by agreement of the imams. The Muslim community unanimously agrees that a traveler may refrain from fasting, whether he is able to fast or not, and whether fasting causes him hardship or not. Even if he travels with shade and water available and someone to serve him, he may refrain from fasting and shorten his prayers.

Anyone who says that refraining from fasting is permissible only for someone unable to fast must be called upon to repent; if he does not repent, he is to be put to death. Likewise, anyone who censures a traveler for not fasting must be called upon to repent of that.

Anyone who says that a traveler who does not fast incurs sin must also be called upon to repent of that, for such positions contradict the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of Allah’s Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and the consensus of the Muslim community.

Likewise, the Sunnah for a traveler is to offer four-unit prayers as two units. Shortening them is better for him than performing all four, according to the four imams: Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, Ahmad, and al-Shāfi‘ī according to the sounder of his two opinions.

The Muslim community has not disputed the permissibility of a traveler’s refraining from fasting. Rather, they have disputed whether a traveler may fast. A group of earlier and later scholars held that one who fasts on