Is cooling off before the Zuhr prayer a dispensation or a recommended practice?
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The questioner : Is cooling off before the Zuhr prayer...?
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed on whether this falls under the category of a dispensation or the category of a recommended practice. It was said that it is a dispensation, and if it is a dispensation, then what is more comfortable for people is preferable, whether that is cooling off or praying at the time of the sun's zenith. Therefore, we said that it is a recommended practice, absolutely, whether it is more comfortable for people or not. People today act on the basis that it is a dispensation, and that if they leave it off, they are not considered to be contradicting the Sunnah. In the present time, or rather in our era, they used to cool off before air conditioning came, before things became easy, and before people had jobs that extended past the Zuhr time. They used to cool off, but this cooling off is strange; they would delay by half an hour or twenty-five minutes, and this is not cooling off; rather, the heat increases with it. Then our Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him), 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Sa'di, would cool off until a full hour, delaying it from the time of the sun's zenith. Even so, it was not sufficient according to what the Sunnah indicates, which is that one should cool off until the weather cools and the time of 'Asr approaches. I do not know that anyone practiced this, except perhaps in the previous Salaf of the Ummah. Then the circumstances I mentioned arose, where people became tied to jobs and duties. If they cooled off, it would be a hardship for them, because a person comes from his work in a state of fatigue. So either he waits for the prayer or he prays alone. If he prays alone, he is in great lethargy. So our Shaykhs saw that the prayer should be performed at the beginning of the time, based on the fact that this is a dispensation, and that the command to cool off is for the sake of caring for the interests of creation. Yes. 'Abd al-Wahhab.
The questioner : May Allah reward you. What is the best time now to apply this recommended practice? We said that this is the recommended practice for trips, camps, and encampments, is that not so, Shaykh?
The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct. Because most trips and camps do not have work, and they also do not have the means of comfort found in cities and villages. Likewise, in the desert villages, there are no jobs, no work, and no air conditioning. So they are commanded to do this. Yes.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed on whether this falls under the category of a dispensation or the category of a recommended practice. It was said that it is a dispensation, and if it is a dispensation, then what is more comfortable for people is preferable, whether that is cooling off or praying at the time of the sun's zenith. Therefore, we said that it is a recommended practice, absolutely, whether it is more comfortable for people or not. People today act on the basis that it is a dispensation, and that if they leave it off, they are not considered to be contradicting the Sunnah. In the present time, or rather in our era, they used to cool off before air conditioning came, before things became easy, and before people had jobs that extended past the Zuhr time. They used to cool off, but this cooling off is strange; they would delay by half an hour or twenty-five minutes, and this is not cooling off; rather, the heat increases with it. Then our Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him), 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Sa'di, would cool off until a full hour, delaying it from the time of the sun's zenith. Even so, it was not sufficient according to what the Sunnah indicates, which is that one should cool off until the weather cools and the time of 'Asr approaches. I do not know that anyone practiced this, except perhaps in the previous Salaf of the Ummah. Then the circumstances I mentioned arose, where people became tied to jobs and duties. If they cooled off, it would be a hardship for them, because a person comes from his work in a state of fatigue. So either he waits for the prayer or he prays alone. If he prays alone, he is in great lethargy. So our Shaykhs saw that the prayer should be performed at the beginning of the time, based on the fact that this is a dispensation, and that the command to cool off is for the sake of caring for the interests of creation. Yes. 'Abd al-Wahhab.
The questioner : May Allah reward you. What is the best time now to apply this recommended practice? We said that this is the recommended practice for trips, camps, and encampments, is that not so, Shaykh?
The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct. Because most trips and camps do not have work, and they also do not have the means of comfort found in cities and villages. Likewise, in the desert villages, there are no jobs, no work, and no air conditioning. So they are commanded to do this. Yes.