What is your opinion regarding one who travels to Riyadh and returns on the same day by car or plane and does not need provisions? Is he considered a traveler?
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The questioner : Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
The questioner : Your Eminence, last week one of the brothers asked: I go seventy kilometers and return, so do I have to shorten the prayer or not?
So I issued a ruling to him that he does not have to shorten the prayer, because he does not need provisions or food. So what is your opinion today regarding a person who can go to Riyadh or Dammam and return in one day without needing provisions, whether by car or by plane? I ask for detail to avoid confusion, and may Allah reward you with good?
The Shaykh : The criterion is custom, not the town. The custom is that one who goes seventy kilometers and returns on the same day does not prepare for it as for a journey. But one who goes to Riyadh or to Makkah from Qasim, the custom is that he prepares for it. This is the custom: they pack their bags and bring provisions and water and dates. But the fact that it is now by plane is not the criterion. The criterion is what people were doing in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which is that for such a journey they prepare. Now, perhaps a person goes to a place farther than Riyadh, to distant markets, with only money, and finds food there in front of him in hotels and elsewhere, and does not carry it. But the criterion is the former. In the past, when people went to a nearby place, seventy kilometers for example, and returned on the same day, they did not prepare for this thing, and it is not said that so-and-so is a traveler. But if he wants to travel to another place, or to seventy kilometers and stay two or three days, then he prepares for that.
So the issue, in reality, as you have just heard from me, is the opinion of some scholars. Some scholars say: the distance for shortening is limited and does not return to custom. If one reaches eighty-one kilometers or a little more, then this is the distance for shortening. And if it is less than that, it is not the distance for shortening. But there is no evidence for this. For this reason, the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) rejected it and said: "The criterion is what is called a journey".
Now, for example, if a person goes to Riyadh in the morning and returns in the afternoon, people say that he is a traveler. But if he was on camels, would they say that or not?
They would say it, and people now call him a traveler. But if he went, as I said, from Unaizah to al-Ras and returned on the same day, people would not say: this is a traveler.
The questioner : Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
The questioner : Your Eminence, there are some Muslims, owners of sins, whom we visit with the intention of calling to Allah the Mighty and Majestic. But these people do not attend gatherings of dhikr and are far from Allah the Mighty and Majestic. We find some wrongdoings with them, and sometimes, meaning, they test us, it might be a song on the television or something, meaning a long song. We do not speak; we came to their homes, and we try to win their hearts at the beginning, meaning multiple visits. And we have found, according to experience, that if we start with forbidding the wrong, they are startled by us and do not sit with us. But by the grace of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, we have started to be patient with some of them, but we are patient with difficulty. Sometimes you hear the wrongdoings, but some of the brothers forbid the wrong, saying: You must forbid the wrong. So do we forbid the wrong directly?
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
The questioner : Your Eminence, last week one of the brothers asked: I go seventy kilometers and return, so do I have to shorten the prayer or not?
So I issued a ruling to him that he does not have to shorten the prayer, because he does not need provisions or food. So what is your opinion today regarding a person who can go to Riyadh or Dammam and return in one day without needing provisions, whether by car or by plane? I ask for detail to avoid confusion, and may Allah reward you with good?
The Shaykh : The criterion is custom, not the town. The custom is that one who goes seventy kilometers and returns on the same day does not prepare for it as for a journey. But one who goes to Riyadh or to Makkah from Qasim, the custom is that he prepares for it. This is the custom: they pack their bags and bring provisions and water and dates. But the fact that it is now by plane is not the criterion. The criterion is what people were doing in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which is that for such a journey they prepare. Now, perhaps a person goes to a place farther than Riyadh, to distant markets, with only money, and finds food there in front of him in hotels and elsewhere, and does not carry it. But the criterion is the former. In the past, when people went to a nearby place, seventy kilometers for example, and returned on the same day, they did not prepare for this thing, and it is not said that so-and-so is a traveler. But if he wants to travel to another place, or to seventy kilometers and stay two or three days, then he prepares for that.
So the issue, in reality, as you have just heard from me, is the opinion of some scholars. Some scholars say: the distance for shortening is limited and does not return to custom. If one reaches eighty-one kilometers or a little more, then this is the distance for shortening. And if it is less than that, it is not the distance for shortening. But there is no evidence for this. For this reason, the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) rejected it and said: "The criterion is what is called a journey".
Now, for example, if a person goes to Riyadh in the morning and returns in the afternoon, people say that he is a traveler. But if he was on camels, would they say that or not?
They would say it, and people now call him a traveler. But if he went, as I said, from Unaizah to al-Ras and returned on the same day, people would not say: this is a traveler.
The questioner : Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
The questioner : Your Eminence, there are some Muslims, owners of sins, whom we visit with the intention of calling to Allah the Mighty and Majestic. But these people do not attend gatherings of dhikr and are far from Allah the Mighty and Majestic. We find some wrongdoings with them, and sometimes, meaning, they test us, it might be a song on the television or something, meaning a long song. We do not speak; we came to their homes, and we try to win their hearts at the beginning, meaning multiple visits. And we have found, according to experience, that if we start with forbidding the wrong, they are startled by us and do not sit with us. But by the grace of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, we have started to be patient with some of them, but we are patient with difficulty. Sometimes you hear the wrongdoings, but some of the brothers forbid the wrong, saying: You must forbid the wrong. So do we forbid the wrong directly?