The distance for shortening the prayer. I reviewed the book *Fiqh al-Sunnah*. It appears from the Shaykh's fatwa that he used the term "travel" in a general sense, as if he permits it without specifying a distance. What is the ruling?

The questioner : The answer to the other question is short, if Allah wills. Regarding the distance for shortening the prayer, I reviewed the book "Fiqh al-Sunnah." It appears from the Shaykh's fatwa that , .

The Shaykh : .

The questioner : He used the term "travel" in a general sense, meaning that it seems he permits it without specifying a distance.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : What is your opinion? Not a farsakh, nor 81 kilometers and a bit. 81 kilometers means...

The Shaykh : No, this is what we believe in Allah and what we say: travel is like illness.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Both are used in a general sense in the Qur'an, as seen in the verses of fasting . So, "travel" is used in a general sense in the Qur'an in more than one place. If it had a specific limit, the Messenger (peace be upon him) would have specified it, at least he who was tasked with explaining the Qur'an, as in His saying (Mighty and Majestic): . Since no specific distance was defined for travel, neither in the Qur'an nor in the Sunnah, the general text remains general. However, this means that the general, undefined travel—whether by days or kilometers—its definition is left to custom. The custom in any country is what resolves the issue of whether the distance a person travels is considered travel or not, according to the custom of the people. There is no role here for jurisprudence or religious knowledge. The custom of the people, whether they are men or women, old or young, scholars or ignorant, the general custom. And I, for example, am a traveler. One does not say "I am traveling to Amman" or the reverse. We came from Amman to you, and no one says so, despite the difference between the learned and the ignorant. And I am a traveler to al-Zarqa or al-Saqi'ah or something similar. So, travel is general in the Noble Qur'an and not limited. Just as it is not permissible to generalize what the Lawgiver has restricted, it is not permissible to restrict what the Lawgiver has generalized. Because both matters, or texts, whether they are general or restricted, are a religious ruling, and it is not permissible to deal with them in any way, absolutely. And also in the verse: . This verse is a clear text that permits the Muslim in the month of Ramadan to break his fast for one of these two excuses: illness or travel. Now, who is the sick person for whom it is permissible to break the fast in Ramadan? As you know, illness comes in various forms and colors, countless, unfortunately. And each illness among these many types has degrees, from the lowest to the highest, called an illness. Do you see that the general use of "illness" in this verse means that every fasting person in Ramadan who is afflicted with some illness must take a prescription from the doctor, as he takes it to treat his illness? Is there a type of illness in him that permits him to break his fast in Ramadan? The answer is no. The answer is in His saying (Exalted is He): . You know your own state, whether you are sick or not. If you are sick, the dispensation has become permissible for you; otherwise, it is not. And I like, on this occasion, what I used to read long ago in "Tafsir al-Qurtubi." He mentioned a beautiful report in this verse. I do not personally care whether this report is established and authentic according to the method of the hadith scholars, because reports (athar) cannot be subjected to hadith criticism due to their abundance. Reports are more numerous than hadiths, because reports are the words of the aggregate of the Companions and the aggregate of the Successors, and reports are not limited to one person as is the case with the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him), which are limited to him (may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him). Therefore, it is difficult, indeed impossible, to conduct hadith criticism on every report that is narrated, whether it is a report from a Companion, a Successor, or someone below them. So I say: regardless of whether this report is established or not, it aligns with what we mentioned regarding the generality that came in the Noble Qur'an. Al-Qurtubi mentioned from Ibn Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him), and as you know, he is one of the great imams of the Successors. He was seen one day in Ramadan while breaking his fast. It seemed that some of the present were surprised by his breaking the fast while he was an imam. So he showed them his finger, which was bandaged, and said: "I am sick." What is his illness? In his finger. So, the matter of travel is exactly like the matter of illness. Therefore, it is not appropriate for a Muslim to take a fatwa from a scholar saying, "I want to travel from such a town to such a town, is it travel or not?" No, ask those around you. If you have ever heard that this is travel or not travel. And here is a very important note in explaining the ease of Islam and the tolerance of Islam, and that it is a practical religion, not a theoretical one. In the time of the revelation of these legal rulings in the Qur'an or the Muhammadan Sunnah, there was no such material civilization, which is the determination of distances in meters, which are kilometers. How did they determine them? By stages. Stages, meaning that the caravan would set out, for example, in the morning after the Fajr prayer, and walk and walk and walk until the sun rose to the middle of the sky and the heat intensified. Then they would descend into the thorny areas under the trees and set up tents until the intensity of the heat subsided. Then they would depart for another stage until night overtook them, and so on. It is not hidden from you that such stages differ from one region to another and from one desert to another, and so on. Do you see that if one of them wanted to travel back then, especially those nomads, if they wanted to move from one region to another, they did not know how much the distance between this and that was. I once clearly remembered, and I was giving such a lecture at the Islamic University more than thirty years ago, and the land that is east of al-Husayn, where I was giving the lecture, the eye extends as far as Allah wills, and we see mountains from afar. I say, if one of us now wanted to go out from here to such a mountain for some reason, to search for a mine or water or a spring or something similar, he would not know if this distance is a travel distance or not? It is impossible. But he intends now to travel and will depart, perhaps the first stage, the second, and the third. And therefore, our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) did not restrict travel with such restrictions, because they are theoretical restrictions, not practical, applied restrictions. For example, in some schools of jurisprudence, what is water? Which water, if impurity falls into it, becomes impure? There is much and very long disagreement. The problem is never solved except by the school adopted by the Imam of the City of Migration, Imam Malik ibn Anas (may Allah have mercy on him), who held to the hadith of the Well of Budha'ah, in which the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: in a narration whose chain is weak, but whose meaning is correct by the consensus of the imams . So, this nomad who travels in this desert finds water and finds dung around it and filth and the like. It is impossible for the Wise Lawgiver to say to him, "Look, does this water reach two qullahs or not?" Let alone the school that says it must be ten by ten. Such theoretical details do not come in Islamic law at all. Rather, the ruling comes like the previous one: . Look, is the water pure? Can you drink it? Can you perform ablution with it? Or does this water change due to one of the changing factors, which are taste, color, and smell? In summary, the answer I read in "Fiqh al-Sunnah" is that travel is general, and that is the correct view.
What about others?
Please proceed.