A question came up about the authentication of conditions of khuff themselves. Is there a way to find out the sources which are looked at in order to establish the conditions of khuff being fit for masah?
Bismillahi Ta’ala
Walaikum Assalam Warahmatullah
At the outset, sources of Deen are four and not limited to Qur’an and Hadeeth. The four sources for our deen are Qur’an, Sunnah, Ijma’ and Qiyas. A good brief understanding of the scope of these sources is covered in our Hanafi Fiqh Structure Course. And a deeper discussion is done in our Usool al Fiqh courses.
Nonetheless, In the question asked, Making Masah upon leather Khuffs is established through ahadeeth. In fact, it is established from no less than 70 Sahaba. Which means, regardless of the conditions of the leather khufs, the validity of Masah upon it cannot be questioned. Imam Abu Hanifa rh. has considered belief in its validity to be part of Iman due to the tawatur in hadeeth.
However, we do not find discussion on the conditions for the leather khuf themselves. Which renders leather khuf mutlaq (generally) accepted for the validity of masah upon them.
Thereafter fuqaha’, while deducing ruling for non-leather socks like jurmooq, jawrab, muna’al or mujallad socks, reviewed the inherent qualities of the leather-khufs themselves. Then they would apply their Ijtihad and Qiyas to apply those conditions over to those non-leather socks.
When we look at those ijtihadi conditions stipulated by the fuqaha’, we find that they all essentially revolve around the sturdiness of the original leather material. Nonetheless, leather khuf themselves do not have those conditions as long as the khuf is of leather. [ Other conditions are external, such as they should cover the ankles or they should not have big holes in them ]
If you wish to read through detail understanding of four madhahib utilizing of such ijtihad towards other non-leather socks, you may read Mufti Ismail Moosa’s full tahqeeq on QAFILA at: https://www.qafila.org/wiping-on-modern-day-socks/
Wallahu A’lam
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi