Chapter: The Prayer of the Traveler
Shortening applies only to a four-rakʿah prayer performed on time during a lawful, long journey; it does not apply to a prayer that was missed while at home. If one later makes up a prayer missed during travel, the preponderant view is that he shortens it while on a journey but not when resident.
A person who sets out from a city begins his journey once he has passed beyond its wall. If there are inhabited suburbs beyond the wall, then—according to the sounder opinion—he must also pass beyond them.
I say: the sound view is that this additional requirement is not necessary, and Allah knows best.
If the city has no wall, the journey begins when one leaves the built-up area for wasteland or orchards; a village is treated like a town. For someone who lives in tents, the journey starts once he has left the encampment. On the return, his traveler status ends as soon as he reaches the point that had to be crossed when he first set out.
Should he intend, upon arrival, to stay somewhere for four days, his traveler status expires at once; according to the correct view, neither the day of arrival nor the day of departure counts among the four.
If he remains in a town intending to depart whenever a need he is expecting might arise at any moment, he may shorten for eighteen days; another opinion limits this to four days; a third allows it indefinitely. Some restrict the disagreement to one who fears combat, not to a merchant and the like. If he knows the need will last a long time, then according to the school he may not shorten.
Section
A “long journey” is forty-eight Sharʿī miles.
I say: this equals two stages at the pace of a heavily laden caravan. Sea travel is the same as land travel; thus, if he covers that distance at sea in a single hour, he still shortens—Allah knows best.
An initial intention to reach a specific destination is required; therefore a wanderer, no matter how far he roams, does not shorten, nor does one searching for a debtor or for a runaway slave whom he will bring back as soon as he finds him, without knowing where he is.
If two routes lead to his destination, one long and one short, and he chooses the longer