any hardship, which Allah has removed from the ummah. This, a fortiori, proves the permissibility of combining for an ill person whose hardship would be aggravated by separating the prayers.

He also said: “The sick may combine, as the Sunnah affirms in the case of the woman suffering from chronic post-menstrual bleeding (mustahādah), for the Prophet ﷺ instructed her to combine in two hadiths. Combination is likewise allowed for anyone who cannot maintain ritual purity for every individual prayer—such as one with urinary incontinence, a wound that will not stop bleeding, or a persistent nosebleed—by analogy with the mustahādah. The Prophet ﷺ said to Hamnah when she sought his ruling on istihādah: ‘If you are able to delay Zuhr and bring ʿAsr forward, then bathe and pray Zuhr and ʿAsr together; then delay Maghrib and bring ʿIshāʾ forward, then bathe again and combine the two prayers—then do so.’ This was narrated by Ahmad, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Tirmidhī, who graded it authentic.”

It is likewise permissible to combine Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ specifically when rain is falling that drenches the clothes and entails hardship, for the Prophet ﷺ combined these two prayers on a rainy night, and Abū Bakr and ʿUmar did the same.