What is the distance at which the prayer is shortened during travel?

The questioner: ... travel.

The Shaykh: ... travel?

The questioner: ... and does it mean ... .

The Shaykh: You are asking about shortening the prayer during travel; is it the default ruling or a dispensation?

The questioner: With the specification of the distance.

The Shaykh : With what?

The questioner: Specifying the distance.

The Shaykh: As for specifying the distance, no specification has come in the Shari'ah for the travel that entails the rulings of the traveler. Rather, the apparent meaning of the texts in which travel is mentioned is that it is mentioned absolutely, free from any restriction, just as illness is mentioned in relation to the fasting person. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: . Just as He used the word "illness" absolutely in , so He used the word "travel" absolutely for the one who is a traveler: . This absoluteness means that any travel in which a Muslim engages entails the rulings of travel, such as the permissibility of breaking the fast in the month of Ramadan, the permissibility of combining the two prayers, and the obligation of shortening the prayer. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) did not specify a duration for travel, just as He did not specify one for the sick person. It is self-evident that any sick person in Ramadan who wants to benefit from the dispensation that our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) has provided for His believing servants in this verse does not need to obtain a certificate (dispensation) from any doctor to say to him: "You are sick; so it is permissible for you to break the fast," or "You are not sick; so it is forbidden for you to break the fast."
So who issues the ruling for him? Who says to him that it is permissible or not permissible? It is he himself; because the sick person knows his own condition better, knows that he is sick better than any doctor who examines him, no matter how precise the examination is. So when our Lord said: ; does this mean a specific illness, severe or mild, apparent to the eye or hidden, which only that person sees and feels? He (the Exalted) said: . So every sick person has the dispensation to break the fast, and every traveler likewise has this dispensation and the other rulings we mentioned. This is the position that became stronger after much, much, very much disagreement regarding specifying the distance for shortening the prayer. Then I add to this absoluteness derived from the Noble Qur'an and the hadiths reported from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that he used to shorten the prayer when he traveled. What came in some authentic hadiths that he shortened the prayer at a distance of so many farsakhs, for example, does not mean restricting travel to that distance; because that is a specific incident with no generality. If it had happened to him (peace and blessings be upon him) that he shortened the prayer at a distance less than that by a quarter of a farsakh, for example, would he not be a traveler? So travel is not measured by farsakhs, meters, or kilometers; because it is a religious obligation that conflicts with the ease and facilitation of Islam in its rulings.
If a man leaves his town to go to a direction in a village or in some desert, and it were said that he must know the distance because travel is restricted to a known distance, then the Shari'ah would have burdened people with what they are unable to bear. And this is negated, praise be to Allah, from His believing servants, as is known from His saying (the Exalted): to the end of the verses. For every person to know the distance between him and his destination or the place where he intends to stay; this cannot be realized by a person, even if he has a special culture of knowing road distances, unless he had previously studied the distance between this town and all the towns surrounding him. And this is not something that very, very few individuals can do. This issue resembles another issue, but it differs from this one completely. That is because the scholars have mentioned, despite their differences, a distance for travel, between the one who says three days and nights like the Hanafi school, and the one who says one day and night like the Shafi'i school. As for the following issue, for which I will give an example that clarifies our issue here; it is the large amount of water that does not become ritually impure when impurity falls into it. What is this large amount of water? There are known opinions, but what concerns me is the opinion of the Hanafis: "The large amount of water is what is in a pool with an area of ten by ten." Who is able, if he stands by a lake in a place with water, to say that this is ten by ten, and that it does not decrease by a cubit? This is not something that anyone but the fewest of people can do, especially if that place does not form a square shape so that one can say: this is a polygon ten by ten; for example, if it is circular (a circular lake). You know by observation when it rains heavily, that pools gather in various places. These pools are not in a geometric shape; that is, a square where each side is ten meters, but they may form something like a circle, or something like opposing curved arcs, or something inside and something outside, and so on. Who is able, if he stands before this water, to say this is ten by ten? Leave aside some artificial lakes made with geometric precision if they are octagonal or hexagonal; surely this requires a skilled, qualified engineer to estimate whether this is ten by ten? It is not reasonable that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) would burden His servants with such obligations. Therefore, the correct school of thought is what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made absolute in his saying: . So as long as you see it as water, it is pure and purifying. And as long as you see, on the contrary, that its color, taste, or smell has changed due to an impurity that fell into it, it has exited from being that pure, purifying water. Thus, Islam is a religion that is easy and practical, such that the Bedouin who has no culture can respond to its rulings due to their ease. Whereas if we look at what some scholars exerted effort in and brought restrictions that are not established in the Sunnah, as we were just speaking about regarding travel, then that is among the proofs that these restrictions are merely juristic efforts, and conditions that do not bind the one obligated. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: . So when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: , did we become travelers? Did we engage in the rulings of travelers? And so came His saying (the Exalted) in the Noble Qur'an: , is like His saying: , because traveling in the earth is a euphemism for travel. So just as He made it absolute there with , He made it absolute here as well with traveling in the earth, and did not restrict it with any of those long or short restrictions. This is what is stronger from the many opinions that were said regarding travel, and it is what is consistent and appropriate with the ease and leniency of Islam.