What is the ruling on joining al-ẓuhr with al-aṣr and al-maghrib with al-ishā?
Q: What is the ruling on joining al-ẓuhr with al-ʿaṣr and al-maghrib
with al-ʿishāʾ?
A: This joining is valid; its establishment is upon sound evidence according to the Ahl al-Bayt and others, to wit that the Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him and his pure kin) prayed al ẓuhr and al-ʿaṣr together and al maghrib and al-ʿishāʾ together while neither in a state of fear nor on a journey.
It has been transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said, ‘he (i.e. the Prophet, may peace and blessings be upon him and his pure kin) did not wish to constrain his community’. [The same] has been narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās [that this was regardless of] travel or rain. It has [also] been narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said, ‘it is likely that the Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him and his pure kin) combined al-maghrib and al-ʿishāʾ in al-Madīnah’ [1].This is in harmony with the Almighty’s saying [what may be rendered into English as], ‘God wishes ease for you, not hardship’ (Holy Qurʾān 2:185).
Translator’s note: The well-known position of al-Imām Abū Ḥanīfah al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit that only apparent combining (al-jamʿ al ṣūrī)[2] be allowed while travelling – and that no actual combining (al-jamʿ al-ḥaqīqī) be allowed in any case whatsoever, with the notable exception of during Ḥajj at Mount ʿArafah and Muzdalifah – is said to be based primarily upon the Almighty’s saying what may be rendered into English as, ‘verily, the ritual prayers are – for the committed believers – at prescribed times’ (Holy Qurʾān 4:103) [3]. This would seem to invalidate those narrations such as the aforementioned that indicate that the Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him and his pure kin) did combine his prayers while resident and without any other excuse. However, with respect to the imām and the madhhab that bears his name, such a position fails to consider how exactly the Almighty qualified the ‘times’ during which we should pray. An example of such a qualification is His saying, ‘undertake the prayer at the time of the declining sun to the darkness of the night and the morning recitation . . .’ (Holy Qurʾān 17:78). Thus, although we know beyond a reasonable doubt that the number of ritual prayers the Muslims are obligated to perform each day is five, the Almighty has mentioned only three periods of time during which we are to perform them.
Footnotes
1 – Al-Tajrīd 1:116; al-Muntakhab 34, 35; al-Aḥkām 1:92; al-Shifāʾ 1:206; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1:489 no. 705; Sunan al-Tirmidhī 1:355 no. 187; Sunan Abī Dāwūd 2:14 no. 1211, 2:16 no. 1214; Sunan al-Bayhaqī 3:166; Musnad Aḥmad 1:480 no. 1953; Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān 4:471 no. 1596; al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr lil-Ṭabarānī 10:326 no. 10803; al-Muwaṭṭaʾ1:157; Sunan al-Nisāʾī 1:491 no. 1573; Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah 1:85 nos. 971 & 982;
Maʿānī al-Āthār 1:160; Musnad Abī Yaʿā 5:80 no. 2678; Musnad al-Shāfiʿī 214.
2 – This comprises delaying al-ẓuhr until near the end of its time and praying al-ʿaṣr immediately after (when its time has begun) and doing likewise with al-maghrib and al-ʿishāʾ, such that the prayers only seem to be combined, but each is still performed in its own time.
3 – ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū Bakr b. Masʿūd al-Kāsānī, Badāʾiʿ al-Ṣanāʾiʿ fī Tartīb al-Sharāʾiʿ, vol. 1 (Egypt: Sharikah al-Maṭbūʿāt al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1327 AH), 126.