Assalaamu’alaikum,
I wanted your view point on this issue of joining two prayers/shortening (2 fard rakaats) them during travel.
The case was my flight was @ 7:30pm in the evening and Asr is around 3:55pm approx, so the moulana (shafi fiqh) that was heading out kafilah/tour, joined Maghraib & Isha which is scheduled @6:30pm, with Isha being at its normal time and reduced Isha from four rakat fard to two rakat fard.
(Note: All time quoted is Makkah time)
Return flight was from Madinah to Sharjah/UAE
So is he right in doing so, as we would reach home/land around 11:30pm at night? UAE time.
He also did the same when we where travelling from Mecca to Medina, which is apart by 400+ KM, where he joined/shortened Zohar & Asr together? Some among us followed, some said its wrong and prayed separately, what is our position as hanfiya?
The same situation was encountered when we where departing from UAE to Saudi Arabia, where Maghraib and Isha where joined together.
Can you advise us the basic fiqh of this issue? As per the hanafi school
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Walaikumussalam w w
This is called practicing upon another maz’hab.
This can only be permitted in extreme circumstances. Shaami has written that if someone does practice upon another mujtahid’s research, he has to fully abide by that maz’hab.
This is why we only permit this while travelling by air and when there is risk of Salah getting Qaza and where it would be impossible to pray on the plane with Ruku’ Sajdah.
In your case, when you were going to reach your destination during isha time you should not have combined them, so you did the right thing.
Similarly from Makkah to Madinah is a by road journey, do there was no necessity for combining.
Quran said:
ان الصلوة كانت علي المومنين كتابا موقوتا
“Surely Salah has been prescribed to the believers at fixed times”
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said “Whosoever combines 2 Salah without a genuine reason, then he has approached a gate from the gates of major sins” ( Fadhaail Salah by shaykh Zakariya)
Imam shafi’ee and others have classed safar as a genuine reason but in fiqhe hanafi the combining mentioned in those ahaadeeth is only soori, not haqeeqi, which means in form not in reality. This means that the Zuhr was delayed until closing time and asr was brought forward to the beginning time. So it appeared as though they were combined but in reality they were performed in their own times.
For more details please listen to the following video: