Zayd, from Ibn ‘Abbās, who would combine the two prayers while travelling and say: “This is Sunnah.”

In a narration from ‘Alī ibn ‘Āsim:

“Al-Jurayrī and Salmān al-Taymī informed me, from Abū ‘Uthmān al-Nahdī, who said: ‘When Sa‘īd ibn Zayd and Usāmah ibn Zayd needed to make haste while travelling, they would combine Zuhr with ‘Asr and Maghrib with ‘Ishā’.’”

We have also transmitted reports to this effect from Sa‘d ibn Abī Waqqās and Anas ibn Mālik, and it has been reported from ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān.

He also cited what Mālik related in al-Muwatta’ from Ibn Shihāb, who said:

“I asked Sālim ibn ‘Abd Allāh: ‘May Zuhr and ‘Asr be combined while travelling?’

“He replied: ‘Yes, there is nothing wrong with that. Do you not see how people pray at ‘Arafah?’”

He also cited the following from the book of Ya‘qūb ibn Sufyān: ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Abī Salamah narrated to us; al-Darāwardī narrated to us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, Rabī‘ah ibn Abī ‘Abd al-Rahmān, Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir and Abū al-Zinād, that they, together with others like them, travelled to al-Walīd. He had sent for them to seek their legal opinion on a matter. They would combine Zuhr and ‘Asr when the sun passed its zenith.

I say:

Here the early generations used the combining of prayers at ‘Arafah as evidence for analogous cases, showing that the ruling is not exclusive to ‘Arafah. This is combining the prayers at the time of the earlier prayer because of a need while travelling.

As for combining prayers in Medina because of rain or some other reason, Muslim and others narrated through Abū al-Zubayr, from Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr, “from Ibn ‘Abbās, who said: ‘Prayer was offered by