❖ Denial of Qasr Prayer for the Traveler and Its Ruling
Source: Fatawa Amun Puri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amun Puri
❀ Question:
What is the ruling on someone who says that a traveler must pray the full prayer and that qasr (shortening) is not permissible?
❀ Answer:
It is established by the Qur’an, Sunnah, and consensus of the Ummah that a traveler may shorten the prayer. However, if he prays behind a resident imam, he must pray it in full.
Whoever considers praying the full prayer obligatory for the traveler is severely misguided. And whoever knowingly denies qasr in totality is an apostate disbeliever, because such denial rejects Qur’anic verses, mutawatir ahadith, and the consensus of the Ummah—which is kufr.
❀ Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله (d. 728H) said:
من قال : إنه يجب على كل مسافر أن يصلي أربعا فهو بمنزلة من قال : إنه يجب على المسافر أن يصوم شهر رمضان، وكلاهما ضلال ، مخالف لإجماع المسلمين، يستتاب قائله، فإن تاب وإلا قتل ، والمسلمون متفقون على أن المسافر إذا صلى الرباعية ركعتين، والفجر ركعتين، والمغرب ثلاثا، وأفطر شهر رمضان وقضاه أجزأه ذلك
“Whoever says that every traveler must pray four rak‘ahs is like the one who says that it is obligatory for the traveler to fast in Ramadan. Both are misguidance and in opposition to the consensus of the Muslims. Such a person should be asked to repent; if he repents, fine, otherwise he should be executed (as an apostate). The Muslims are agreed that if the traveler prays the four-rak‘ah prayers as two rak‘ahs, prays Fajr as two, Maghrib as three, and breaks the fasts of Ramadan and later makes them up, this is valid for him.”
(Majmu‘ al-Fatawa, 22/31)
