyond individual dispute even though the details are debated. Jarir ibn Abdullah used to make a point of it, noting that he had become Muslim after the wudu verse was revealed, so his practice could not be dismissed as an older ruling that had since been replaced.
The core case, in the sources, is the khuff: a leather boot or sock that covers the foot including the ankles. The question of how far that extends to the cotton socks in your drawer is where the four schools separate, and it is worth being honest that they genuinely do.
The conditions
Every school agrees on the first of these and most of the rest. Get the first one wrong and nothing else matters.
- They must go on while you are in a complete state of wudu. This is the condition in the hadith of al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba. He reached down to pull the Prophet's ﷺ khuffs off and was told to leave them, because they had been put on in a state of purity. Washing your feet last in your wudu and then pulling your socks on is exactly the right order.
- They must cover what must be washed. That means the whole foot up to and including the ankles. Ankle socks and trainer socks that sit below the ankle bone do not qualify in any school.
- They must stay on. The concession is attached to the footwear being worn continuously. Take them off and it ends.
- They must be within the time limit. One day and a night, or three for a traveller, in the three schools that set one.
- They must be lawful and clean. The Shafi'i and Hanbali schools state this plainly. Stolen footwear, or footwear made of something impure, does not carry the concession.
- They must be intact enough to serve. A small hole is treated leniently by some and strictly by others. A sock that has given up and exposes the foot is not footwear any longer.
Note what is not on the list. There is no condition that you be ill, travelling, in a hurry, or in a cold country. This is an everyday concession available to anyone, every day.
Do ordinary socks count?
The word used in the reports for leather footwear is khuff, and the word used for a cloth sock is jawrab. There is a narration that the Prophet ﷺ wiped over socks and sandals, reported in the Sunan collections, and scholars have graded it differently. There are also reports of a number of Companions wiping over cloth socks. How much weight a school gives to those two things determines its answer.
What the four schools say
Do thin or ordinary cloth socks qualify for wiping?
Many contemporary scholars permit everyday socks on the Hanbali reasoning, and many others hold to the classical thickness conditions. It is a live difference, not a settled one, so a person is on solid ground following the position of the school he practises.
How long the wipe lasts
Ali ibn Abi Talib reported that the Prophet ﷺ set three days and nights for the traveller and one day and a night for the resident, which is in Sahih Muslim. The counting is the part people get wrong. The clock does not start when you put the socks on, and it does not start at your first wipe. It starts the first time your wudu breaks after you put them on.
So if you wash your feet and put your socks on at 6am, and your wudu breaks at 10am, your twenty four hours runs from 10am. You can wipe for every wudu inside that window, and once it closes you take the socks off.
What the four schools say
How long does the wipe last, and when does the clock start?
A resident who sets out on a journey part way through, or a traveller who arrives and settles, is a case the schools treat in detail. The cautious practice, and the common one, is to take the shorter of the two periods when the two states overlap.
How to actually perform the wipe
Everything else in your wudu is unchanged. You wash your face, your arms and wipe your head exactly as set out in how to perform wudu. Only the final step is different.
- Wet your hands. Fresh water on the hands, not water left over on the arms.
- Place your fingers on the toes. Right hand on the right foot, left hand on the left foot, done together or one after the other.
- Draw them back towards the shin. One pass over the top of the foot. There is no repeating it three times.
- Leave the underside. Ali said that if the religion went by opinion, the bottom of the khuff would be the part more deserving of wiping, but that he saw the Prophet ﷺ wipe the top. The Maliki school is the one that recommends the underside as well.
What the four schools say
How much of the foot has to be wiped?
If you simply pass a wet hand over the whole top of each foot once, from the toes back, you have satisfied every school at once.
What ends the wipe
- Taking the socks off. Even one of them, and even briefly. The concession is tied to them staying on.
- The time running out. In the three schools that set a limit.
- Anything that requires ghusl. This ends it immediately whatever time is left, and it is the one exception named in the report of Safwan ibn Assal. See when is ghusl required.
Ordinary things that break wudu do not end the concession. They break your wudu, as always, and you then make wudu again and wipe again, inside the window. The full list is in what breaks your wudu.
When the wipe does end, the schools differ over what is required of you. Washing the feet alone is the position of the Hanafi school. Renewing the whole wudu is the better known position in the Shafi'i school. The Maliki and Hanbali schools each have their own detail here, so if it comes up for you, ask someone who teaches the school you follow. The cautious route, and the quickest one to think about, is simply to make wudu again.
Related cases people confuse with this
- A cast or a bandage is a different ruling. Wiping over a plaster cast or a dressing has its own conditions and its own time frame, which is not twenty four hours. It is closer in spirit to tayammum than to this.
- Shoes and boots. Footwear that covers the ankles and meets the conditions is treated as khuffayn. Slip-on shoes that leave part of the foot exposed are not.
- Ghusl is never wiped over. The concession belongs to wudu alone.
- Socks over socks. If you put a second pair on while already in wudu with the first pair, the schools discuss whether the wipe transfers to the outer pair. This is detailed and school specific, so treat it as a question for a scholar rather than an assumption.
The point of it
This concession exists because the Prophet ﷺ practised it while settled at home, not only on journeys, and his Companions carried it on openly. It saves you removing wet socks in a cold office, an airport, or a university prayer room, and it removes one of the small obstacles that makes people delay a prayer. Put your socks on straight after wudu in the morning, and the rest of the day is easier. For the steps of the prayer itself, see how to pray salah.
Common questions
›Do ordinary cotton socks count?
It depends on the school. The Hanbali school is the most accommodating and permits wiping over cloth socks that are thick and stay on the foot. The Hanafi school permits thick socks that stand up on their own and can be walked in, but not thin ones. The Shafi'i school requires footwear that water does not pass through and that is sturdy enough to walk in. The well known Maliki position restricts the wipe to leather. Many contemporary scholars permit everyday socks, and others hold to the classical thickness conditions.
›When does the time limit start?
Not when you put the socks on, and not when you first wipe. The three schools that set a limit count from the moment your wudu first breaks after putting them on. So if you make wudu at 6am, put your socks on, and your wudu breaks at 10am, your day runs from 10am. The Maliki school sets no time limit at all.
›Do I have to take them off for ghusl?
Yes. The wipe is a concession for wudu only. Anything that puts you in a state of major impurity ends it, and you remove the socks and perform the full ghusl. That is the exception named in the report of Safwan ibn Assal, who was told not to remove them for three days except from janaba. For what makes ghusl obligatory, see the ghusl guide.
›What if I put them on without wudu, or took them off during the day?
Putting them on without a complete wudu means there is nothing to wipe over. You would need to take them off, make wudu properly including washing your feet, and put them back on. If you remove them after you have started wiping, the concession ends. The schools differ over whether you then simply wash your feet or repeat the whole wudu.
Sources referenced
- Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the hadith of al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, who went to remove the Prophet's ﷺ khuffs and was told to leave them, because they were put on in a state of purity.
- Sahih Muslim, the report of Ali ibn Abi Talib that the Prophet ﷺ set three days and nights for the traveller and one day and night for the resident.
- Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the report of Jarir ibn Abdullah, who wiped over his khuffs and pointed out that he had accepted Islam after Surat al-Ma'ida was revealed, which is why scholars hold the practice was not abrogated.
- Sunan Abi Dawud, the report of Ali that if the religion went by opinion the underside of the khuff would be more deserving of wiping, but that he saw the Prophet ﷺ wipe the top.
- Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Sunan al-Nasa'i, the report of Safwan ibn Assal that they were told not to remove their khuffs for three days except from janaba.
- Sunan Abi Dawud and Jami al-Tirmidhi, the report that the Prophet ﷺ wiped over socks and sandals, a narration scholars have graded differently and which sits at the centre of the disagreement about cloth socks.
- Qur'an 5:6, the verse of wudu, which mentions the feet and which the reports on wiping are read alongside.
Where the schools of thought differ we have given each position rather than choosing one. For a ruling on your own situation, ask a qualified scholar in your community.
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