Please clarify to me when does the period of wiping over the socks begin?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

First of all, it should be mentioned that the scholars differed in opinion about the beginning of the period of wiping over the socks into three different opinions:

The First Opinion: it starts from the time of wearing the socks.

The Second Opinion: it starts from the first time one wipes over the socks after wearing them.

The Third Opinion: it starts from the first time when one’s ablution is invalidated after wearing the socks; this is the view of the majority of the scholars .

The preponderant view in our opinion and the one which we adopt here at Islamweb is the third opinion. Hence, according to this view, if someone performs ablution on Wednesday morning at five o'clock, for example, and he wears his socks and then his ablution is invalidated at six o'clock in the evening, for example, then he may wipe over his socks until six o'clock in the evening of the following day, that’s to say at the same time his ablution was invalidated (the day before).

On the other hand, according to the view that the duration of the wiping period starts from the first time one wipes over his socks, then the one who performs ablution at Fajr time on Wednesday and wears his socks, the period of his wiping does not end at Fajr time on Thursday, but he should look at the first time he wiped over his socks and then he can continue wiping until the same time of the next day unless his ablution was invalidated immediately after his ablution on Fajr time on Wednesday, and he performed ablution again at this time and wiped over his socks, then, in this case, the time of wiping ends at Fajr on Thursday.

Allaah Knows best.