Question
Assalamualaikum, I have been making wudu by wiping over my socks for a little more than a year, I was following the ruling that you needed to make your normal wudu and afterwards if you had not taken your socks off but your wudu had broken you could wipe over your socks. However only recently I heard that your socks needs to be covering your ankles, during the course of the year I had been wearing socks that had not covered my ankles. Does this mean that my prayers have all been invalid? If that is the case how should I go about fulfilling them and what can I do from here?
Islamic Ruling & Answer
VerifiedWalekumussalam,
If the socks do not cover the ankles at all or even slightly (meaning the ankle remains exposed from below), then wiping over such socks is not valid. Therefore, the prayer performed after wiping over such socks will also not be valid, and it will be necessary to repeat those prayers.
This is because one of the conditions for wiping over socks is that: According to the Hanafi school as well as the majority of scholars, the socks must cover the feet up to the ankles. In fact, they should be high enough that even while sitting, the ankles do not become exposed. Therefore, if the socks are so short that the ankles remain exposed, wiping over them is not permissible; rather, in such a case, washing the feet is obligatory.
Hence, if you have been wiping over such socks for a year which did not cover the ankles, then the wudu performed with that wiping was not valid, and the prayers offered with that wudu must be made up (qada).
However, you may be reassured that since you did this out of lack of knowledge, there is no sin upon you, inshaAllah.
Gradually begin making up your missed prayers
Along with each obligatory prayer, add one or two qada prayers so that it becomes easy to complete them
And for the future, either use socks that fully cover the ankles, or wash your feet in wudu
May Allah grant you ease, accept your worships, and make this matter easy for you.
Answered by
Mufti Tosif Qasmi
April 06, 2026
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