Answered by: Alimah Sofia Mirza
Question:
Assalāmu’alaikum, mufti Saab. I was just wondering if the qasr salah was created because in the prophet’s time people would travel for long times with camels and doing the qasr salah made it easy for them, but nowadays people have cars and trains so is not tiring to travel so it is still necessary to pray the qasr
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Answer:
The concession of doing qasr of prayer is a mercy from Allah to make it easier as travelling does not have the same comfort as being at home, the command in the Quran “And when you travel in the earth, there is no sin on you in shortening your Salah if you fear that the disbelievers would put you in trouble. Surely, the disbelievers are an open enemy for you. [101], the commentators have mentioned that qasr is not restricted to fear of the enemy or other difficulties, if you do not face these obstacles, it will still be permissible to perform the prayer with qasr.1The qasr is to make life easy for Muslims during travel and the Prophet himself used to practice it most of the time2, hence regardless of our mode of travel we should also do qasr.
Only Allah knows best
Written by Alimah Sofia Mirza
Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah
Darul Ifta Birmingham
1Maariful Quran, Darul Uloom Karachi, Vol 2, Pg.560.
2 Badaai Sanaai, Darul Kutub al Ilmiyyah, Vol 1, Pg.92
وَلَوْ كَانَ الْقَصْرُ رُخْصَةً وَالْإِكْمَالُ هُوَ الْعَزِيمَةُ لَمَا تَرَكَ الْعَزِيمَةَ إلَّا أَحْيَانًا، إذْ الْعَزِيمَةُ أَفْضَلُ وَكَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ – صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ – لَا يَخْتَارُ مِنْ الْأَعْمَالِ إلَّا أَفْضَلَهَا وَكَانَ لَا يَتْرُكُ الْأَفْضَلَ إلَّا مَرَّةً أَوْ مَرَّتَيْنِ تَعْلِيمًا لِلرُّخْصَةِ فِي حَقِّ الْأُمَّةِ