The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) combined in the expedition to Tabuk the noon prayer with the afternoon prayer and the sunset prayer with the 'Isha' prayer. He (one of the narrators) said: What prompted him to do that? He (Mu'adh) replied that he (the Holy Prophet) wanted that his Ummah should not be put to (unnecessary) hardship.
The Book of Prayer - Travellers
Sahih Muslim 706 b
Hadith Text
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) combined in the expedition to Tabuk the noon prayer with the afternoon prayer and the sunset prayer with the 'Isha' prayer. He (one of the narrators) said: What prompted him to do that? He (Mu'adh) replied that he (the Holy Prophet) wanted that his Ummah should not be put to (unnecessary) hardship.
Scholarly Commentary
This hadith establishes the permissibility of combining prayers (jam' al-salat) during travel, which is a well-established concession in Islamic jurisprudence. The scholars have differed regarding whether this combining is limited to actual travel conditions or extends to other situations of difficulty.
The Hanafi school generally restricts combining prayers to specific circumstances like Arafat and Muzdalifah during Hajj, while the majority of scholars (Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali) permit combining during travel based on this and similar authentic narrations.
The wisdom behind this concession, as explicitly stated in the hadith, is to prevent undue hardship upon the Muslim community. This demonstrates the compassionate nature of Islamic legislation and its consideration for practical circumstances faced by believers.
The combining may be done as jam' taqdim (advancing the later prayer to the time of the earlier one) or jam' ta'khir (delaying the earlier prayer to the time of the later one), with both forms being validated by various prophetic traditions.
Legal Rulings
The minimum distance that constitutes travel (safar) for this purpose is approximately 48 miles (77 km) according to most scholars, though there are minor differences in this measurement among the schools of jurisprudence.
When combining prayers, each prayer must be performed in its proper sequence and with its full number of rak'ahs - the noon prayer (4 rak'ahs) followed by the afternoon prayer (4 rak'ahs), or the sunset prayer (3 rak'ahs) followed by the night prayer (4 rak'ahs).
This concession remains valid throughout the journey until the traveler returns to their place of residence or intends to stay in a place for four days or more, according to the predominant opinion.