The ruling on combining and shortening prayers for a traveler who hopes to arrive before the time

The questioner : They prayed the Dhuhr prayer, shortened it, and prayed it. Then they differed regarding the Asr prayer: should they pray it? One of them said, “We will return to the town before the prayer; we will arrive before the prayer.” The other said, “We do not know. We are traveling, and we do not know whether we will return or not. Should we shorten?”

The Shaykh : Will we arrive? Will we return?

The questioner : Will we arrive or not? So, should we shorten? And if we shorten and we catch the prayer in the town, do we have to pray it in the mosque, or not?

The Shaykh : As long as a person is traveling, he has the rulings of travel, such as shortening and combining. A person does not know for sure; he may estimate that he will arrive before the time, but a breakdown may occur and he may be delayed. However, he should not combine if he hopes or is confident that he will arrive before the time, because he has no need to combine in that case. But if he does combine, his combination is valid, and he does not have to repeat the prayer, even if he arrives before the time.

The questioner : What does he do?

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : If he arrives before the time, does he pray with the congregation or not?

The Shaykh : No, it is not obligatory on him at all, unless he is present at the mosque. If he is present at the mosque, there is no harm.

The questioner : It is like the people who enter the house, for example.

The Shaykh : There is nothing wrong, there is nothing wrong, there is nothing wrong.