The Prayer of the Traveler
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
If you are traveling and you pass through a village or a small town and see a congregation praying, and you do not know whether they are residents or travelers, and you have missed two rak'ahs, so that you joined them, for example, at the tashahhud, should you complete the prayer or shorten it?
If the mosque you entered while traveling is a roadside mosque, like one at a station, for example, then the default assumption is that they are travelers. Or, for example, at an airport, a person is sometimes waiting and the time for prayer comes, and he enters and finds people praying; the indication is that this is a traveler’s prayer. However, if the mosque is a town mosque, the default assumption is that they are residents, so you should assume that the imam is a resident and complete the four rak'ahs.
If the mosque you entered while traveling is a roadside mosque, like one at a station, for example, then the default assumption is that they are travelers. Or, for example, at an airport, a person is sometimes waiting and the time for prayer comes, and he enters and finds people praying; the indication is that this is a traveler’s prayer. However, if the mosque is a town mosque, the default assumption is that they are residents, so you should assume that the imam is a resident and complete the four rak'ahs.