I've heard you can wipe on your shoes (like you can on socks) as part of wudhu. If you can what are the conditions?
1 Answer
This answer is based on a fatwa by the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta as documented in their book Fatāwa al-Lajna ad-Dā'ima, Vol. 6, pp. 256
To wipe on either socks or shoes, they must have the following conditions:
- Cover the feet and the ankle, including the malleolus on each side of the ankle, which is the area that gets washed during wudū'
- Worn in a state of purification through wudū'
- Be itself clean of any impurities
- Be opaque, not showing the skin beneath it.
Hence:
- If the shoes are long enough to cover the area to be washed during wudū', one can wipe on the shoes as one would on the socks.
- If the shoes are short, not covering the area to be washed during wudū', but there is a pair of socks underneath that covers the area to be washed during wudū', one can either wipe over the shoes, or take them off and wipe over the socks.
- If the area to be washed during wudū' is neither covered by the shoes nor the socks, wiping is not permitted.