The Book of Prayer - Travellers

Sahih Muslim 705 b

Hadith Text

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) observed the noon and afternoon prayers together in Medina without being in a state of fear or in a state of journey. (Abu Zubair said: I asked Sa'id [one of the narrators] why he did that. He said: I asked Ibn 'Abbas as you have asked me, and he replied that he [the Holy Prophet] wanted that no one among his Ummah should be put to [unnecessary] hardship.)

Commentary

This hadith demonstrates the principle of removing hardship (raf' al-haraj) from the Muslim community. The Prophet's action, while not establishing a permanent practice, serves as a legal precedent for combining prayers under legitimate circumstances beyond travel and fear.

Ibn 'Abbas's explanation reveals the wisdom behind this action: to prevent undue difficulty for the Ummah. Scholars have derived from this that combining prayers is permissible during rain, illness, or other genuine needs that would cause hardship in performing each prayer at its prescribed time.

This ruling exemplifies the flexibility and mercy inherent in Islamic law, showing that the religion was revealed to accommodate human needs while maintaining the obligation of prayer.

Legal Ruling

The majority of scholars permit combining prayers (jam' al-salat) for travelers and in cases of genuine need, based on this and similar authentic narrations. The Hanafi school maintains a more restrictive view, while the Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali schools allow combining under broader circumstances.