Can Prayers be Shortened and Combined if Travellers Are Stationed at One Location and Have Day Trips From There?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

According to the three schools of thought (excluding the Hanafi school, which doesn’t permit combining prayers), if I remain at a fixed location for seven days and occasionally go on day trips lasting only a couple of hours, is it impermissible for me to combine my Dhuhr and Asr, as well as Maghrib and Isha prayers, even though I can easily perform them within their designated times? This would not pose any difficulty for me.

My family combines prayers, but they stay at a fixed location for more than four days, and praying them within their specified times wouldn’t be challenging. However, they claim to be travelers and use this as an excuse to shorten and combine their prayers, even though they spend most of their time on their phones, leaving me perplexed.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate. May Allah alleviate our difficulties and guide us to what pleases Him. Amin.

Assuming the trip meets the requirements for shortening and joining prayers (please find the details here), travelers sleeping at one location for more than four days may shorten and combine their prayers if their day trips meet the minimum requirements of travel. Their travels are ongoing since they have not stayed in one location for more than four days, even though they may return to and sleep at the exact location, and Allah knows best.

The dispensation of shortening and combining the prayers is not dependent upon the ease/difficulty of the journey, only the distance, time spent in one location, and nature of the journey, and Allah knows best.

Please consult this related answer.

The Conditions for Shortening and Joining Prayers on Travel

1. The core intention of the journey should not be disobedience to Allah (Most High).
2. The destination should be more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) one way.
3. The journey commences when leaving the boundaries of one’s city.
4. The journey ends immediately upon reaching a location where one intends to stay for four days or more. [Nawawi, Minhaj]
5. That one performs prayers that become obligatory within the travel period.
6. That the person is aware of the permissibility of the dispensation to shorten and/or combine the prayers.
7. That the person does not follow an imam who prays the whole prayer.
8. That the person intended to shorten their prayers at the beginning of their prayer.
9. The person completed three things to allow for combining prayers during the first prayer: prayed in sequence, intended to combine prayers at some point during the first prayer, and prayed the second prayer after the first prayer without a long break between the two.
10. When delaying the earlier prayer to the time of the later prayer, one has the intention to delay the earlier prayer. [Nawawi, Al-Majmu‘]

For further details, please visit the Reliance of the Traveller by Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, and consider signing up for our current course: Ship of Salvation – Imam al-Hadrami’s Primer on Beginner Shafi‘i Fiqh.