for a person while he is not required to perform it, its substitute, or its equivalent. Thus, the traveller’s obligation is only two rakʿahs. This is what the statements of Ahmad and his early followers indicate, for he did not require an intention to shorten the prayer. He said, “I do not favor praying four,” and withheld judgment on whether four rakʿahs would discharge the obligation.

No one has reported that Ahmad said, “One may shorten the prayer only with an intention to do so.” Rather, this is the position of al-Khiraqī and those who followed him. Ahmad’s explicit statements and answers impose no such restriction, in keeping with the position of the overwhelming majority of scholars. This was also the view preferred by Abū Bakr, in agreement with the early scholars of the school, such as al-Khallāl and others—indeed, al-Athram, Abū Dāwūd, Ibrāhīm al-Harbī and others—for they required no specific intention either to shorten prayers or to combine them.

Since the traveller’s obligation is two rakʿahs, performing them discharges that obligation, whether or not he intended to shorten the prayer. This is the position of the overwhelming majority, including Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, and the early generations generally. I know of no Companion, or anyone who followed them in righteousness, who required a specific intention either to shorten prayers or to combine them. Even if a traveller intends to offer the full prayer, the Sunnah for him remains two rakʿahs. If he prays four, that is disliked, just as it is without that intention.

No one has ever reported that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed his Companions to form an intention either to shorten prayers or to combine them. Nor did his successors and Companions instruct those praying behind them to do so, even though those following the imam, or most of them, did not know what he would do. For when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, set out on his pilgrimage, he led them in prayer