Section: Combining the Prayers

When one is on a journey that permits shortening the four-rakʿah prayers, he may also combine Dhuhr with ʿAsr and Maghrib with ʿIshāʾ, offering them in the time of either prayer.1

A resident who is ill and would face hardship if he did not combine,2 a nursing mother because of the difficulty of frequent impurity,3 a person unable to remain ritually pure for every prayer, or anyone with an excuse or occupation that legally exempts him from the Friday and congregational prayers, may likewise combine.

The weather-related concession applies only to combining Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ,4 even if he is praying in his own house,5 whenever there is snow, ice, deep mud, a bitterly cold wind, or rain that drenches the clothes—provided that genuine hardship exists.6

It is preferable for him to take whichever of the two options—combining early or combining late—is easier.7

If he combines by advancing the second prayer (jamʿ taqdīm), the following conditions must be met: he intends to combine when pronouncing the opening takbīr of the first prayer; he does not separate the two prayers with anything like a supererogatory prayer, but only with the brief interval required for the iqāmah and a light ablution; the excuse is present at the start of both prayers and remains until he finishes the second.

If he combines by delaying the first prayer to the time of the second (jamʿ taʾkhīr), it is required8 that he intend the combination during the time of the first prayer before that time becomes too narrow.