When is a Bedouin considered a traveler?

The questioner : We are Bedouins, and sometimes we need to move from one place to a distance of two hundred or three hundred kilometers. We search for the dawn and we stop for the afternoon prayer, and our livestock and our families are with us. I seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him; do I shorten the prayer?

The Shaykh : Yes, you must shorten it, and you have to do so until you settle down.

The questioner : I advise those with me to shorten the prayer, but there are people who oppose me.

The Shaykh : Why do they oppose you?

The questioner : Allah is the Greatest. Their opposition exists. The second thing is that if I am in Ramadan and I break my fast, and my wife is with me, do I have to feed her?

The Shaykh : We tell you, may it be good and easy for you. The Bedouin who travels this distance is a traveler until he departs and until he stops. If he settles, he prays the prayer of a resident. As for the time between his previous home and his next home, he is a traveler because he does not know when he will find a suitable place to settle. He follows the grass and follows the greenery, and so on. As long as he is a traveler moving from one home to another, he is undoubtedly a traveler. But when he reaches a place and stops there, and he likes the place, he prays the prayer of a resident until he renews his journey and move, and so on.