Accordingly, a traveller is not deemed such because he covers a fixed distance or travels for a fixed number of days, but because the activity he undertakes constitutes travel. A person may count as a traveller over a short distance, yet not over a longer one.

For example, someone who rides a swift horse for the distance of one barīd (postal stage), then immediately returns to his town, is not a traveller. But if he covers this distance over a day and a night, needing to carry provisions and waterskins, he is a traveller, as were the people of Mecca when they travelled to Arafat. If a man rode a swift horse to Arafat and returned to Mecca that same day, however, he would not be a traveller.

Evidence for this is the statement of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“A traveller may wipe over his footwear for three days and nights, and a resident for one day and night.”

If someone covered one barīd in three days, he would be a traveller for three days and nights, and the traveller’s allowance for wiping must therefore apply to him. But if he covered that barīd in half a day, he would not be a traveller. Thus, what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, took into account was travelling for three days, whether the journey was swift or slow, and whether the days were long or short.

Those who fixed the measure at three days or two calculated this according to travel by camel or on foot. They made one fixed distance a threshold applying equally to everyone: even if someone covered it in a day, they deemed him a traveller, while if he covered less than that distance in ten days, they did not deem him a traveller. This is contrary to the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.