What is the distance at which a traveler shortens the prayer?

The questioner : You are praying four rak'ahs, and we know that you are traveling, so we ask: What is the extent of shortening in your view? Is it based on duration, as some say it is three days, or is it based on distance? I hope for detail and clarification. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : What has become clear to me in this matter is that the issue of travel is not restricted to a specific distance that a traveler covers when he leaves his town heading to another town. Travel, like many other terms, has its known linguistic meaning in the language... As long as the Wise Lawgiver has not introduced a new definition or restriction for it... For example, our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, mentioned regarding the fasting of Ramadan: , so He used the term "illness" just as He used the term "travel." Just as there is no specific limit to the illness that allows one who is obligated to fast in Ramadan to break his fast, but rather "illness" is used in a general sense, so that anyone in whom it is confirmed that he has an illness or that he is sick is permitted to break his fast in Ramadan and make up other days, so too is travel. He paired it with illness and said: . Thus, travel has no restrictions in the Shari'ah; it is general, and its understanding is based on the general custom in the language of the Arabs. Therefore, from the moment a person leaves his town and it is linguistically valid to call him a traveler, he remains under the ruling of a traveler, and the rulings of travel apply to him, until he returns to his town. This is what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did in the Farewell Pilgrimage. As it came in the authentic hadith of Anas ibn Malik, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not cease to pray two rak'ahs, two rak'ahs, from the time he left Madinah until he returned to it. Similarly, there are no restrictions or limits in terms of a specific number of days for the temporary stay that a traveler makes in the town where he has settled. Rather, that also returns to the specific custom of the person who has settled in that town, and to the general custom in general. I say: Here there is a difference between what we mentioned earlier, that the understanding of travel returns to the general custom, whereas here there is a specific custom and a general custom. When you asked your question, which I am about to answer, you noted the general custom and hit the mark, but the specific custom related to me cannot be known except by asking, as you did. The scholars of knowledge mention an issue they have specified: if a man has two wives, one in one town and the other in another town, then when he goes from his first wife to his second wife, he is a traveler between them, but he is a resident with each of them. In the same way, I have seen—and opinion is open to error—that it is so for one who goes out as a traveler and then settles with his son or his daughter and becomes established there; he is under the ruling of a resident. And this is my case. I am staying with my brother-in-law Hammam. As long as I am with him and in his town, I am a resident. And if I leave him and enter the general ruling, which is travel. Perhaps that is an answer to what you asked.

The questioner : May Allah honor you.

The Shaykh : May Allah elevate you.