Muzdalifah or Minā:

“People of Mecca, complete your prayers, for we are travellers.”

It is only reported that he said this within Mecca itself, as the compilers of the Sunan collections narrated from him. His saying this within Mecca, but not at Arafah, Muzdalifah or Minā, indicates a distinction between them. It has been reported through the Iraqis that 'Umar used to say at Minā, “People of Mecca, complete your prayers, for we are travellers,” but this report has no chain of transmission.

If that is established, it may be argued that combining the two prayers is permitted on account of the pilgrimage rites, as the Hanafīs and a group of Ahmad’s followers maintain. This is also what Ahmad’s explicit statement implies: he prohibits a Meccan from shortening prayers at Arafah but does not prohibit him from combining them. Regarding a traveller’s combining prayers, he said that this is permitted on a long journey, just as shortening prayers is, in his view.

If it is held that prayers are combined on account of the pilgrimage rites, there are two views. The first is that prayers may be combined only at Arafah and Muzdalifah, as the Hanafīs maintain. The second is that they may also be combined for other reasons warranting it, even when no travel is involved. This is the position of the three imams: Mālik, al-Shāfi'ī and Ahmad.

Alternatively, it may be argued that this is because it is a short journey, and combining prayers is permissible on short journeys. Both explanations have been advanced by some jurists among the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfi'ī and Ahmad. For combining prayers is not restricted to travel, and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not