Q646 :Our water desalination plant is about 140 km
from Jeddah on the Gizan Road. More than half of its staff netes daily
from Jeddah. People have expressed different viewpoints on whether to
shorten their prayers when they are at the plant and whether to netbine
Zuhr and Asr together. Please explain.
A646 : Although fast cars could cover the distance
between Jeddah and this place in little over an hour, still the
distance is a bona-fide travel which means that the concessions given
to travelers apply to people who travel there from Jeddah, whether
daily or occasionally. When we consider a concession given by God, we
must remember that this is something that He has granted in order to
make things easier for people when certain elements or factors apply to
them. Going from Jeddah to this desalination plant at Shoaiba
qualifies as travel even by our modern standards and fast means of
transport. A daily trip is no less valid for the exercise of a
concession than a weekly or a monthly one. If we take the distance,
then it is longer by at least 50 km than the distances scholars have
mentioned as the minimum amount of travel. However, some scholars are
of the view that the distance is immaterial, but the actual travel is
the thing that counts. They say that any trip that people consider as
travel qualifies for the exercise of the relative concessions. Before
the introduction of the modern means of transport, a trip of 20 or 25
km qualified as travel, if it was between two villages or two towns.
Covering a similar distance may not be considered as travel if it
involves going from one end of the city to another. This opinion has
considerable validity. Any person who travels daily from Jeddah to
this desalination plant is considered a traveler. He may exercise all
the concessions that travelers have. With regard to prayer, one
concession that all schools of thought approve is the shortening of
every obligatory prayer consisting of four rak’ahs to two rak’ahs only.
The concession of netbining the two prayers of Zuhr and Asr or the two
evening ones of Maghrib and Isha is also approved by most schools of
thought. Some say that it is applicable when needed, while others say
that it applies all the time [during travel]. Whichever view you take
will have its valid evidence.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )