Is it permissible for everyone who is allowed to combine prayers to also shorten them?

The questioner : A man visited a sick person and asked him, "How are you?" He asked him how he was praying. He said, "We ask Allah to overlook it." The sick man said, "For fifteen days, I have been combining the midday and afternoon prayers and shortening them; I combine and shorten."

The Shaykh : His statement that he combines is correct; it is permissible for him to combine if performing them separately is difficult for him, but shortening is not.

The questioner : So his companion asked him, "How do you intend to do this while you are in the city?" He said, "Is not the rule that whoever is allowed to combine is allowed to shorten?"

The Shaykh : That is his assumption, and this rule is known every year to be not a rule, because the traveler in the case of rain, severe cold, and the like does not shorten. So I say that he should ask about his condition: How do you pray? How do you purify yourself? And he should inform him of what is obligatory upon him.