Question: Does the permissibility of combining prayers necessarily entail the permissibility of shortening them?

Answer: No. Combining may be permissible while shortening is not; and shortening may be permissible while combining is not, according to the view of those who hold that combining is not permissible for a traveller who has stopped at a place. Thus, there is no necessary connection between the two.

“Even if he prays in his home, or in a mosque whose route lies beneath a covered passage.”

His statement, “Even if he prays in his home, or in a mosque whose route lies beneath a covered passage,” means that it is permissible to combine the two night prayers because of rain, even if one prays at home or in a mosque reached by a covered route.

The word “even if” here indicates a point of scholarly disagreement: some scholars held that if a person prays in his home, he may not combine because of rain; likewise, if the route to the mosque lies beneath a covered passage.

A covered passage is a roofed structure. That is, if the street or market leading to the mosque is roofed over by such a structure, he may not combine, because going to the mosque involves no hardship for him.

The stronger view is that he may combine even if his route to the mosque lies beneath a covered passage, because he benefits by praying in congregation. As for praying at home, this has several cases:

The first is when he has an excuse for not attending the congregational prayer, such as illness, rain, or the like. The apparent meaning of the author’s words is that combining is permissible for him.

The second is when he prays at home without an excuse. The apparent meaning of the author’s words is that this case is like the first.

The third is when he is not among those called upon to attend the congregational prayer, such as a woman. It is possible that the author’s words include her, and it is possible that they do not.