The ruling on combining the midday and afternoon prayers before the time for the afternoon prayer enters

Question:
Shaykh Salih (may Allah preserve you), we begin this episode with a question from the listener Abu 'Abdullah, Faysal ibn Hamd, from Riyadh. He says: I was traveling and I prayed the midday prayer before I set out. When I arrived at the airport, the plane was about to take off before the time for the afternoon prayer had entered, so I prayed the afternoon prayer before its time, intending to combine it with the midday prayer that I had prayed earlier. Is my action valid? May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.

Answer:
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad. Your action is not valid, because combining requires that the two prayers be consecutive. If you separate them, this is not combining. So you must repeat the afternoon prayer, because you performed it before its time. Yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence the Shaykh