What is the ruling on work that conflicts with the times of prayer?

The questioner : My Shaykh, I would like to consult you; I mean, I previously asked regarding the issue of work; the truth is, regarding the issue of work, our specific work; I mean, it does not conflict with the issue of the Dhuhr prayer, actually.

The Shaykh : Conflicts with what?

The questioner : I mean, the Dhuhr prayer conflicts on approximately two days, two days in the week.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : Two days in the week, meaning the call to prayer is made. I was originally in a school where there was no nearby mosque around it, then I transferred to a school where the mosque was actually close. So, a person does not know how things come about that one is not alert to, or what do we call them? Their consequences, if one assumes the best; I mean, or, for example, Satan issues specific fatwas for him, then the issue is that I was satisfied with it, or despite the fact that it is two days in the week, on the remaining days we go out, meaning the issue of prayer is facilitated. We might say, for example, two or three days, so the mu'adhdhin calls for prayer, naturally in a prayer area in the school. And I asked you about the school prayer area, and, if Allah wills, I will clarify it, meaning we heard it from you. So now, the question I want to raise is that the issue of work in general, we, if Allah wills, do not want to ask, meaning we ask, and a person wants to seek the truth, wants to try to strip away desire.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : I mean, he should fear Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), but I mean, asking within the reality we live in, we find that most jobs, practically, the issue of doubtful matters in them, the doubtful matters surround from many sides; until a person hardly names a job but finds, (Glorified is Allah!), that the forbidden follows it. So our specific work, I mean, this work through practical practice, I found, (and praise be to Allah), I recorded points in it, this point I ask about, number one, the remaining points, I, (praise be to Allah), a person will be far away, and finds that the things in which there is haram, I mean, I do not know in the general total, the proposal... the abandonment, as long as there is, for example, a prevalent sin in it, or do we look, for example, at the general total of the jobs now and say, as the poet said: "Have mercy on me, some evil is easier than some"; so what is your opinion?

The Shaykh : I mean, do you mean by haram here, as I understood, the inability to respond to the caller with "Hayya 'ala al-salah, Hayya 'ala al-falah"?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : In a specific prayer at specific times, I mean.

The Shaykh : It is known. What I see, (and Allah knows best), is that the matter does not have this severe difficulty if we remember the legitimacy of combining the two prayers to remove difficulty. And we, on many occasions, respond to some employees in jobs that do not enable them to maintain performing the prayer at its times, (even individually, let alone performing it in congregation), and we issue them a fatwa that whoever among them... the prayer at its time... should return to combining. And one or two days ago, some people were with me, and they asked me about a doctor.

The Shaykh : He gave him a response...
The Shaykh : ...where? So you are not traveling between Jeddah and Amman, but in Jeddah and Amman you are a resident. Yes, so as long as your family is here and your husband is there, you are considered a resident among your family, no. But the distance between Jeddah and Amman, whether by plane or by car, is... in Ramadan, in the country here or there, so you... here? No, you are mistaken; because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was not among his family, you, even for one day, my sister, you are here among your family and among...
The Shaykh : ...for you, for example, I myself, I was a resident in Damascus, and I married one of my daughters here, so before I married her, when I came from Damascus to here... and I became one who prays the prayer of a resident while I am here, and I do not stay except two or three days; because I am with my daughter as if I were in my home; and therefore the rulings of travel differ from one situation to another, so it is not permissible to generalize across the board that a person, for example, resides in Jeddah with his wife, then travels to his father and mother, so this has a specific ruling. As I told you, (and the best speech is what is brief and indicative): as long as you are with your husband in Jeddah, you are a resident, and as long as you are with your parents in Amman, you are a resident, as long as you are traveling between the two countries, you are a traveler.
The Shaykh : If you asked one of the scholars and he issued a fatwa for you that you are a traveler, even if you are among your father and mother, the responsibility is on him, I tell you. But if this opinion came from you, I do not know what to say, for I do not know you; if you are among the scholars and you exercised independent legal reasoning, then let what has passed be, but if you do not consider yourself among the scholars, it means you issued a fatwa for yourself without knowledge, so you would be mistaken twice; once that you issued a fatwa for yourself without asking the scholars, as is obligatory, the saying of the Exalted: , and secondly, those prayers are not valid prayers; so you must repeat them.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : I knew this, I knew this from you, and you knew the answer from me, also... on what?

The questioner : ... .
...

The Shaykh : What were we in?

The questioner : The issue of combining.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The Shaykh : Our discussion reached the point that some visitors recently raised a question; that there is a doctor who gives a lecture, and this lecture takes many hours as stated in the question; such that he is unable to perform the prayer at its time; so my answer was, in summary, that this doctor and those like him... bell?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : ...that they reconcile the hours of the lecture with the hours of the prayer; such that the timing of this does not conflict with the prayer. If that is not possible, then in this case he can return to combining. This is what I say regarding your question; that this teacher, if he sees that his remaining in teaching benefits the students, especially if he believes that the advising, guiding, and educating teachers for the students to act by the Book and the Sunnah are few, and he sees that his remaining in this job has much good, he tries to pray every prayer at its time as is his habit. If that becomes difficult for him in a certain lesson, he intends to combine if the time does not allow for performing the prayer, otherwise let him pray it at its time, even if alone or with his family. I do not find any difficulty in that as long as the predominant thing for him is maintaining the performance of the prayers, first at their times, and secondly in congregation.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

Another questioner : ...this is what my brother brought me, the converter...