Islamic Fiqh > Prayer > Wiping over the khuffayn (leather socks)
Wiping over the socks instead of washing the feet: conditions, validity duration and the schools' divergences on ordinary socks.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
The mas'h over the leather socks (khuffayn) replaces washing the feet: instead of washing, wet hands are passed over the top of the two socks. Al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba was traveling with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and wanted to remove his socks to perform ablution; the Prophet told him:
Leave them: I put them on while they were pure.al-Bukhari 260, Muslim 274
The majority of scholars (Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis) require having put on both socks in a state of complete purity: whoever washes one foot, puts on one sock, then washes the other and puts on the second, has no right to the mas'h, for he did not put them on after a complete purification.
'Ali reports: the Prophet fixed three days and their nights for the traveler, one day and one night for the resident (reported by Muslim). 'Awf ibn Malik reports the same rule from the expedition of Tabuk, and Ahmad held this hadith to be the soundest in the chapter.
The mas'h is done with wet hands over the top of each sock. The Hanafi school specifies the minimum amount: the space of about three fingers on each sock, on top; wiping two fingers on one and five on the other is not enough. The other schools recommend the whole hand, from the toes upward.
Three major causes require removing the socks and washing the whole body: major impurity, menstruation and post-childbirth bleeding. Safwan ibn Assal reports: the Prophet ordered us, while traveling, not to remove our socks for three days and their nights except in case of major impurity. Removing a single sock cancels the purification of both feet; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis then require redoing the whole ablution, while others ask to wash the feet now uncovered.
Abu Yusuf and Muhammad, among the Hanafis, allow the mas'h over thick socks (jawrabayn), relying on al-Mughira's hadith reporting that the Prophet wiped over socks and sandals (reported by Abu Dawud): the ease of the mas'h applies to the sock that stays on the foot as to the leather sock.
Put your socks on after a complete ablution, and the mas'h will serve you while traveling, at the mosque, in great cold. Check that the sock holds on the foot for normal walking: that is the condition bringing it close to the khuff.