What is the criterion for determining a traveler?
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The questioner : Regarding the distance.
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : Regarding the distance.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : We understand from this that...
The Shaykh : Yes, regarding travel, as we mentioned, it does not have a fixed distance measured in stages or kilometers. This means the matter is left to the custom of each town. If a person leaves—for I asked some of them this question—if a person leaves Makkah for Jeddah, do they generally say in their custom: "We traveled," or "We went out," or "We went"? If the common usage among them is to say "we went out" or "we went" and not "we traveled," then this custom is the judge in the issue. If the one coming from Makkah to Jeddah is not considered a traveler, or the one going from here to Makkah is not considered a traveler, then he is not permitted to shorten the prayer, and he is not granted the dispensation to combine prayers except within the limits known for a resident. This is the best that has been said on the subject of the traveler: that it is what is known as travel, as we illustrated earlier with the sick person;[Al-Baqarah 2:184]. And if some people assume in determining a move from one place to another whether it is travel or not, that does not mean the rule is not correct, because we have not found anything better or easier than it.
It is necessary to consider the general custom among people in many rulings. The jurists mention in the chapter of oaths some rulings: if a man swears an oath not to eat meat and then eats fish, does he break his oath or not? There is no doubt that fish is meat by the explicit text of the Qur'an, and it is tender meat. However, if in the custom of the speakers in a certain town, when meat is mentioned, it does not come to their minds that it includes fish meat, but rather includes the meat of livestock with which they live, then if he eats fish, he does not break his oath. And conversely, if the one who swore not to eat meat lives in some coastal areas where they do not know meat except fish meat, and the meat of livestock is not known in those coastal areas, and he eats a traveler, for example, or a meal containing the meat of some livestock becomes available to him, does he break his oath? The custom in which he lives must be considered in this, and so on.
When some of them say that rulings differ according to time and place, this phrase should not be taken in its absolute, general, and comprehensive sense, because it necessitates the suspension of the Shari'ah in many of its texts. Rather, what is intended by it—as I mentioned to you earlier—is that the ruling changes with the change of the country; that is, the custom in what a person speaks, and not in changing the ruling of the Most Merciful (Blessed and Exalted is He). Therefore, knowing the custom in countries leads to some of the rulings of the Shari'ah, including what I mentioned earlier regarding travel and the traveler.
I recall that Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in his treatise—which is printed as "Rulings for the Traveler"—that if a man—and as you know, he was from Damascus—said: if a man left Damascus for the village of Dumayyir, Dumayyir is a village east of Damascus, about fifteen kilometers away. Why did he leave? To hunt. He did not get what he wanted from the hunt, so he walked and walked until he reached another town sixty kilometers from Damascus. He did not get what he wanted from the hunt, so he walked and walked. The point, briefly, is that he did not realize he had arrived until he reached Aleppo. Aleppo is in northern Syria, and the distance between it and Damascus is about four hundred kilometers. He says this man is not a traveler, even though he covered, by consensus, distances for a traveler, not just one distance. But this man did not leave as a traveler; he left as a hunter. Therefore, these meanings must be considered. And on this basis, it is established in a very strong and dominant manner that travel does not have a limited limit and a cut-off distance in kilometers, but rather it is referred to custom, as we mentioned earlier.
Please.
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : Regarding the distance.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : We understand from this that...
The Shaykh : Yes, regarding travel, as we mentioned, it does not have a fixed distance measured in stages or kilometers. This means the matter is left to the custom of each town. If a person leaves—for I asked some of them this question—if a person leaves Makkah for Jeddah, do they generally say in their custom: "We traveled," or "We went out," or "We went"? If the common usage among them is to say "we went out" or "we went" and not "we traveled," then this custom is the judge in the issue. If the one coming from Makkah to Jeddah is not considered a traveler, or the one going from here to Makkah is not considered a traveler, then he is not permitted to shorten the prayer, and he is not granted the dispensation to combine prayers except within the limits known for a resident. This is the best that has been said on the subject of the traveler: that it is what is known as travel, as we illustrated earlier with the sick person;
So whoever among you is ill or on a journey [during them] - then an equal number of days [are to be made up]
فمن كان منكم مريضًا أو على سفر فعدة من أيام أخرIt is necessary to consider the general custom among people in many rulings. The jurists mention in the chapter of oaths some rulings: if a man swears an oath not to eat meat and then eats fish, does he break his oath or not? There is no doubt that fish is meat by the explicit text of the Qur'an, and it is tender meat. However, if in the custom of the speakers in a certain town, when meat is mentioned, it does not come to their minds that it includes fish meat, but rather includes the meat of livestock with which they live, then if he eats fish, he does not break his oath. And conversely, if the one who swore not to eat meat lives in some coastal areas where they do not know meat except fish meat, and the meat of livestock is not known in those coastal areas, and he eats a traveler, for example, or a meal containing the meat of some livestock becomes available to him, does he break his oath? The custom in which he lives must be considered in this, and so on.
When some of them say that rulings differ according to time and place, this phrase should not be taken in its absolute, general, and comprehensive sense, because it necessitates the suspension of the Shari'ah in many of its texts. Rather, what is intended by it—as I mentioned to you earlier—is that the ruling changes with the change of the country; that is, the custom in what a person speaks, and not in changing the ruling of the Most Merciful (Blessed and Exalted is He). Therefore, knowing the custom in countries leads to some of the rulings of the Shari'ah, including what I mentioned earlier regarding travel and the traveler.
I recall that Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in his treatise—which is printed as "Rulings for the Traveler"—that if a man—and as you know, he was from Damascus—said: if a man left Damascus for the village of Dumayyir, Dumayyir is a village east of Damascus, about fifteen kilometers away. Why did he leave? To hunt. He did not get what he wanted from the hunt, so he walked and walked until he reached another town sixty kilometers from Damascus. He did not get what he wanted from the hunt, so he walked and walked. The point, briefly, is that he did not realize he had arrived until he reached Aleppo. Aleppo is in northern Syria, and the distance between it and Damascus is about four hundred kilometers. He says this man is not a traveler, even though he covered, by consensus, distances for a traveler, not just one distance. But this man did not leave as a traveler; he left as a hunter. Therefore, these meanings must be considered. And on this basis, it is established in a very strong and dominant manner that travel does not have a limited limit and a cut-off distance in kilometers, but rather it is referred to custom, as we mentioned earlier.
Please.
Source
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