—he led them at Dhul-Ḥulayfah in two units (rakʿahs) and did not instruct them to formulate an intention to shorten. (1)
His Eminence, our Shaykh, Imām ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Bāz (may Allah have mercy on him), also said: “... The preponderant view is that intention is not a condition at the commencement of the first prayer; rather, one may decide to combine after finishing the first prayer whenever its justification—fear, rain, or illness—is present.” (2)
It therefore becomes clear that the sounder of the two scholarly positions is that intention is not a prerequisite at the start of the prayer, whether for shortening or for combining. (3)
As for maintaining immediate succession (muwālāt) between the two prayers that are combined, some scholars regarded it as obligatory, whereas Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) and the learned scholar al-Saʿdī held that such succession is not a condition. (4)