As for their opponent’s appeal to his saying:

“When a servant falls ill or travels, he is credited with the deeds he used to perform while healthy and not travelling.”

Their response is that this hadith indicates that he is credited with the same reward he used to receive when healthy and not travelling, because he intends to perform those deeds but is prevented by a valid excuse. This is a “principle of the Sharia”: whoever firmly resolves to perform a deed and does whatever he can of it is counted as one who performs it. Thus, someone who regularly performed a deed while healthy and not travelling, remains resolved to perform it, and does whatever he can during illness or travel is counted as one who performs it.

Likewise, the Sunan collections relate that someone who purifies himself at home, then goes to the mosque to catch the congregational prayer but finds that he has missed it, is credited with the reward of praying in congregation. It is also established in the Sahīh that he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“There are men in Medina who have been with you on every journey you have made and in every valley you have crossed.” They asked, “Even though they are in Medina?” He replied, “Even though they are in Medina; a valid excuse has held them back.”

Allah Most High also says:

“Those believers who remain behind—other than those with disabilities—are not equal to those who strive in Allah’s cause with their wealth and their lives,” to the end of the verse.

This and similar evidence make clear that someone with a valid excuse is credited with the same reward as a healthy person if he intends to perform the deed and has done whatever he can. This does not mean that his deed itself is equivalent to that of a healthy person. The hadith does not state that a sick person’s prayer is, in itself, equal in reward to a healthy person’s prayer, nor that the prayer of someone praying alone with a valid excuse is, in itself, equivalent to a man’s prayer in congregation.