The traveler who travels for a sin is granted the dispensations of travel

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the stronger position regarding the traveler who travels for a sin: is he permitted to avail himself of the legal dispensations of travel, such as combining prayers, shortening them, and wiping over the leather socks for three days, or is that not permissible for him?

Answer:
The majority hold that it is not permissible for him to do so, because dispensations are not made lawful through sins, and this person is a sinner. Therefore, the legal dispensations are not made lawful for him. His ruling is that of the resident, and his travel is not considered. Also, because granting him these dispensations would be assisting him in his sin.
Some distinguished scholars, such as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and others, held that the sinner who travels is permitted the dispensations like anyone else, because there is no clear evidence prohibiting him from the dispensations of travel. So, does he break his fast in Ramadan and wipe for three days and nights? But the reality is that all of this is the same. The one who travels to visit shrines and graves, do we tell him to break his fast in Ramadan? And that is the problem, yes. The one who travels for the sake of lands of licentiousness, zina, sodomy, every kind of calamity, and drinking intoxicants, do we tell him to shorten the prayer and wipe over the leather socks for three days and nights? That is a problem, yes. And the Shaykh’s increase. Only.