al-Mash ʿalā l-chuffain
Al-Mash ʿalā l-chuffain ( Arabic المسح على الخفين, DMG al-masḥ ʿalā l-ḫuffain , the rubbing on the shoes') is a controversial practice in Islam during the small ablution in preparation for the ritual prayer , in which instead of washing the feet, the shoes are wiped over the shoes with wet hands. While the Sunnis allow this practice, it is rejected by the Shiites .
Origins of the controversy
The dispute over this question goes back to early Islamic times. According to a report narrated in the Muwaṭṭā by Mālik ibn Anas , ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar once visited Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās when he was governor of Kufa . When he saw that Saʿd rubbed his shoes, he reprimanded him for it. Saʿd then asked ʿAbdallāh to ask his father ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb about it as soon as he met him. However, ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar forgot that. Once, when Saʿd came to ʿUmar himself, he asked ʿAbdallāh if he had asked his father about it, but received a negative answer. Sa'd then asked the caliph himself. He replied, "If you put your feet in your shoes when they were clean, just stroke them." ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar asked: "Even if someone comes from a bowel movement?" ʿUmar replied: "Yes, even then."
The dispute over the correct reading of Sura 5: 6
The controversy over this question also had to do with differences over the correct reading of the relevant passage in Sura 5: 6. While some read the word "feet" as an accusative ( arǧula-kum ), others interpreted it as genitive ( arǧuli-kum ), which resulted in a completely different syntactic connection and a different meaning. Rudi Paret takes both readings into account in his Quran translation:
“You believers! When you stand up for prayer, wash your face and hands up to the elbows (beforehand) and stroke your head and wash your feet up to your ankles "
“You believers! When you stand up for prayer, wash your face and hands up to your elbows (beforehand) and stroke your head and your feet up to your ankles "
Hadiths
Those who allowed the shoes to be put on also referred to traditions according to which the Prophet Mohammed had allowed his companion Mughīra ibn Shuʿba on a trip to leave his shoes on during the ritual washing, on the grounds that his feet were ritually dressed when he was dressed were in a pure state and therefore the washing does not need to be repeated.
Other legal experts such as ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās , however, said that this regulation only applied until the revelation of the rules of purity in Sura 5: 6, because the request to wash the feet contained in it revoked permission to paint over the feet . ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās himself is quoted as saying that after the revelation of these rules the Prophet no longer practiced overpainting.
However, there was another tradition, according to which Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Al-Badschalī, who had only taken Islam after the revelation of Sura 5, had still observed the practice of putting on shoes in the Prophet. According to this tradition, which is listed by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj in his Ṣaḥīḥ , among others , the Prophet rubbed his shoes after urinating in order to restore his purity.
Significance in the relationship between Sunnis and Shiites
The Mash ʿalā l-chuffain is still an important issue between Sunnis and Shiites today. At the beginning of the 20th century, it gave rise to violent disputes in Syria. Like that of Herat native scholar Ali al-Qari (d. 1606) reported in one of his treatises, the mash in the 16th century served in between Sunni Uzbeks and Shiite Safavid contested province of Khorasan as a shibboleth to distinguish between Sunni and Shiite populations and as Basis for denominational persecution. Depending on which group prevailed, either those who did the stroking on the feet or those who did not were killed. However, the Sunnis do not always allow painting over, but only temporarily (for three days when traveling, otherwise for one day).
literature
- Makkī Ibn-Abī-Ṭālib al-Qaisī: al-Īḍāḥ li-nāsiḫ al-Qurʾan wa-mansūḫi-hi wa-maʿrifat uṣūlihi wa-ḫtilāf an-nās fīhi. Ed. Aḥmad Ḥ. Farḥāt. Ǧidda: Dār al-Manāra 1986. pp. 265-269. Digitized
- Charles Pellat: Art. "Al-Masḥ ʿalā l- kh uffayn" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. VI, pp. 709b-710a.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mālik ibn Anas: al-Muwaṭṭā. Ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī. Dār Iḥyāʾ at-tūrāṯ al-ʿArabī, Beirut, 1985. Vol. I, p. 36, no. 42. Digitized .
- ↑ Sura 5: 6
- ↑ See Rudi Paret: The Koran. Commentary and Concordance . 4th ed. Stuttgart 1989. pp. 115f.
- ↑ Cf. Makkī Ibn Abī-Ṭālib: al-Īḍāḥ li-nāsiḫ al-Qurʾan wa-mansūḫi-hi. 1986, pp. 265, 268.
- ↑ Cf. Makkī Ibn Abī-Ṭālib: al-Īḍāḥ li-nāsiḫ al-Qurʾan wa-mansūḫi-hi. 1986, p. 268.
- ↑ Cf. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb aṭ-Ṭahāra, Bāb al-Masḥ ʿalā l-ḫuffain Online ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Cf. Rainer Brunner: Approach and Distance. Schia, Azhar and Islamic Ecumenism in the 20th Century . Berlin 1996. p. 16.
- ↑ See Alī al-Qārī: Šamm al-ʿawāriḍ fī ḏamm ar-rawāfiḍ , paragraph Ḏamm at-taʿaṣṣub fī dīn Allāh , Wikisource document .
