permissible for a legitimate excuse such as illness or travel, and likewise between the two evening prayers (Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ) when there is rain, mud, or biting cold. These are the excuses that allow one to combine two prayers.

But to combine without any excuse is impermissible, and the prayer is invalid if one does so. A prayer that is combined outside its time—or any prayer performed outside its appointed time—is not valid, because it has been taken out of its prescribed window without a Sharʿī justification.

As for the ḥadīth, its wording has come in two narrations from the Prophet ﷺ: “that he combined when there was neither fear nor travel,” and in another narration, “when there was neither fear nor rain.” The wording cited by the questioner—“that he combined when there was neither fear nor illness”—is not authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ; illness is not mentioned in the ḥadīth. What is narrated is “neither fear nor travel,” and, in the other wording, “neither fear nor rain.” The scholars have offered several explanations for this ḥadīth. Some suspended judgment, saying that its meaning is not clear to them and therefore they refrain from interpreting it.

Others interpreted it as referring to what is called al-jamʿ al-ṣūrī (apparent or formal combining), and this is the view supported by al-Shawkānī in Nayl al-Awṭār.

Jamʿ ṣūrī means that one delays the first prayer to the very end of its time and brings the second prayer forward to the very beginning of its time, then performs them successively—the first at the close of its time, the second at the start of its time. This is an apparent combining, yet each prayer is in fact offered