Fasting & The Musafir
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il.3 The following are not required to fast, though they are obliged to make up fast-days missed ( A: making up, meaning that one fasts a single day for each obligatory fast-day missed )
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i1.7 It is permissible not to fast when travelling, even when the intention to fast has been made the night before, provided that the journey is at least 81 km. / 50 mi one way, and that one leaves town (def:f15.6) before dawn. If one leaves after dawn, one is not entitled to omit the fast. It is preferable for travellers not to fast if fasting would harm them, though if not, then fasting is better.
f15.0 SHORTENING OR JOINING PRAYERS FOR TRAVEL OR RAIN
(A: The two travel dispensations of shortening and joining prayers have no effect on each other; one may take both together, either, or none. It is superior in our school not to take dispensations that are permissible.)
SHORTENING PRAYERS WHILE TRAVELLING
f15.1 It is permissible to shorten the current prescribed prayers of noon (zuhr), midafternoon (`asr), and nightfall (`isha) to two rak`as each, when one:
(a) is travelling for a reason that is not disobedience to Allah (O: as there is no dispensation to shorten prayers on such a trip);
(b) on a journey of at least 48 Hashemite miles (n: approximately 81 km ./ 50 mi.) one way.One may also shorten the above prayers when one both misses them and makes them up on the trip, though one must pray the full number if one misses them while not travelling and makes them up on the trip, or misses them on the trip and makes them up while not travelling.
f15.2 This distance (n: 81 ka/50 mi. one way) holds for travel by water as well as by land. If such a distance is traversed in an instant (O: preternaturally, because of a miracle (karama, def: w30)), one may still shorten the prayer. (O: The brevity of the time taken to travel the distance is of no consequence.)
f15.3 When there are two routes to a destination and one of them is less than the distance that permits shortening prayers but one chooses the longer way for a legitimate purpose such as safety, convenience, or recreation (O: provided that recreation is merely the reason for taking that route, not the reason for the trip itself, which must have some other legitimate purpose such as trade, for an outing is not a legitimate purpose) then one may shorten prayers. But if the only reason for choosing the longer way is to take the dispensation, then doing so is not valid and one must pray the full number. (A: Purely recreational trips whose purpose is not disobedience are permissible, but there are no travel dispensations in them, though if undertaken in order to gain religious knowledge, to visit a fellow Muslim, or visit the grave of a righteous or learned Muslim (dis: g5.8), these and similar purposes are legitimate and permit the dispensations.)f15.4 The journey's destination must be known. If a wife travelling with her husband or a soldier with his leader does not know the destination, they may not shorten their prayers (N: as long as they have not yet travelled the distance that permits shortening. When they have travelled it, then they may). If they know the destination and the journey meets the conditions (def: f15.1), then they may shorten their prayers (N: from the beginning of the journey).
f15.5 Someone whose journey constitutes an act of disobedience, such as a woman travelling against her husband's wishes, may not shorten their prayer but must pray the full number. (O: The same applies to someone who undertakes a legitimate trip and then changes the purpose of it to disobedience.) (N: Though shortening prayers is permissible for someone who commits an act of disobedience while on a legitimate trip, as when someone travels for trade, but then sins by drinking wine, for example.)
