Combining Two Prayers.

The Shaykh: All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He leaves to misguide, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows:
We had been speaking just before the call to the sunset prayer, answering a question put to me regarding the hadith on combining prayers while resident. The discussion went back and forth, and it ended with my remindingThe questioner : of the hadith of Ibn Abbas, which the Imam Muslim narrated in his *Sahih* from him (may Allah be pleased with him): "That the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the midday and afternoon prayers, and the sunset and night prayers, in Madinah, seven times, without travel or rain." In another narration, "fear" is mentioned instead of "rain." They said: "O Abu al-Abbas—and that is the kunya of Abdullah ibn Abbas—what did he intend by that?" Meaning: What did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intend by this combining that you have narrated to us from him? He said: "He intended not to burden his Ummah."
I had spoken before mentioning and narrating this hadith about the combining that came in the Sunnah, and I stated that in summary it is of two types: one is an absolute combining that does not specify the nature of this combining, and the other is a combining that specifies it is a true combining. Opposing this combining, which is the second type, there is no third type, except a type to which the Hanafi scholars in particular, and some of the Zaydis in general, adhere, which is that it is a formal combining. As for the Hanafis, they hold that all the hadiths that came of the second type, which is true combining, are contradictory; and it is as it came in *Sahih Muslim* from the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the midday and afternoon prayers in travel, delaying the midday prayer until the beginning of the time of the afternoon prayer. This is true combining; that is, he delayed the midday prayer until the beginning of the time of the afternoon prayer entered, so he prayed the midday prayer and then prayed the afternoon prayer; this is true combining.
Then Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the sunset and night prayers; he delayed the sunset prayer until the beginning of the night prayer and combined them with a true combining in the time of the other of them. This is a hadith narrated by the Imam Muslim in his *Sahih* as we mentioned.
As for the third combining, which is called formal combining, we can say that it is formal and has no reality, and has no existence except in the minds of some of those who interpret some of the hadiths. The furthest people from these hadiths are the Hanafis, who deny the legitimacy of true combining in travel, except in 'Arafah and Muzdalifah only, and they interpret all the hadiths that came with combining as formal combining. They mean by this that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he combined in travel, would delay the first prayer, such as the midday prayer, with the afternoon prayer until just before the time of the afternoon prayer, and until the end of the time of the midday prayer, so that he would barely pray the midday prayer before the time of the afternoon prayer had entered, and likewise the sunset prayer with the night prayer. We do not find a clear reality for this formal combining in all the hadiths that came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he combined between the prayers. And as I said earlier, they are two categories: hadiths that say the Messenger of Allah combined, without specifying the form of this combining, and other hadiths that clarify the reality of this combining. Some of it is combining by delay, as mentioned earlier in the hadith of Anas, and some of it is combining by advancement, as in the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him), which the Imam Malik narrated in his *Muwatta* and Abu Dawud in his *Sunan*, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) descended during the expedition to Tabuk, so when the time for the midday prayer arrived, he ordered the call to prayer to be made, and it was made, then he went out and prayed the midday prayer, then prayed the afternoon prayer with the midday prayer; so this is combining by advancement, advancing the midday prayer—the afternoon prayer, excuse me—to the time of the midday prayer, and combining them in the time of the midday prayer; this is true combining and combining by advancement.
Then he did likewise (peace and blessings be upon him) with the sunset prayer and the night prayer, combining them—also—while he was descending in his travel on his return from Tabuk. This is also combining by advancement. So the combining established in the Sunnah is either absolute combining or restricted combining, and this is of two types: combining by delay and combining by advancement. So whenever a hadith comes to us in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) combined, it is obligatory upon us to interpret it as the known combining established in the call to prayer and among the scholars of knowledge, naturally. And since there is no combining except true combining in the two ways mentioned earlier, advancement and delay; then when a hadith comes to us in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) combined, and there is no specification of the nature of this combining, such as the hadith of Ibn Abbas that I mentioned earlier; it is obligatory at that time for every jurist to interpret this combining with the interpretation known in the Sunnah, and not with the interpretation that exists in some minds, which has no reality in fact; namely, formal combining.
And my speech had ended when the call to the sunset prayer was made, when I narrated this hadith of Ibn Abbas, I said: This hadith explicitly states in it the reason why the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) combined in Madinah while resident and not traveling; where Ibn Abbas was asked—as you heard—about the reason for the combining, since the known thing is that combining is only in travel; so what is the matter with the Messenger (peace be upon him) combining while resident in Madinah? His answer invalidates formal combining with an invalidation that admits no answer; where he said: "He intended not to burden his Ummah." So his saying this contains an explicit statement that the combining was not formal combining; because if a person intended to combine between two prayers, the midday prayer or the sunset prayer; the midday with the afternoon, the sunset with the night, if he waited and observed the end of the first time, the time of the midday, and he prays the midday prayer, he would barely finish this prayer before the time of the afternoon prayer had entered; this does not remove burden, but rather confirms the burden. While the intended purpose of combining, especially if it is in travel, is to make things easy for the people; because they often need to add one prayer to another. So when this hadith explicitly states that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) only combined to remove burden, this adjustment confirms that the combining was true combining between two prayers in the time of one of them; so there is no basis for interpreting this hadith as some of the later scholars of verification did, who interpreted it as formal combining; so this formal combining, we do not find a basis for it in any of the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him), even if some of the narrators suspected it, as it came in *Sahih al-Bukhari* that it was said to Abu al-Sha'ta: "I think he delayed the first to the other." He said: "And I think so." This is a suspicion that neither fattens nor satisfies hunger. But when we study the hadith of Ibn Abbas that Muslim narrated as mentioned earlier with this precision and observation, we then know that the combining that the Messenger (peace be upon him) combined, he intended not to burden his Ummah with this facilitation, and with this Shari'ah that came from the Lord of the Worlds to remove burden from some people; whether they were a group in themselves, or they were individuals, each in his work or in his house or similar to that; if he found burden, then the existence of burden negates the obligation that we know of preserving the prayer, which the command came for in His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He):
Just as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified, through his words and his actions, that the timing indicated by the Lord of the Worlds is five prayers, each to be prayed in its time; so too did he add to that a second clarification, permitting the combining of prayers due to travel, whether that be combining by advancing or by delaying. Finally, he clarified to people that it is permissible for a resident to combine the two prayers in a true combining, which is not a dispensation. This is the difference between combining in the state of residence and combining in the state of travel. So let no one imagine that it is permissible for a resident to combine according to his own whim, his own way, or his own opinion; whether or not there is difficulty in maintaining the prescribed timing, the matter is not so. Rather, the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas provides us with two benefits, both mentioned earlier: that the combining was a true combining.
The other benefit, and this is the one I intended to conclude the discussion I began before the Maghrib prayer to draw attention to, is that from my personal experience I know that many of those who follow the Sunnah and are zealous for the hadith, without being zealous for the imams—and this is obligatory for every Muslim who knows the Sunnah—I know among these people those who hold that the ruling on combining in the state of residence is like the ruling on combining in the state of travel. The answer is: No. Because combining in the state of travel is a dispensation in which the removal of difficulty is not the criterion; meaning, if a traveler stays for a temporary period in a house of his, whether it is a house under a tent or a house of mud and stone, he is still under the ruling of travel. If he wishes to take the dispensation and combine the two prayers, he may do so, even if there is no difficulty in performing each prayer in its time. This is for the traveler. As for the resident, he has no right to combine unless he finds some difficulty in performing the prayer in its time; in that case, this true combining is permissible for him.
There are many, and very many, examples and cases of this. The best example that can be presented is one who has a job, such as being a police officer, a soldier, a guard, or something similar, and cannot perform every prayer in its time because he is obligated to perform this duty, which he cannot be lax in or deviate from. In that case, he looks at which of the two combinings removes the difficulty for him. If, for example, the Zuhr prayer catches up with him while he is outside of work, and he knows that he will take over his duty before the 'Asr prayer and is unable to pray this prayer because he is bound by this duty, then at that point he finds difficulty: what does he do with this prayer? So he plans for himself and combines in this case by advancing; he prays Zuhr in the mosque, then adds the 'Asr prayer to it. When he goes to his work, he is free of blame and at ease in heart and mind. And the reverse is the reverse: one who is at his job at the time of the Zuhr prayer but knows that he will be free from his work after Zuhr for a period, intends to delay the Zuhr prayer to the time of the 'Asr prayer; so he does not pray 'Asr until after he has finished the Zuhr prayer in the time of 'Asr. This is what I intended to remind you of on the occasion of that hadith I began before the Maghrib prayer. Yes? About this?

The questioner : Does this apply to all jobs, or to specific jobs, I mean?

The Shaykh : I think my answer was clear. It is not all jobs; because there are jobs where a person leaves his job without hesitation and meets his friend outside the premises, and so on. It is even more likely that he can leave to perform the prayer in its time. But I emphasized the case where he has a job he cannot deviate from, and I repeated this word. In this case, it is permissible for him to combine this combining to remove the difficulty we mentioned earlier. As for the other employees, it is an obligatory duty upon them to maintain the performance of the prayers in their times, with the congregation, and in the mosque, not in a prayer room or any other place.
Please proceed.

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh: And upon you peace.

The questioner : In one instance I intended to travel, so I prayed shortened and combined. Then after this prayer I went to... What do I do with this?

The Shaykh : ...An accident?

The questioner : Yes, so I shortened and combined between Maghrib and 'Isha'.

The Shaykh : Okay; what is the question?

The questioner : What is the validity of the combining in this case? ...The shortening and the combining...?

The questioner : The important thing is that when you combined, were you a traveler?

Another questioner : Yes, I intended to travel.

The Shaykh : Were you a traveler?

The questioner : Yes, ...travel.

The Shaykh : No, here one is causing confusion in the speech, saying "I intended to travel." Perhaps this was a stroke of luck without... It is true that you intended to travel but did not begin the travel?

The questioner : I intended to travel and prayed with the intention of travel, after the prayer.

The Shaykh : Listen, my brother—may Allah guide you—understand me and answer my question. There are two scenarios here: A person decides to travel, packs his belongings and luggage, and puts them in the car, and before he moves from his town, he combines and shortens; this is not permissible. If you did this, then it is not permissible. But if, for example, you got in the car, whether it was your own or hired, and set off, and you found that the prayer time came upon you in a place you were in, so you combined and shortened, and then what happened happened; in this second scenario, you did what is permissible. As for the first scenario, it is not permissible for a person to combine and shorten when he has not yet left the town.

The questioner : So the shortening and combining is after... the travel?

The Shaykh : Not after the travel, but after his exit from his town.
The questioner: So it is contrary to...

The Shaykh: Yes.