his horse, to allow it to rest, and would mount another horse for another half-day’s journey. After travelling for half a day, he would find another resting place with horses; he would dismount from the horse he had been riding and mount another, and so on, because this was faster. On the return journey, the process would be reversed.
Thus, in their terminology, a barid was a half-day’s journey; four burud therefore amounted to two days’ travel. In terms of distance, they estimated one barid at four farsakhs; thus, four burud amounted to sixteen farsakhs. They estimated each farsakh at three miles, making forty-eight miles. This, then, is the distance at which prayer may be shortened: it is defined by distance. The commonly known mile is equivalent to one kilometre and six hundred metres.
As for time, they said that it is a journey of two moderate days by laden camels.
“Moderate” means that a person does not travel continuously through both night and day, nor does he make frequent stops and extended stays. Rather, it is two moderate days.
His statement, “four burud,” entails that anything less than this—even by a single handspan—does not permit the shortening of prayer. Whatever reaches this distance, however, is a journey in which prayer may be shortened and the traveller may avail himself of its concessions, even if he covers it in half an hour or less, and even if he returns within that same hour. This is the view held by most scholars.
The sound view, however, is that travel has no fixed distance, because, as the author of al-Mughni said: “Defining it requires textual evidence. Those who have set such limits have no proof for what they have adopted; the statements of the Companions are conflicting and varied, and where there is disagreement, they cannot serve as proof. Moreover, setting a fixed measure conflicts with the Sunnah of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and the apparent meaning of the Quran. Since such specification is a matter that depends upon revealed evidence, it is not permissible to adopt it on the basis of opinion