The report of Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him): "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the Zuhr and 'Asr prayers"

The questioner : Good; the hadith: He used to combine without rain or travel, or without fear; the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas.

The Shaykh : This is its full extent, as I said earlier. It was said to him: O Abu al-'Abbas, what did he intend by that? He said: He intended not to burden his Ummah.

The questioner : Is combining for the sake of rain also prescribed between Zuhr and 'Asr?

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : What is transmitted is... in the night. Some scholars restrict it to the night only, due to the difficulty of going to the mosque, or... in the day.

The Shaykh : The restriction—may Allah bless you—is not a text from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), but rather a consideration of what has occurred. And what has occurred does not negate the permissibility of its like if it has occurred. So there is nothing preventing it if the cause is the falling of rain. And you know, if Allah wills, that there is another ruling related to dropping an obligatory act from the obligations merely due to the falling of rain; that is the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) on a rainy day to say after "Hayya 'ala al-salah" or "Hayya 'ala al-falah," or their alternative: . And the meaning of that is that he (peace and blessings be upon him) granted a dispensation to the one who is in his tent, in his house, in his home, and the rains are pouring down, not to go to the mosque; knowing that going to the mosque is obligatory, and praying with the congregation of Muslims is obligatory. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) dropped this obligation merely due to the falling of rains, so the one who is obligated prays in his house. So what prevents combining, which is also a dispensation to bring the time of one prayer into the time of another prayer? What prevents it to be said: It is permissible to combine between Zuhr and 'Asr, even if there is no explicit text that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) did so, and this is within the limits of what we have seen, or at least within the limits of what we remember now. If we assume that no explicit text has come to us that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) combined between Zuhr and 'Asr because of rain, but it has come that he combined between Maghrib and 'Isha; and since the cause of combining in prayer in the house and not going to the mosque is rain; what prevents it to be said: Since the Wise Lawgiver has made things easy for the Ummah and granted them a dispensation to combine between the two prayers in one time; it is said that he did not combine? The non-occurrence of this specific case and the occurrence of a case like it does not negate the other case.

The questioner : What about the rain?

The Shaykh : ... I did not hear.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... gives us precise information.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... merely what is true that rain has fallen, so I do not rely on their saying that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . This is a hadith for which we do not know its authenticity. But the falling of rain is understood by all people, and it is not from the Shari'ah to be overly precise in these matters; because as it came in some authentic hadiths: "We were forbidden from being overly precise." In another chapter, I used to see long ago in the tracing of its hadiths: , ... about that or about this hadith, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . So we are not obligated to be overly precise in such issues.
Yes.