And when you travel throughout the land, there is no blame upon you for shortening the prayer.
When you count as a traveller
The schools set different thresholds for distance and for how long you may stay before your travel concession ends. This is the part people get wrong, so it is worth knowing which position you are following.
| School | Minimum distance | Stay before concession ends |
|---|---|---|
| Hanafi | About 77 km (three days' travel) | 15 days |
| Shafi'i | About 81 km (two days' travel) | 4 days, excluding arrival and departure |
| Maliki | About 81 km | 4 days |
| Hanbali | About 81 km | More than 4 days |
The distances descend from the same classical measure expressed in different units, which is why they cluster around 80 km. The stay limits differ more substantially, and a business trip of a week is treated differently by the Hanafi and Shafi'i positions.
What changes and what does not
| Prayer | At home | Travelling |
|---|---|---|
| Fajr | 2 rak'ahs | 2 rak'ahs — unchanged |
| Dhuhr | 4 rak'ahs | 2 rak'ahs |
| Asr | 4 rak'ahs | 2 rak'ahs |
| Maghrib | 3 rak'ahs | 3 rak'ahs — unchanged |
| Isha | 4 rak'ahs | 2 rak'ahs |
Combining: jam' taqdim and jam' ta'khir
Combining means praying two prayers in one window. Jam' taqdim brings the later prayer forward into the earlier one's time; jam' ta'khir delays the earlier into the later one's time. Only two pairs may be combined: Dhuhr with Asr, and Maghrib with Isha. Fajr is never combined with anything.
The Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools permit combining on a journey. The Hanafi school restricts it to the specific case of Arafah and Muzdalifah during hajj, and holds that a traveller should otherwise pray each prayer in its own time, shortened. If you are Hanafi and pressed for time on a flight, the usual advice is to pray shortened as soon as each window opens rather than to combine.
Praying on a plane
- Work out the prayer times for the ground position you will be over, or for your destination if the flight is short. Cabin clocks are usually set to the destination.
- Pray standing if there is room and it is safe; otherwise seated, with the head lowered further for prostration than for bowing.
- Face the qibla at the start if you can determine it. Most scholars hold that if the direction cannot be maintained, facing the direction of travel is acceptable and the prayer is valid.
- If you cannot pray at all in the window, the prayer is made up as qada after landing.