Fifteenth: Travel concessions

Among the maxims of the Sacred Law is the principle: “Hardship engenders facilitation.” (1) Since travel is, as the Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) described it, “a fragment of torment: it prevents one of you from his food, drink, and sleep; so when he has achieved his purpose, let him hasten back to his family,” (2) the Lawgiver has instituted a series of dispensations for the traveller. These concessions remain valid even were travel hypothetically free of hardship, because legal rulings are tied to their general underlying causes; if the cause is absent in certain cases or individuals, the single instance is still subsumed under the broader rule and is not assigned a separate judgment. This is what the jurists mean when they say, “What occurs rarely carries no independent ruling,” i.e., it neither overturns the principle nor differs from its ruling. This foundational point must be kept in view.

The greatest and most urgently needed concessions granted to the traveller are the following:

1. Shortening the four-cycle prayers. No reason other than travel permits shortening, which is why the act is invariably linked to travel and remains exclusive to it,