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Allah and His Messenger made shortening the prayers and breaking the fast conditional upon what is called travel, without specifying a distance or distinguishing between long and short journeys. Had travel been defined by a particular distance, Allah and His Messenger would have explained it. Nor does the language assign it a fixed distance. Thus, whatever speakers of the language call travel permits shortening the prayers and breaking the fast, as indicated by the Quran and Sunnah. The people of Mecca shortened their prayers with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on their journey to ‘Arafāt, which is one barīd (a postal stage) from Mecca. This shows that setting a limit of one, two or three days is not a universally applicable limit prescribed by Islamic law.

What has been reported from the Companions concerning this may relate to particular circumstances in which travel would necessarily have been of that extent. This explains why differing reports have been transmitted from individual Companions, such as Ibn ‘Umar, Ibn ‘Abbās and others. It is therefore clear that they did not establish a universally applicable legal limit for the traveller or the duration, comparable to the prescribed times for fasting and prayer. Rather, they specified it for particular people according to what they considered travel for someone in those circumstances—just as one defines deviation on the part of the rich and the poor in particular cases according to one’s judgment.

This is not because Islamic law has assigned a single amount of wealth by which everyone alike is classified as rich or poor. Rather, a little may suffice for one man, while many times that amount may not suffice for another because of his many dependants and needs; and the reverse may also be true.

Some people may cover a great distance without being travellers, such as a courier