another town for a temporary job and then returns home, he is not regarded as a traveller when he comes back to his own town.

Question: I am a female student who studies away from her family and live in a dormitory. The place where I study is about 150 kilometres from my parents’ home, and I visit them every Thursday and Friday each week. During the two days I spend with my family and the five days I stay in the dormitory, should I shorten my prayers or perform them in full? Please advise us, and may Allah reward you with goodness.

Answer: For both the five days you reside in the dormitory and the two days you stay with your family, you must perform every prayer in full. While you are travelling between the two places, however, you may shorten the four-unit prayers and combine two prayers at the time of either one of them, whether by advancing or delaying. The concession of combining and shortening applies only while you are on the road; once you have settled—whether in the town where you study or in your hometown—you are required to offer the prayers in full.

One who neither prays nor fasts is a disbeliever

Question: My father is sixty years old and, up to this day, he has never prayed or fasted. He enjoys good health and possesses considerable knowledge with which he can debate any scholar he wishes. We live in a village that has a large mosque very close to our house, yet he has derived no benefit from his knowledge, for the Noble Qur’an and the Prophetic hadiths