Shortening and Combining the Prayer: When and How?

The questioner : The questioner asks here, saying: ... When and how does one shorten and combine the prayer?

The Shaykh : Shortening and combining the prayer: when and how? As for when, it is when one becomes a traveler. The traveler is the one for whom shortening is obligatory, and combining is permissible for him. However, combining may sometimes be permissible for one who is not a traveler, such as a woman with irregular bleeding, for example. It has come in the Sunnah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) granted her a dispensation to combine the two prayers because she is excused due to the blood of irregular bleeding. It is also permissible for other women and men to combine while resident, provided that there is hardship if the Muslim wishes to maintain performing the two prayers, each in its time. If hardship is present, combining is permissible, even if one is resident. This is how the hadith of Imam Muslim in his Sahih, narrated by Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), is to be understood. He said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the Dhuhr and Asr, and the Maghrib and Isha, in Madinah, without fear or rain." They said: "O Abu al-Abbas [the kunya of Abdullah ibn Abbas], what did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intend by that?" He said: "He intended not to burden his Ummah." This means that where there is hardship, combining is permissible for the resident. This is how the resident differs from the traveler: the resident is not permitted to combine the two prayers as described in the hadith of Ibn Abbas unless there is hardship. As for the traveler, there is no burden on him whether there is hardship or not; for he has been granted a dispensation to combine without the condition of hardship being required of him, which is required of the resident. This is the way the hadith of Ibn Abbas must be interpreted, and not as some understand it, that combining for the resident is like combining for the traveler with no difference, meaning he combines whenever he wishes. This is not permissible, because the decisive evidence obligates maintaining the performance of the prayer in its times, and that it is not permissible to advance it or delay it, except in what has been made an exception. This is also from the chapter of applying the general text within the limits of its generality, except for what is excluded, for that has its own ruling.
The last part of the question remains, which is: how does one combine?
PerhapsThe questioner : By this part of the question, how does one combine? It seems to me: does the traveler combine while he is traveling and setting out? He combines during his journey. But if he stops at a place and stays there, and the first and second prayer times arrive, and perhaps more than that, he does not combine because he has stopped, as Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) holds in his book al-Zad?
Answer: There is no evidence for this detail that obligates the Muslim traveler not to combine the two prayers unless he is traveling. As for if he is stopped, he does not combine; this is something for which there is no evidence. The hadith of Ibn Umar that Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah cites as proof, that he used to combine when his journey was urgent, does not negate that he may combine when he is stopped. Rather, the hadith of Ibn Umar speaks about a state of the Messenger (peace be upon him) that he witnessed, which is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to combine when his journey was urgent. But this is valid evidence for what we mentioned earlier, that the implication (mafhum) may be cited as proof, unless it is contradicted by the explicit text (manut). So now, let us apply this rule to this hadith of Ibn Umar. The explicit text of the hadith of Ibn Umar is clear, and its implication is that if he was not urgent in his travel and setting out, he did not combine. This implication should have been acted upon, as Ibn al-Qayyim and others did, were it not that it came in the hadith of Muadh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him), which Malik narrated in al-Muwatta and others in other works, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was stopped on his journey to Tabuk, or on his return from Tabuk [the uncertainty is mine], and the time for Dhuhr arrived. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out, meaning from his tent, and ordered the Adhan to be called, so it was called, and the Iqamah to be established, so it was established. He prayed Dhuhr and Asr combined as an advance combination, then he went in. Then when the time for Maghrib came, he came out again, and ordered the Adhan and Iqamah, so he prayed Maghrib and Isha combined as an advance combination. This hadith is explicit in combining while stopped. So this is added to the hadith of Ibn Umar, and we arrive at the result: that combining for the traveler is permissible whether he is stopped or traveling. This is what seems to me to be the answer to it.The questioner : He wants the answer to it.