As for his saying that washing included wiping...

As for his saying that washing included wiping, it was a clear fallacy because washing and wiping were two different acts literally, traditionally and legally.[^7] It had to be determined then that washing wouldn’t replace wiping but ar-Razi stopped between two precautions; either to contradict the Quranic verse or to contradict the traditions as he thought and so he contradicted himself when saying that washing included wiping and that it was nearer in taking precaution.

He thought by saying so that he would reconcile the verse with the traditions. Whoever pondered at the justification of ar-Razi would find that he was confused. Since the verse was clear in determining the obligation of wiping so he didn’t need to put washing instead of wiping. Some of the great jurisprudents and linguists declared that the verse had showed the obligation of wiping the feet and not washing them.

Among them was the jurisprudent Sheikh Ibraheem al-Halabi in his book Ghunyatul Mutamalli fee Sharh Munyatul Musalli according to the Hanafite school. He said: “The verse was recited (according to the rules of Arabic) by putting “ your feet ” either in accusative form or genitive form. The most famous reciting was to put “ Your feet” in accusative form by coupling it to “ your faces ” or in genitive form according to (neighboring).

But the most correct form was to couple “ your feet ” to “ your heads ” because “ your feet ” wouldn’t be coupled to “ your faces ” that the two phrases were separated by a different sentence ( and wipe your heads ). The rule in linguistics was not to separate between the two with a word so how about a full sentence.”[^8] Among those, who followed this clear way in dealing with this verse, was Imam Abul Hasan Muhammad bin Abdul Hadi as-Sindi.

He said: “Wiping the feet was declared by the verse because reciting the phrase in genitive form was clear according to the wording of the verse and reciting the phrase in accusative form would be not acceptable according to the linguists because the two coupled phrases were separated by a full sentence and so the apparent meaning of the verse showed wiping the feet.”[^9] He also, like the others, tried to subject the Quran to the traditions that determined washing the feet.

Az-Zamakhshari philosophized in his Kashshaf when talking about this verse. He said: “The feet were among the (three) organs that were to be washed (in wudu’) by pouring water over them.