When do the dispensations of travel end? Is it upon entering the city?

The questioner : Your Eminence, if a person is traveling and then approaches his city and wants to combine and shorten, for example, the midday and afternoon prayers, but he expects in his mind that he will reach his city before the time of the afternoon prayer, and then he comes and sleeps and leaves the afternoon prayer?

The Shaykh : But he may have prayed it?

The questioner : He prayed it with the midday prayer. Is it permissible for him to pray it with the midday prayer?

The Shaykh : Yes, I say: As long as the person has not reached his city and has not actually entered the city, he has the right to avail himself of the dispensations of travel, such as combining and shortening. For this reason, the Commander of the Faithful, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), when he was approaching Kufa, prayed two rak'ahs. They said to him: It is permissible for a person to avail himself of all the dispensations of travel until he enters the city. If he prayed the afternoon prayer with the midday prayer and entered the city before the time of the afternoon prayer, he may sleep and there is no blame on him, because he has cleared his conscience by praying it at its proper time.