This, however, is incorrect. Had he combined the prayers because of travel, he would have combined them both before and after that day. He remained at Minā during the Days of Tashrīq but did not combine the prayers there. Indeed, it has not been reported that he ever combined prayers while encamped during a journey except on one occasion. Rather, he would combine them during a journey when he was pressing onward. He combined them for reasons such as the standing at Arafah, so that the standing would not be interrupted by prayer or anything else. Ahmad likewise stated that combining prayers is permissible because of an absorbing duty of this kind that prevents the prayers from being performed separately.

Any of Ahmad’s followers who stipulates travel as a condition for combining the prayers in this instance is less consistent with Ahmad’s principles than the followers of al-Shāfiī are with theirs. Ahmad permits combining prayers for many reasons other than travel. Indeed, al-Qādī Abū Yalā and others explained Ahmad’s statement as meaning that prayers may be combined for any circumstance that permits one to miss the congregational prayer. Combining prayers is therefore not exclusive to travel. This is unlike shortening the prayer, which is prescribed only for a traveler.

[SHORTENING THE PRAYER AT ARAFAH, MUZDALIFAH, AND MINĀ, AND DURING THE DAYS OF TASHRĪQ]

For this reason, most jurists, including al-Shāfiī and Ahmad, held that the prayer at Arafah, Muzdalifah, and Minā, and during the Days of Tashrīq, may be shortened only by a traveler who, according to them, is permitted to shorten it. In this, they consistently applied analogical reasoning and held that shortening was prescribed only because of travel, unlike combining prayers. Ahmad and others even directed that the governor of Mecca should not preside over the pilgrimage, in order that the prayer might be shortened.

Other groups of scholars from Medina and elsewhere—including Mālik and a group of the followers of al-Shāfiī and Ahmad, such as Abū al-Khattāb in his five sections on worship—held that the Meccans and others may shorten their prayers, and that shortening them there is due to the pilgrimage rites.

The evidence supports this latter group: it has not been established that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) instructed the Meccans who prayed behind him at Arafah, Muzdalifah, and Minā to complete their prayers, as he instructed them