Combining Prayers in the Rain.

The questioner : The question of combining Maghrib and 'Isha' in winter. As for combining 'Asr with Dhuhr, is that from the Sunnah?

The Shaykh : Where did you get that first Sunnah from?

The questioner : The Sunnah was that they combined Maghrib and 'Isha'!

The Shaykh : Yes, and when did they combine Dhuhr with 'Asr?

The questioner : I do not know.

The Shaykh : This is first, and why did they combine the first Sunnah?

The questioner : The first Sunnah.

The Shaykh : Why did they combine?

The questioner : For the rain.

The Shaykh : For the rain.

The questioner : For the hardship of the night, for the darkness.

The Shaykh : No, don't add this extra stuff.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : For the darkness, they combined. May Allah forgive you, stick to the first point!

The questioner : Yes, for the hardship that befalls them.

The Shaykh : No, this one also belongs to the first point.

The questioner : For the difficulty, yes.

The Shaykh : And not for the difficulty.

The questioner : No, never mind...

The Shaykh : It is not "never mind."

The questioner : No, excuse me, I am with you.

The Shaykh : No, neither you nor Abu Asbagh.

The questioner : For the hardship.

The Shaykh : For the dispensation, my brother, not for the difficulty. Difficulty removes the obligatory!

The questioner : What is the cause of the dispensation?

The Shaykh : Before you go with me and I go with you.

The questioner: Go ahead.

The Shaykh : Is it clear to you that difficulty removes the obligatory?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : How could it not be? and so on. The important thing is that the scholars who say combining is permissible say that combining is a dispensation, is that not so?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, what does dispensation mean? It means you are given a choice between doing it and leaving it, but and so on. And we correct our answers by saying: the first Sunnah, why did they combine? And be careful in your answer: they combined for the rain.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: All right.

Another questioner : For the cause.

The Shaykh : Yes.

Another questioner : I say for the cause, the cause of the rain.

The Shaykh : Combining for the rain, is this not as our companion said, that the rain is the cause, correct?

The questioner : Yes, yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, if you find the cause in the two 'Asr prayers, do you need the text that they were combining?

The questioner : The answer is no... but...

The Shaykh : Hmm, but let's see, but...

The questioner : We are now following what is established. Is it established that they combined in the two 'Asr prayers? This is what we also want to know?

The Shaykh : Put this in your mind: we are followers. If it is established for us that it rained at Dhuhr, and despite that they continued to separate Dhuhr and 'Asr and did not combine between them, do you have this thing?

The questioner : This is what we want to establish.

The Shaykh : No, O Shaykh, may Allah guide you.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : Pay attention to what I say.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : This connects us to the first issue regarding the beard. Our Shaykh, what do they say? "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not take from his beard." This is a negation!

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : The hardest thing in knowledge is establishing a negation, and this is one of the rules that every student of knowledge should be alert to. The hardest thing is to say "The Messenger of Allah did not do such and such!"

The questioner: Yes, this is correct.