[Chapter on Combining Two Prayers During Travel, Rain, and Illness]

Chapter

We likewise affirm what the Sunnah and transmitted reports establish concerning combining two prayers during travel, rain, and illness—as in the hadith of the woman suffering from non-menstrual bleeding—as well as for other valid excuses.

We also affirm what the Quran, Sunnah, and transmitted reports indicate: that prayer times fall into two categories—a time of choice, comprising five distinct times, and a time of necessity, comprising three. Thus, Companions such as Abd al-Rahmān ibn Awf, Ibn Abbās, and others instructed a menstruating woman who became pure before sunset to perform Dhuhr and Asr, and one who became pure before dawn to perform Maghrib and Isha. In these matters, Ahmad agrees with Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him—and goes further than him on the basis of what the transmitted reports establish. Al-Shāfiʿī—may Allah have mercy on him—does not go as far as Mālik in this regard, while Abū Hanīfa’s foundational position on combining prayers is well known.

The same applies to the preferred times of prayer. The hadith scholars generally consider it preferable to pray at the beginning of the prescribed time, except where delaying the prayer serves a weightier benefit, as established by the Sunnah. Thus, they consider it preferable to delay Dhuhr during hot weather in all circumstances, whether people are gathered together or dispersed, and to delay Isha so long as this causes no hardship.

All of this is established by authentic Sunnah texts that cannot be dismissed, and every jurist agrees with them on some or most of it.

Abū Hanīfa considers delay preferable except for Maghrib; as for al-Shāfiʿī: