he would say, “O people of Mecca, complete your prayer, for we are travellers.” ⦗1⦘
From this it is clear that when a resident performs an obligatory prayer—such as Dhuhr, ʿAsr, or ʿIshāʾ—behind a traveller, he must complete the prayer as four rakʿahs. If, however, the resident has already offered that obligatory prayer and joins the traveller’s congregation only for the merit of praying in company, he prays two rakʿahs, matching the traveller, because for him it counts as a voluntary prayer. ⦗2⦘
If a traveller leads residents and, instead of shortening, completes the prayer with them, their prayer is valid and complete, but he has acted contrary to what is preferable. ⦗3⦘
Thirteenth: The prayer of a traveller behind a resident is valid, and the traveller must perform the prayer in full just as his imam does, whether he catches the entire prayer or
(1) Malik cites the report in the Muwatta as mawquf, Book of Shortening the Prayer during Travel, chapter “The traveller’s prayer when he leads or follows an imam,” no. 19, 1/149. Al-Shawkani remarks in Nayl al-Awtar, 2/402: “The report from Umar is transmitted by narrators who are all reliable imams.”
(2) See Ibn Baz, Majmuʿ Fatawa wa Maqalat Mutanawwiʿa, 12/259–261.
(3) See Ibn Qudama, al-Mughni, 3/146; Ibn Baz, Majmuʿ Fatawa, 12/260. ʿUthman, in the final years of his caliphate, led the people in the full four-rakʿa prayer during Hajj, and it is authentically reported that ʿAʾisha completed her prayers while travelling, saying that it caused her no hardship. Thus a traveller may lawfully perform the full prayer, though the preferable practice is what the Prophet did, for he is the legislating teacher. Consult Ibn Baz, Majmuʿ Fatawa, 12/260; the hadith of ʿUthman is in Muslim, nos. 694–695.