Ruling on Combining and Shortening Prayers for Falcon Hunters in the Wilderness

Question:
The listener Fahid Hizam sent a question, saying: We are falcon hunters, and there are times when we walk for a long distance, and other times when we stay for several days. Is it permissible for us to shorten the prayer, or to combine them? Knowing that we shorten the prayer during the time we stay for several days, and my friends combine them, what is your guidance?

Answer:
If you are traveling a journey in which the prayer is shortened, meaning a long journey, eighty kilometers or around that from your town, or approximately that, then you are travelers, and you have the right to shorten and combine, unless you intend to reside in the place for more than four days with a firm intention; in that case, you complete the prayer, you pray four rak'ahs, and you do not combine.
If you intend to reside in a specific place for more than four days for the sake of hunting, but if you are not certain, you do not know whether you will stay two days, or three, or four, depending on the hunting, and you have no certainty, even if you stay for a long period, and you have no certainty, then the Sunnah is that you have the right to shorten and combine; you are at your option. If you wish, you combine, and if you wish, you leave off combining. Leaving off combining is better if you are residing with certainty. Leaving off combining is better, and praying at its proper time is better. And if you combine, there is no blame on you as long as the residence is four days or less, or not guaranteed, that you have not been certain about it, even if it is long; then you have the right to shorten and combine both.

The presenter: May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good.