When is it prescribed to combine and shorten prayers and to break the fast of Ramadan while traveling?

The questioner : Regarding combining and shortening, what exactly is the concept of combining and shortening? For example, if we come from a trip, say we are coming from Kuwait, some people are still shortening and combining, while others are just praying their prayers normally?

The Shaykh: I understand you.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : Any person who leaves his town for another town to attend to a need and then returns to his first town, his case is looked at. If he intends to reside there, regardless of the number of days, the days are not considered at all. As soon as he intends to reside in that town, his ruling becomes that of a resident in his first town. This is different from if he comes to a town where he does not intend to reside, because he came to attend to his needs and interests and does not know when they will end. He says, "If they end today, I am a traveler today; if they end tomorrow, I am a traveler tomorrow; if the day after, I am a traveler the day after," and so on. This person continues to shorten and combine until he returns to his town, provided that the town he is staying in is not his own town. As for your example, I do not know; it seems to me that you are originally a resident here, but you went to Kuwait and resided there for a year or two, and then you returned to your town. Is that so?

The questioner : No, no... I was born in Kuwait and live in Kuwait.

The Shaykh : Then that is not your town.

The questioner: No, no.

The Shaykh : In any case, you did not hear the answer, but some people may benefit from the other scenario I wanted to discuss. For example, if someone is Jordanian or Palestinian and resided in Kuwait for many years and then returned to his country, as soon as he settles in his country, he becomes a resident because that is his country. But if it is not his country, the ruling is as I mentioned earlier. If we understand this issue, we are free from the problem of hesitation: when does a person pray the prayer of a resident, and when does he continue to pray the prayer of a traveler? The answer is taken from the saying of Allah the Exalted in the Noble Qur'an, and this is one of the precise and beautiful Qur'anic expressions that opens the door to the jurisprudence of this issue. Allah the Exalted said: We all know that traveling is one of the excuses for breaking the fast in Ramadan. So this traveler who left his town for another town, and as we said earlier, he continues to shorten or continues to pray the prayer of a resident, with the details we mentioned earlier. Likewise, if he is a traveler and wants to break his fast in Ramadan, he has the right to do so by the explicit text of the Qur'anic verse. But this verse gives us the principle for understanding the issue, even though it is related to fasting. Fasting and prayer are linked negatively and positively: if you shorten, you break the fast; if you complete, you fast. Here, Allah says: Notice now the word "on a journey." The person who came to the town and is hesitating whether to travel today or tomorrow or the day after, because he does not know when his needs will end, it is exactly true that he is on a journey. But the one who came and settled, who has his interests and intends to return, but intends to reside until his interests are finished, and he is not like the first one who hesitates between traveling today or tomorrow or so on, linguistically we cannot say that he is on a journey, unlike the first one who is on a journey. So, the one for whom it is true that he is on a journey is the one who shortens, combines, and breaks the fast of Ramadan if he wishes. I say "if he wishes" regarding breaking the fast, because breaking the fast in Ramadan for a traveler is different from shortening and is similar to combining. Combining for a traveler is a dispensation, and likewise, breaking the fast in Ramadan for a traveler is a dispensation. But shortening is the default ruling, and it is necessary. Therefore, we combined the two dispensations.