A woman who prays the regular voluntary prayers and praises Allah, but in winter she combines the midday and afternoon prayers because she is an employee and cannot perform her prayer at her workplace

The questioner : She mentions that she prays the regular voluntary prayers and praises Allah for that, and says: "But my problem is in the winter season; I pray the midday prayer with the afternoon prayer because I am an employee and I cannot perform the prayer at my workplace. Also, I cannot go to my house to pray because of the distance. So the midday and afternoon prayers fall within a close time period due to the shortness of the winter day. How should I pray the regular voluntary prayers for the midday and afternoon? Do I combine them before the obligatory prayer, or what? Please guide us. May Allah reward you with good."

The Shaykh : I say that the time for the midday prayer extends until the time for the afternoon prayer enters, so there is no time gap between them; rather, when this one ends, that one begins. When this is known, it becomes clear that if a person prays the midday prayer at the end of its time, close to the afternoon prayer, he is not combining them; rather, he is praying the midday prayer in its time and the afternoon prayer in its time. In that case, we tell him: If you have prayed the midday prayer, pray the regular voluntary prayer after it before you pray the afternoon prayer.
But suppose a person cannot pray the midday prayer until after the time for the afternoon prayer has entered, and he needs to combine it with the afternoon prayer, then there is no blame on him for combining it with the afternoon prayer, for what is established in Sahih Muslim from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father): They asked: "What was his intention in doing that?" He said: "He intended not to cause hardship for his Ummah." That is, not to subject them to hardship and difficulty.
It is derived from this hadith that combining prayers is permissible if leaving it off causes hardship and difficulty. This principle falls within the general meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: So let this questioner look to see if she can reach her house before the time for the afternoon prayer enters; in that case, she prays the midday prayer in its time and does not need to combine. Or if she does not reach her house until after the time for the afternoon prayer has entered, then she intends to combine, and when she reaches her house, she combines the midday and afternoon prayers. She prays the regular voluntary prayer for the midday between the midday and afternoon prayers if she wishes, because separating the two groups does not harm if the combining is a combining of delay.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.