I traveled to an area near my hometown and stayed with a relative, even though my stay might last only a few days; should I combine prayers and shorten them?

The questioner : All right; in... you traveled to an area that is not your home, from Aqaba, and you stayed in a hotel or some other place, or with a relative. The duration varies; it might be a week or a few days. Do I combine and shorten, or not?

The Shaykh : This depends on your situation when you arrive at the hotel or your host's place. If you are still in a state of travel and have not intended to stay for rest and relaxation or the like, then you are as Allah the Exalted said: . The important thing is to observe your situation. If you are traveling, you shorten the prayer. If you have settled and intended to stay in the place where you arrived, you pray the full prayer.

The questioner : Is there a specific number of days, like a week?

The Shaykh : No, there are not.

The questioner : Because I intend to stay for three or four days.

The Shaykh : I know that.

The questioner : Just for rest and relaxation, meaning it is not...?

The Shaykh : There is no fixed number of days. The matter is as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . If you intend to stay, you do not look at the number of days. A person intends to stay for rest. As for one who is on business and has tasks to follow up on, he is a traveler no matter how many days pass. And the opposite is the opposite, completely. Because the truth is that the issue of travel, whether in terms of covering the distance from one town to another, or the number of days one stays in the other town, is a matter of great disagreement among the scholars. There is no text that resolves this disagreement except returning to custom, to which Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) linked many rulings, including the verse I mentioned earlier, which is His saying (the Exalted): . Here in the verse there are two terms: one is what we are discussing, travel, and the other is illness. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) linked the ruling of fasting or breaking the fast to each of these two terms. He said: . So he breaks his fast and makes up other days. This is the meaning of the verse.
But from the meaning of the verse , making up the fast is obligatory, but breaking the fast is not obligatory. That is, if one is a traveler, it is not said that he must break his fast. Rather, this is left to him, as came in the hadith of Hamzah al-Aslami in "Sahih Muslim," where he asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said to him: "O Messenger of Allah, I am a man who travels a lot, and this month of Ramadan catches me. Should I fast or break my fast?" He said: . So if this traveler prefers to break his fast , but if he finds no hardship in fasting, he owes nothing; he simply fasts like a resident.
The other matter is illness. . Is it not permissible for this sick person who fell ill during the month of fasting to break his fast until he goes to the doctor and gets a "prescription" stating that he is sick? The answer is: No. How then? The one who is accountable judges himself. He knows his own condition better than anyone else. Is he ill or sick? And he proceeds accordingly.
My point is that these two terms in the noble verse, Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) used them in a general sense, and He did not restrict them in the Book or the Sunnah. So if someone is sick, how do we know that he is sick? It is not necessary for you to know that Zayd is sick. The important thing is that he knows. Does a person not know his own condition? The answer is: No. So if he sees himself as sick, he breaks his fast. Even if the doctor says to him: "You are sick," and he does not feel this illness, he does not adopt the doctor's opinion. Rather, he judges himself, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) said: .
So this generality means delegating the matter to those who are accountable. The same is said regarding travelers. And I must mention to you an interesting example regarding the sick person in Ramadan: =
-- And peace be upon you --
= You must have heard of Muhammad ibn Sirin. He is one of the great scholars of the Tabi'un and one of those who narrated extensively from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), in particular. This noble man was seen in Ramadan breaking his fast. Those who saw him were surprised that he was breaking his fast. He pointed to them, meaning his finger was painful, so he considered himself sick and broke his fast!!
So the person is the one who judges himself.
To complete the discussion, some of the previous research may lead to two men leaving a town for another town, and both are travelers. But when they reach the other town, one remains a traveler, and the other is considered a resident, like you. The one with you is still a traveler because he did not stay in another house of his. As for you, you stayed in your other house, so you are a resident and he is a traveler. Both of you left a town and stayed in a town. In fact, they may leave a town where one is a traveler and the other is not. How? He did not intend to travel as the other did. The Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) gave a wonderful example for this second type:
You have heard of the city of Aleppo in Syria. Between Damascus and Aleppo is about four hundred kilometers. So imagine Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah describing a man who left Damascus not as a traveler at first, meaning he did not intend to travel, but as a hunter to hunt. He left Damascus to the Ghouta to a village near Damascus, for example, called "Joubar." He did not find game, so he walked from "Joubar" to "Harasta," and so on, continuing the road from "Harasta" to "Douma," to, to, to. Shaykh al-Islam says: He reached Aleppo.

The questioner : Four hundred kilometers.

The Shaykh : Oh?

The questioner : He covered four hundred kilometers.

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : Four hundred kilometers.

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : He walked four hundred kilometers.

The Shaykh : Four hundred, yes. That is, Damascus, as you know, is the capital of Syria, and Aleppo is in the north; meaning between it and the Turkish border are very close distances. The important thing is that this man covered four hundred kilometers and he was not a traveler. Why? First, he did not intend to travel when he left. Yes, he covered a travel distance, but he did not cover it as a traveler; rather, he was a hunter. And so the issues vary and have precision, and the matter returns to His saying (the Exalted): .