[Some of the Shaykh’s Preferred Legal Positions] (1)
After the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—returned from Egypt to Damascus and took up residence there, he remained constantly devoted to teaching and study (2), disseminating knowledge, authoring books, issuing legal opinions to the public both verbally and through detailed written responses, benefiting Allah’s servants, showing kindness to them, and exerting himself in matters of the sacred law.
In a number of rulings his fatwas, based on his own independent reasoning, concurred with those of the four imams; in others he issued verdicts at variance with them, or with what is most widely reported from their schools.
Among the positions in which he differed from them, or from their well-known opinions, are the following:
– His view that the prayer may be shortened in every circumstance that is termed a journey, whether the distance be long or short—an opinion held by the Ẓāhirī school and by some of the Companions (3).