The Shaykh’s explanation of what has been transmitted in the texts regarding the specification of the distance, and the scholars’ view on this matter.

The Shaykh : And when we studied this issue from the depths of the fiqh and hadith books, we did not find a hadith by which we could restrict this generality that came in the Book in the two previous verses regarding travel, except for what the restrictors mentioned, which is only a hadith narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), when he traveled three farsakh or miles”, so this is how the doubt came. “He would shorten the prayer (peace and blessings be upon him)”. So some scholars said, “This distance is the distance of travel in which shortening is permissible, and what is above it.” And they said that what is less than that is not permissible, because the hadith says that he used to shorten when he traveled this distance, which is three farsakh or three miles. But I answer regarding this hadith that it does not negate the permissibility of shortening in a journey that is less than this distance which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) covered and in which he shortened. In other words, this hadith is a text regarding the permissibility of shortening in a journey whose distance is three farsakh or three miles, but it is not a text regarding the impermissibility of shortening in less than this distance. Because the Companion is speaking about what he witnessed and saw; he saw the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) shortening in such a distance, but he did not know that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) shortened in less than this distance. So we take the explicit wording of the hadith and do not take its implication, because this implication did not come from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), who, when he spoke, comprehended and encompassed the subject from all angles. The Companion is not like that, because he is speaking about something he witnessed. It is impossible for any Companion to say, “I traveled with the Messenger wherever He traveled, and I journeyed with the Messenger wherever He journeyed, and I counted every journey He made with me, so it became clear to me that He did not shorten in less than this distance, and that He did shorten in it or more than it.” This is impossible for any person. Therefore, we can argue with the explicit wording of this hadith, i.e., the explicit mention of the three, not with its implication, which is less than the three. This is the hadith by which some who restrict the travel that permits shortening in travel and breaking the fast in Ramadan might hold on. And yet, what follows is a response to it: travel is not such that one who leaves his town and sets out walking becomes a traveler merely by covering this distance or more. It is necessary that other things be present in this person who left and covered this distance, so that, in their totality, he becomes a traveler upon whom the rulings of travel are established. The first of these, and this is a very self-evident matter, is that this person who covered this distance must have intended to travel. This is a clear matter, for deeds are by intentions. A man who goes out for a leisure trip, for example, and covers a distance of three farsakh, is not called a traveler. Why? Because he did not intend to travel. And the distance might be longer and longer, yet he intended to travel. So, when a person covers this distance, it is accompanied by other things, the first of which is that he intends to travel by it. So it is not taken that a person who merely left his town and covered this distance has become a traveler. We must observe in that that he intended to travel. Then, in many cases—and I think every one of us notices this when he goes out and covers a distance more than that—he goes out to attend to a matter in a town near him and returns after finishing it in an hour or less. Yet, even so, we cannot say that he traveled.