while at home, then it is all the more permissible on a short journey. If, however, it is prohibited while at home, then distinguishing it from shortening prayers and breaking the fast requires evidence.

The Second Issue:
The extent of the journey upon which the Lawgiver has made permission to break the fast and shorten prayers dependent.

There has been considerable disagreement over this. Some have said three days; others, two days at a moderate pace; and others, less than that—even as little as one mile.

Among those who defined it by distance, some specified forty-eight miles; others, forty-six, forty-five, or forty. These are views reported from Mālik. Abū Muhammad al-Maqdisī said: “I know of no basis for the position adopted by the imams.” It is just as he said—may Allah have mercy on him—for fixing such a limit is not established by any scriptural text, consensus, or analogy.

Most of these scholars distinguish between long and short journeys, making this the threshold for a long journey. Others do not call anything a journey unless it reaches this threshold, and do not regard anything shorter as a journey.

Those who specified three days cited his statement:

“A traveller may wipe over his footwear for three days and their nights.”

Yet it is authentically reported from him in the two Sahīhs that he said:

“A woman must not travel a journey of three days unless accompanied by a mahram (a male relative whom she is permanently forbidden to marry).”

It is also authentically reported from him in the two Sahīhs that he