One who is excused for using tayammum is the one who is convinced that water is not available
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Fatwa number ( 20065 )
Q: Your Eminence, we sometimes leave the city of Riyadh to go to the desert for a day or two or more for recreation. We have more than one car with us, and we carry a barrel or more on some of them, and some jerrycans containing water to be used for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, and other things. At night, we stop, and the nearest village or place where water is available is twenty kilometers away from us, sometimes more than that and sometimes less. What happens is that some of us perform tayammum with dust for prayer on the pretext that the water we have is used only for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes, while others perform wudu on the pretext that water is available, and that a car can go to the village or any station on the road to fill the barrel or jerrycans at any time we want. Also, when we move from one place to another, we pass by more than one village and station on the road where there is water. We also shorten the prayer and combine the 'Isha' prayer with Maghrib and the Zuhr prayer with 'Asr, knowing that we stay in the same place for more than one prayer, for example: we stop before the Maghrib prayer and do not leave the place until after
the Fajr prayer, and we also stop before the Zuhr prayer and do not leave the place until after the 'Asr prayer, and so on. The question here, Your Eminence, is: Is it permissible for us in this case to perform tayammum with dust for prayer, and is it permissible for us to shorten the four-rak'ah prayer and combine the Maghrib and 'Isha' prayers and the Zuhr and 'Asr prayers, knowing that the distance separating us from the city of Riyadh is usually more than one hundred kilometers? If there is a specific distance that determines shortening the prayer, we hope you will mention it? May Allah reward you with the best reward for us, prolong your life, and make your knowledge beneficial to all Muslims.
A : Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, prescribed tayammum and established it in place of water when water is lost and there is no ability to obtain it, or when its use is hindered due to illness or the like. Allah made wudu with water obligatory when it is present or when there is the ability to obtain it. He, the Exalted, said:[Al-Ma'idah 5:6]
And since it is possible for you to obtain water for your wudu and for your personal needs, such as drinking and others, from the villages and stations you pass by during your travels, which are no more than twenty kilometers away from you or close to that, it is obligatory for you to perform wudu with water, and it is not permissible for you to turn away from it to tayammum, nor is tayammum sufficient for you; because you are in the category of those who find water due to your ability to obtain it by means of the car. Therefore, you are not excused for using tayammum in this case. Rather, the one who is excused for using tayammum is the one who is convinced that water does not exist if he searches for it, or who fears death by searching for it, or the missing of the time of prayer. The amount of travel distance that permits shortening the prayer is eighty kilometers according to the opinion of the majority of scholars. Accordingly, it is permissible for you in the aforementioned distance to shorten the four-rak'ah prayer to two rak'ahs, and to combine the Zuhr with 'Asr and Maghrib with 'Isha' by combining them early or late in the time of one of them. And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and his Companions.
Q: Your Eminence, we sometimes leave the city of Riyadh to go to the desert for a day or two or more for recreation. We have more than one car with us, and we carry a barrel or more on some of them, and some jerrycans containing water to be used for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, and other things. At night, we stop, and the nearest village or place where water is available is twenty kilometers away from us, sometimes more than that and sometimes less. What happens is that some of us perform tayammum with dust for prayer on the pretext that the water we have is used only for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes, while others perform wudu on the pretext that water is available, and that a car can go to the village or any station on the road to fill the barrel or jerrycans at any time we want. Also, when we move from one place to another, we pass by more than one village and station on the road where there is water. We also shorten the prayer and combine the 'Isha' prayer with Maghrib and the Zuhr prayer with 'Asr, knowing that we stay in the same place for more than one prayer, for example: we stop before the Maghrib prayer and do not leave the place until after
the Fajr prayer, and we also stop before the Zuhr prayer and do not leave the place until after the 'Asr prayer, and so on. The question here, Your Eminence, is: Is it permissible for us in this case to perform tayammum with dust for prayer, and is it permissible for us to shorten the four-rak'ah prayer and combine the Maghrib and 'Isha' prayers and the Zuhr and 'Asr prayers, knowing that the distance separating us from the city of Riyadh is usually more than one hundred kilometers? If there is a specific distance that determines shortening the prayer, we hope you will mention it? May Allah reward you with the best reward for us, prolong your life, and make your knowledge beneficial to all Muslims.
A : Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, prescribed tayammum and established it in place of water when water is lost and there is no ability to obtain it, or when its use is hindered due to illness or the like. Allah made wudu with water obligatory when it is present or when there is the ability to obtain it. He, the Exalted, said:
O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of janabah, then purify yourselves. But if you are ill or on a journey or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself or you have contacted women and do not find water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and hands with it
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلاَةِ فَاغْسِلُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ إِلَى الْمَرَافِقِ وَامْسَحُوا بِرُءُوسِكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ إِلَى الْكَعْبَيْنِ وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ جُنُبًا فَاطَّهَّرُوا وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ مَرْضَى أَوْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ أَوْ جَاءَ أَحَدٌ مِنْكُمْ مِنَ الْغَائِطِ أَوْ لامَسْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ فَلَمْ تَجِدُوا مَاءً فَتَيَمَّمُوا صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا فَامْسَحُوا بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَأَيْدِيكُمْ مِنْهُAnd since it is possible for you to obtain water for your wudu and for your personal needs, such as drinking and others, from the villages and stations you pass by during your travels, which are no more than twenty kilometers away from you or close to that, it is obligatory for you to perform wudu with water, and it is not permissible for you to turn away from it to tayammum, nor is tayammum sufficient for you; because you are in the category of those who find water due to your ability to obtain it by means of the car. Therefore, you are not excused for using tayammum in this case. Rather, the one who is excused for using tayammum is the one who is convinced that water does not exist if he searches for it, or who fears death by searching for it, or the missing of the time of prayer. The amount of travel distance that permits shortening the prayer is eighty kilometers according to the opinion of the majority of scholars. Accordingly, it is permissible for you in the aforementioned distance to shorten the four-rak'ah prayer to two rak'ahs, and to combine the Zuhr with 'Asr and Maghrib with 'Isha' by combining them early or late in the time of one of them. And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and his Companions.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.