necessitates burdening them with knowing the exact mileage of every route they might take—something beyond the ability of most people, especially when the road is one they have never travelled before!

The report yields another benefit: shortening the prayer begins once a person has left the limits of the town, and this is the view held by the majority of scholars. In Nayl al-Awtar (3/83) it is stated:

“Some of the Kufan scholars maintained that when a person merely intends to travel he may perform two rakʿahs even while still in his house. Others said that once he mounts his ride he may shorten if he wishes. Ibn al-Mundhir considered the first position—namely, that he shortens only after leaving the dwellings—to be the sounder view, for they all agree that shortening becomes permissible once the houses are behind him, whereas they differ about what precedes that. Accordingly, he must continue to perform the prayer in full upon its original basis until the entitlement to shorten is firmly established. Ibn al-Mundhir added: ‘I do not know of the Prophet ﷺ shortening in any of his journeys except after he had departed from Madinah.’”

I say: The ḥadiths that support this meaning are numerous; I have produced a group of them in Irwaʾ al-Ghalil from Anas, Abu Hurayrah, Ibn ʿAbbas and others—see no. 562.

164 – While on the Tabuk campaign, if the Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out before the sun had declined from the meridian, he would delay ẓuhr until he could combine it with ʿaṣr and would pray the two together. If he set out after the sun had declined, he would bring ʿaṣr forward to ẓuhr, pray them together, and then resume the march. Likewise, if he set out before maghrib, he would delay maghrib until he prayed it with ʿishāʾ; but if he set out after maghrib, he would bring ʿishāʾ forward and pray it together with maghrib.

It was recorded by Abu Dawud (1220), al-Tirmidhi (2/438), al-Daraqutni (151), al-Bayhaqi (3/163), and Ahmad (5/241–242), all through the transmission of Qutaybah ibn Saʿid.