If a person intends to travel a distance that permits shortening the prayer, and he leaves his house, and the time for the midday prayer arrives while he is still in the city where he resides, is it permissible for him
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The questioner : He says in his first question: If a person intends to travel a distance that permits shortening the prayer, and he actually leaves his house, but the time for the midday prayer, for example, arrives while he is still in the city from which he will travel, is it permissible for him to delay it with the afternoon prayer and combine and shorten them, or is it obligatory for him to pray it in its time as long as he has not yet left the city?
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. The answer to this question depends on knowing the causes for combining prayers. The cause for combining is not limited to travel alone; rather, travel is one of the causes for combining. Otherwise, there are other causes besides travel, which are encompassed by what Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) mentioned when he reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) combined prayers in the city without fear or rain. He was asked (may Allah be pleased with him) why he did that, and he said: He intended not to burden his Ummah, meaning he intended not to put them in difficulty.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Accordingly, whenever there is difficulty and hardship in not combining, then combining is permissible. So, the one who set out from his home intending to travel, but the city was wide, large, and sprawling, and it is difficult for him to stop to pray the midday prayer in its time, then he may combine by delaying it until the time of the afternoon prayer. However, if it is not difficult for him to stop anywhere, then it is obligatory for him to stop and pray the midday prayer in its time, because he has not yet had a cause that permits combining, since he has not left his town to have departed the town and entered into travel.
And know that combining, just as it is done when there is a need for it, is also done when the benefit of congregation is lost. If these people are going to disperse and not pray in congregation, then they may combine. For this reason, combining is permissible for rain for the sake of the congregation. Indeed, people in the winter days, in the days of rain, combine the sunset prayer and the night prayer by advancing them, and this combining is only out of fear of losing the congregation. It is possible that they would disperse without combining, and it would be said to them: Pray in your homes, pray in your tents, due to the hardship of attending the mosque. But the congregation has a great status; it is obligatory, and it is not permissible to leave it except for a valid legal excuse. Yes.
The questioner : The second question.
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. The answer to this question depends on knowing the causes for combining prayers. The cause for combining is not limited to travel alone; rather, travel is one of the causes for combining. Otherwise, there are other causes besides travel, which are encompassed by what Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) mentioned when he reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) combined prayers in the city without fear or rain. He was asked (may Allah be pleased with him) why he did that, and he said: He intended not to burden his Ummah, meaning he intended not to put them in difficulty.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Accordingly, whenever there is difficulty and hardship in not combining, then combining is permissible. So, the one who set out from his home intending to travel, but the city was wide, large, and sprawling, and it is difficult for him to stop to pray the midday prayer in its time, then he may combine by delaying it until the time of the afternoon prayer. However, if it is not difficult for him to stop anywhere, then it is obligatory for him to stop and pray the midday prayer in its time, because he has not yet had a cause that permits combining, since he has not left his town to have departed the town and entered into travel.
And know that combining, just as it is done when there is a need for it, is also done when the benefit of congregation is lost. If these people are going to disperse and not pray in congregation, then they may combine. For this reason, combining is permissible for rain for the sake of the congregation. Indeed, people in the winter days, in the days of rain, combine the sunset prayer and the night prayer by advancing them, and this combining is only out of fear of losing the congregation. It is possible that they would disperse without combining, and it would be said to them: Pray in your homes, pray in your tents, due to the hardship of attending the mosque. But the congregation has a great status; it is obligatory, and it is not permissible to leave it except for a valid legal excuse. Yes.
The questioner : The second question.