Reference to the treatise of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah on shortening the prayer, and its commendation, and that it is a great work in its field

The Shaykh : Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) addressed this issue in a manner I have not seen from anyone else, in a specific treatise on the rulings of travel, which was printed with the collection of treatises and issues that Sayyid Rashid Rida (may Allah have mercy on him) published. He gives the example of a man who travels a distance of three hundred kilometers or more, yet he is not considered a traveler. This is to emphasize to the reader that travel has no relation to the distance one covers, whether long or short, but rather travel takes its name and ruling based on the status of the person who has left the buildings. He says, for example: We have in the Levant a village east of Damascus called "Duwma," which is about fifteen kilometers from Damascus. And we have in the north of the Levant Aleppo, which we call the second capital, because it follows Damascus in size, the expansion of its trade, and so on. Ibn Taymiyyah says: If a man leaves Damascus to hunt in its outskirts, and when he starts hunting he does not find what satisfies him, so he goes beyond the outskirts to a nearby village until he reaches "Duwma," beyond "Duwma," and so on, until he finds himself in Aleppo. Naturally, in those days, this took him several days, and the distance between Damascus and Aleppo is about four hundred kilometers. He says: This man is not a traveler, and the reason is that he did not leave his town as a traveler; he left to amuse himself with hunting, then he became absorbed in this hunting and followed it. As it came in the authentic hadith: , so this person was distracted by the hunting, a little, then a little, then a little, then a little; and lo and behold, he found himself in the middle of Aleppo. He said: This is not a traveler, because he did not leave or prepare for travel at all, but the hunting carried him to walk from here to there until he reached Aleppo. So, first of all, what must the person leaving the town or city he is in observe: did he intend to travel or not? This is one issue.
Another issue: People's intentions may differ, and thus their rulings may differ. Two men leave the same town and cover the same distance, and this distance, combined with the intention to travel, is present in both men. They settle in the town they intended to reach. One of them, if he stays for two or three days, considers himself a traveler, and this is correct. But the other does not consider himself a traveler, but rather considers himself a resident. Why? Because he has two homes: a home in the town he left, and a home in the town he intended to reach. The first man does not have a home there, so as long as he stays in that town, he is a traveler. The other man, who has a home, as long as he stays in that town, he is a resident. So, the point of this example is that two people cover the same distance and settle in the same town; one takes the ruling of the other.
Likewise, we can consider that both left the town, one with the intention of traveling and the other with the intention of hunting, as we mentioned earlier in the example of Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him). The distance is the same, but the ruling differs. A man, also, leaves as a traveler to follow up on his commercial, governmental, or similar affairs in the other town, while another leaves for a leisure trip, and in his leisure trip, it never occurred to him at all that he was a traveler or that he should prepare for travel or the like.
In summary: It is not befitting for us, when we leave our town, to look at the distance we cover, whether it is long or short. In my opinion, this will first relieve us from "confusion" and disagreement, and second, to know the correct ruling or what is closest to the correct ruling in this issue. We should not dwell on the distance we covered, how many kilometers today, whether much or little. The second thing is to observe whether, when we left the town, we left intending to travel and prepared for travel, or not? And I was asked recently, yesterday, while we were on the way to the place where we gathered yesterday. What do you call this place, the camp?
Yes?

The questioner : "Al-Sibbiyyah."

The Shaykh : "Al-Habbiyyah." So some of us asked: Is this travel or not? I am a stranger to the town, of course, and the people of the house know best what is in it. But I said: By Allah, I do not feel that I am a traveler here with this distance. As for the fact that I left Amman for Syria, I am still a traveler. But if I were a resident here and covered this distance, I would not feel at all that I am traveling, but rather I am on a leisure trip. I did not take food or drink, I did not provision myself, I did not bid farewell to my family, nor anything related to what? The status of a traveler. I did not feel any of this at all. Nevertheless, I rule based on this, and it is not permissible for me, neither by Sharī'ah nor by reason, to rule on the people of the house, because the people of the house know best what is in it. But I say as an example: When I left here and it was said to us that we are going to the wilderness and we have a camp there, and so on, and we will gather with the brothers, and we boarded the car, and it carried us, covering the earth; I did not feel at all that I was a traveler, ever. But is the matter the same when I came from Qatar to you? Of course, the matter is completely different; therefore.

The questioner : By your health, until I arrived.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : I say: By your health, until I arrived.

The Shaykh : It is by your health, correct, but by your health I also go to America, but.

The questioner : Meaning, this is a real travel.

The Shaykh : The issue now, in any case, if you have an opinion on what we are talking about, we want to hear it, and a man is strong with his brother, yes, so I say: The thing that should be observed, and this is fundamental in fact, is not to look into the length or shortness of the distance; because this is not the issue that solves the problem and puts an end to it. Rather, look into your own selves; because the example we gave has no disagreement in it at all: Two men left a town; one considers himself a traveler and the other does not consider himself a traveler, and the distance is the same. So, the distance does not determine the traveler from the non-traveler. Rather, the issue of travel is determined by the person's status and his intention. If he truly prepared as a traveler prepares, and this preparation has customary indications, the first of which, for example: Is it the norm for people when one of them truly travels, and it is known to people that it is travel; is his conduct like if he left, for example, from the house to the market, bidding farewell to his family?
The answer, of course, is: No. But the opposite of that, when he travels for travel, he bids farewell to his family. He may embrace those it is permissible to embrace, kiss those it is permissible to kiss, shake hands with those it is not permissible to kiss, and so on. So he bids farewell in a way that is not, meaning, this manner is not the custom of the resident who does not want to travel.
This is a phenomenon I want to draw attention to, meaning, how do we know the status of a person after he intends, how can we know regarding... that this is a traveler or not? One of the ways is that he bids farewell to his family in some way, and the ways here may differ. Another thing is that there is a custom, a general custom in many of the countries we live in. We have, for example, in Damascus, a summer resort called "Mada'a," "Zubdani," "Baqin," which is fifty kilometers from Damascus. When one of us leaves Damascus, he does not say: I am traveling to "Zubdani" or "Mada'a" and "Baqin," but rather I am going for a leisure trip there. Whereas if he goes to Beirut, and the distance is double this distance, meaning one hundred kilometers, he says: I am traveling to Beirut, traveling to Hama, traveling to Homs, which is closer than Hama; let alone Aleppo. So, what also relieves us in this issue is to look at what is the custom of the people of the town when they leave their town to another town?
I am stating this with this specific definition because a person might go out into the desert where there is no specific place he intends to reach. In that case, he is truly a traveler; because he does not know where he will set up his camp. If there is a common custom, as some of the brothers mentioned yesterday, that the journey from here to Al-Wafrah was formerly considered a journey, but now it is not considered a journey.
I am, of course, merely reporting what was said to me. I said: If this departure from Kuwait to Al-Wafrah is not considered a journey by custom, then it is not a journey. Custom has a role in such matters; because what does custom consist of? What is it composed of? It is the people's view of their reality. The feeling of those who cover the distance between Kuwait and Al-Wafrah is what suggests to them whether they are traveling or not. So, one of the things a student of knowledge can use to determine if he is a traveler or not is looking at the custom of the people. If the custom differs, and this can actually happen, let us return to the guidelines some of which we were able to mention earlier. In any case, in my opinion, since this issue has been a matter of disagreement among scholars in the past, I do not think it is good for there to be much and long argumentation among us. Rather, every person should remain as He, the Exalted, said: . So, when you leave a town for that town with me, I might consider myself not a traveler, and you might consider yourself a traveler, or the opposite; I might consider myself a traveler, and you might not consider yourself a traveler. So, the matter is broad, and a person is judged according to what is in his heart.
And we ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to guide us to the truth in which people have differed.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And you, may Allah bless you.

The questioner : We are in agreement.

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : We are in agreement.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.