The Criteria to be a Traveller and Shorten the Prayers Faiyaz M. Khan Islam recognises the hardships that travellers endure; thus, allowing them dispensations to alleviate their difficulties: [1] these include allowing Muslims to forgo obligatory actions like fasting during Ramadan and missing Friday prayers. [2] Prophet Muhammad acknowledged this when he affirmed that, “Travelling is a kind of torture …” [3] Furthermore, travelling has been a part of Islam from the beginning with the early Muslims undertaking journeys for the two hijras , [4] and going for umrah , hajj [5] and jihad . [6] In regard to the daily prayers while on a journey, the Qur’an states, “And when you travel throughout the land, there is no blame upon you for shortening the prayer …” [7] Aisha, the prophet’s wife, explained that historically when the daily prayers were made obligatory in Mecca, the prayers were “in sets of two rak’at .” [8] When the prophet migrated to Medina, “two rak’at were ...
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