Rijl (the foot): washing in ablution, the theft and hirabah penalties, the blood-money for a foot, and its place in the nakedness rules

الرِّجل

Rijl means the foot. In the jurists' usage it names the foot with the two ankle bones in the verse of ablution, the part below the joint of the leg in cutting a thief's foot, and from the root of the thigh to the foot in another place. ^{1 2} Most jurists hold that washing the feet up to the ankles is obligatory in ablution; some early scholars held wiping, and al-Hasan al-Basri and al-Tabari allowed a choice. ² For theft, the right hand is cut first and the left foot at the second theft; the rest is disputed, and the Malikis, Shafi'is and a Hanbali view cut the left hand and right foot. ^{3 4} Cutting both feet carries full blood-money, one foot half of it, and each toe a tenth; the Hanafis and Shafi'is add a just assessment. ^{4 5} For a free woman the foot is nakedness except the two feet, and for men the nakedness runs from navel to knees by the majority. ⁵