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Ruling on praying in high heeled shoes

10-10-2012

Question 181719

More than year ago I started to have hard pain on my heel bones. And it makes it quite difficult to stand during prayers. My heel bones seem to be flattening and it hurts. When I walk on forefeet the pain goes as the weight goes away from heel bones. Because of that I wear high-heeled shoes at home. But when I remove them in order to pray (even some short prayer), it hurts again, which make me move it a little up when praying. And I can hardly wait till the end of prayer. I know that it’s allowed to pray in shoes. But what about high-heeled shoes? As far as I know, it’s fard that feet should be down to ground when praying. I wear about 10-12 cm heels and I really feel relief and lightness in them, not having any pain. Please, advise me. As I hardly could pray tarawih on Ramadan. I can’t even pray tahajjud because I can’t stay long on feet. I can stand only on high-heeled shoes, so that not to hurt my heel bones.

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

If it is proven medically that this pain cannot be relieved except by wearing high-heeled shoes, then there is nothing wrong with you wearing them, whilst making sure that your wearing them does not involve any wanton display of adornment (tabarruj) or attract men’s attention. Rather you should try to cover them as much as you can. 

There is no specific ruling concerning high-heeled shoes with regard to the matter of prayer, so it is permissible to pray wearing them as it is permissible to pray wearing any other kind of shoes. 

And Allah knows best.

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