Is the one who goes to al-Hamra and stays there for days considered a traveler?

Question : If a group of people who came to Makkah intends to stay there until the days of the festival, are they considered travelers? In other words, are the regular voluntary prayers (rawatib) dropped for them, are they permitted to break their fast during the day in Ramadan, and may they shorten their prayers?

Answer : Yes, the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed greatly on this issue. Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in his Sharh al-Muhadhab about twenty opinions or more on this matter. The well-known view is that if one intends to stay for more than four days, the rulings of travel are severed from him in some respects, not in all respects. In some respects, meaning he does not shorten the prayer, does not break his fast in Ramadan, and does not wipe over the leather socks for more than a day and a night. However, he does not become an imam for the Friday prayer, is not counted among the number of people required for the prayer according to the opinion that requires a specific number, and it is not valid for him to be the preacher for the Friday prayer, because he is not a resident. So they placed his ruling between these two states. Some scholars set the limit at nineteen days, such as Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father). He said: If one intends to stay for more than nineteen days, he does not shorten the prayer; if less than that, he shortens it. He cited as evidence that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed in Makkah for nineteen days in the Year of the Conquest, shortening the prayer and not fasting in Ramadan. He did not fast in Ramadan because he entered Makkah on the twentieth of Ramadan or close to that. What year? The Year of the Conquest, the eighth year, and he did not break his fast. I mean, he did not fast and did not complete the prayer. So Ibn Abbas said: What the Sunnah brought is that for nine months and a day, a person shortens the prayer and breaks his fast in Ramadan, and whatever exceeds that, he fasts and does not shorten. Some scholars, including Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), chose the view that there is no limit for this, because the Sunnah did not come with a limit. There is no hadith from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) saying, "When you stay for more than such and such, do not shorten the prayer forever." And as long as there is no such text, the default is that one who leaves his homeland to a town to stay in it for a need and then return is a traveler. This is the opinion I am confident in, and it is what the evidence coming from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) indicates to me. Accordingly, if one intends to stay until the completion of the month of Ramadan, he is under the ruling of a traveler. However, it is not permissible, rather it is not allowed, for him to be absent from the congregation, because the congregational prayer is obligatory for the traveler and the resident alike. And if he joins the congregation, he must complete his prayer.