Shortening the prayer for one on a work assignment during Hajj
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Thank you, Shaykh. Here is a question: Is it permissible to shorten the prayer, as the pilgrim does, given that I am on a Hajj work assignment and not a pilgrim? What is the ruling in that case?
Answer:
If a person is on an assignment and is residing for a known duration, such as one or two months, he completes the four rak'ahs. If he does not know the duration of his stay, not knowing whether he will stay for one day, two days, or three days, and he is told to go to such and such a place but does not know, he prays the traveler’s prayer of two rak'ahs. If he knows that his stay will be more than four days, knowing that he will remain and be settled in that place, then he should complete the four rak'ahs. This is the position of the majority of scholars and is the more cautious approach regarding the religion.
Thank you, Shaykh. Here is a question: Is it permissible to shorten the prayer, as the pilgrim does, given that I am on a Hajj work assignment and not a pilgrim? What is the ruling in that case?
Answer:
If a person is on an assignment and is residing for a known duration, such as one or two months, he completes the four rak'ahs. If he does not know the duration of his stay, not knowing whether he will stay for one day, two days, or three days, and he is told to go to such and such a place but does not know, he prays the traveler’s prayer of two rak'ahs. If he knows that his stay will be more than four days, knowing that he will remain and be settled in that place, then he should complete the four rak'ahs. This is the position of the majority of scholars and is the more cautious approach regarding the religion.
Source
فتاوى الحج - ١ - ١٤٠٥ هـ — archive.org (24:24)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.