What is the limit of travel that allows for shortening and combining the prayer?

Al-Halabi : What is the limit of travel that allows for shortening and combining the prayer?

The Shaykh : I believe we have spoken about this in this place, though I do not mean this specific location; it may have been in another section or elsewhere. We have discussed this issue repeatedly and often, and because people need it, they ask about it frequently. Our answer is that there is no material limit that a scholar or an ignorant person can understand and touch with their hand, meaning, for example, a specific number of kilometers. There is no way to do that. Rather, there must be a general understanding for everyone who travels, just as there must be a general understanding for everyone who performs Hajj regarding their travel and their Hajj. If someone wants to travel and is, for example, poor, he does not need to know the rulings of zakah, but he specifically needs to know the rulings of travel. How does he know whether he is a traveler or a resident? The first question usually raised is: what is the distance? The second question is: if he has covered the distance and stopped in a town, when does he shorten the prayer and when does he perform it in full? These are two very important questions, and everyone who is exposed to travel must know them. Understanding this issue requires some care and comprehension, because it is not a material issue, as I told you. It has two stages: three days, as they did in the past, or today by kilometers. No, rather, anyone who prepares himself at home for travel and intends in his heart and intention to travel to another town, and it is the custom of the town where he lives that his departure from that town to the other town is considered travel, then he is a traveler, whether the distance is long or short. This point must be known by the man who wants to travel. Of course, this issue is sometimes very, very clear, sometimes very, very obscure, and sometimes in between. For example, the one who travels from here to Europe: no one wonders if this is travel or not? It is clear as the sun in the broad daylight. Now, bring the distance closer, bring it as close as you want to Europe, to, for example, Turkey. We have brought it closer. Is travel to, for example, Aleppo travel? Yes. Is travel to Damascus travel? Yes. Is travel to Irbid travel or not travel? Here it becomes what? In between. This image represents a natural reality: the water of the river when it pours into the wide water of the sea continues to move, maintaining its identity for a distance of meters, then it continues to disappear and disappear until it vanishes. Do you see? And so it is with some of the rulings of the Shari'ah in terms of clarity and obscurity. If the issue is of the first type, there is no question. If it is of the last type, from here to Irbid, is it travel or not? We say a distance of seventy or eighty kilometers?
Al-Halabi : Eighty-one.

The Shaykh : Eighty-one. Here, we have brought it closer, meaning we said seventy or eighty kilometers: is it travel or not? No, it is not important whether it is seventy kilometers or eighty kilometers. First, in the custom of the lands, when someone goes from here to Irbid, do the people, the general public—I do not mean a specific person or the concept of a specific person, but the general concept—do they say "I am traveling to Irbid" or "I am going to Irbid"? If the concept in the town is that he is traveling, then it is travel. If the concept is that he does not say he is traveling, but rather that he is going, as if someone from here to Zarqa, does he say "I am traveling"? He does not say "I am traveling." So, keep it at that. Likewise, as we said earlier, the opposite, to Zarqa, to such and such, I do not know, to Irbid. If the custom says it is travel, then it is travel. If it does not, then it is not travel. This is the rule, and... its criterion here. I say, the water of the river that has poured into the sea: the son of the town may be confused. I have heard this from some of them, and by Allah, some of them say it is travel and some of them say it is not travel. In that case, I say the original state is that you are a resident. So when it becomes predominant in your mind that you have entered the ruling of the traveler, then you are a traveler. This is the clear answer.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : To remove doubt and confusion, if the issue is detailed, where do you return? To the original state. This is it. This is regarding the distance. So if he stops in the town, and let us assume now he stops in Europe, he stops in Turkey, there is no disagreement or doubt that he is a traveler. Does he pray the prayer of the traveler there or the prayer of the resident? The answer is: if you have resolved to stay, then you are a resident. And what does it mean to resolve to stay? Unfortunately, Arabs do not understand this speech now, and I learned this from the Arabs, but you are not the predecessors. What does it mean to resolve to stay? The opposite is understood from the opposite: if you are not saying "I am traveling today, I am traveling tomorrow, I am traveling after that," meaning you are hesitating about traveling, then this is the meaning of their saying "I have not resolved to stay." Or if the hesitation is gone and you have resolved to stay, then you are a resident. So in the state of hesitation, you are a traveler. In the state of resolving to stay in the town where you have stopped, you are a resident and you pray the prayer of the resident. Yes.

The questioner : In Makkah.

The Shaykh : In Makkah, in 'Umrah and Hajj, it remains as established from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) practically, as long as, as we said earlier, as long as he is determined to return and has not intended to stay and has not resolved to stay, then he is, as we said, a traveler. Otherwise, he is a resident, without doubt or hesitation, regarding the previously mentioned rule. Please.