Determining When One is a Traveler and Resident in the Maliki School

Answered by Shaykh Rami Nsour

Question: Assalamu alaykum,
I am currently living in a town 60km from Fes. On August 1 I will be moving out of the house I am in and moving my things to Rabat, but I will be traveling for about 3 weeks (and will be staying less than 15 days in every city I go to) and only plan on staying in Rabat for more than 15 days starting at the end of the month. My question is, starting August 1, do I consider my place of residence to be Rabat or the city that I am currently in? I will be in Fes insha’Allah in the last week of Ramadan and so if I my place of residence is Rabat I would be a traveler in Fes, but if my place of residence continues to be the town 60km from Fes I would not be considered a traveler in Fes.

Answer: As soon as you leave a city with the intention of moving away, you are no longer a resident of that city. Once you move into a city with the intention of becoming a resident, you can no longer be considered a traveller when passing through that city.

So, in your case, once you get your housing in Rabat, every time you pass through it on your journey, you would lose the status of a traveller while in Rabat.