It was our Holy Prophet, the seal of the Messengers of Allah who extended this concession of the Holy Quran to traveling in general: “Yǎla bin Umayyah said: I asked Umar bin Al-Khattab (RA), “Do you see that people are shortening the prayers? This, despite the fact that Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, said: ‘if you fear that those who disbelieve will put you in trial.’ And this fear has now gone in our days.” Umar Farooq (RA) replied, “I also wondered about what you are wondering, and I mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) and he said: (This is a) charity that Allah has given to you, so accept His charity.” (Hadith No. 1199, Book of The Traveller’s Prayers, Sunan Abu Dawud, Vol. 2; Hadith No. 1573 (686), Book of The Traveller’s Prayers & Shortening Thereof, Sahih Muslim, Vol. 2).

 

Kindly note that our beloved Prophet has called it a “charity” which generally connotes something given to help the needy. Contrary to a common belief, Qasr prayers should not be construed as a gift or a present. Why did the sahaabaa need a charity during traveling? What was the state of traveling in the period when these concessions of traveling were dispensed for Muslims? Let me quote part of a very long hadith depicting the condition of travel in those days:

“On the authority of Abu Huraira, that the Prophet (may peace be upon him) said: Traveling is a tortuous experience. It deprives a person of his sleep, his food and drink. When one of you has accomplished his purpose, he should hasten his return to his family.”  (Sahih Muslim Book 004, Hadith No. 1450). There is another hadith wherein  our Holy Prophet has described traveling as an “ordeal”.

 

It certainly DOES NOT mean that Holy Prophet has “abrogated” the condition of fear from this ayah as has been stated by some scholars in the Fiqh literature. The ayah is there to stay as the immutable words of God Almighty, literally in its entirety.  Broadly speaking, it has been asserted by many Fuqahaa, Scholars and Ulemaa that “ Sunnah can abrogate the Quran”. My immediate and emotional response on reading this statement was “this is plain blasphemy”. After some cool thinking, I continue to feel very strongly against this concept of abrogation for two reasons:

First, I think and feel this statement is very degrading and disparaging to the impeccable Character and towering Personality of my beloved and Holy Prophet. He had made it very clear in theory and practice that he is merely a slave-servant and a Messenger of the King and Sovereign of Mankind  — Maalikin Naas — and therefore it would be inconceivable to him to even dream of abrogating a Word or Words of God Almighty.

Second, this statement is tantamount to rejecting some of the attributes of Allah Ta’aala Subhanahoo: All-Knowing, All Powerful, All-Seeing, Best of judges, The Mighty, the Sovereign Lord and King and Sovereign of Mankind. All the schools of Sunni Islamic Fiqh agree that rejecting or restricting any of the attributes of God is tantamount to the great sin (gunaahe kabeera) of kufr.

 

Coming back to the issue of Qasr, so far the instructions for qasr are clear and reasonable. Our Holy Prophet has allowed us to shorten our prayers during travel. What constitutes a journey qualifying for a Qasr prayer in the 21st century when traveling is easy, fun and recreation? This is the crux of the problem. It appears,here that the practice of compulsory following (taqleed) by our present day scholars of the interpretation of our past Imams and Fuqahaa (outstanding and brilliant jurists but humans living in the third century Hijra, about 1200 years in the past) is erroneous and dangerous leading to anachronistic and imprudent conclusions. Let me explain.

 

The source i.e. the teachings of our beloved Prophet is clear and unambiguous on the definition of a journey to qualify for shortening of prayers, even though different narrations have been reported. On the basis of Sahih ahaadith, a journey of three Manaazil is required as a minimum to qualify for this dispensation. Thus a person who sets out with the intention of eventually traveling three manaazil is regarded as a musaafirin the Shariah. But a person who travels from place to place, intending to travel less than three manaazil each time, will not become a musaafir  even if he travels the entire world in this way.  One manzil is defined as traveling by foot or on camel back, starting after dawn and continuing till the time for the zohr prayers. Other reports suggest a total of two days and two nights of traveling are required and still others state that the Prophet(PBUH) called a journey of one day and one night as traveling to justify Qasr prayers.

 

The conclusion from these reports is obvious to any Muslim with an open and thinking mind namely 99.99% of travel by the ordinary folks nowadays does not qualify for this dispensation of qasr. Unfortunately this is not the opinion of many eminent Jurists of the Islamic Ummah — past and present. By a long process of convoluted reasoning they have decided to retain the qasr prayers in our times also. The camel has been driven away from Makkah and Medina even during the purely and exclusively religious activity of Hajj and Umrah, yet our scholars bring in the camel as the vehicle of commuting to build a case for qasr prayers.  Our holy Prophet did not allow the noble Sahaabaas to shorten their prayers after two hours of traveling on the camel under the hot sun in the cruel climate of the desert of Arabia; the minimum requirement was a journey of one day and one night. Our Imams, Fuqahaa and scholars want us to shorten our prayers for a journey of two hours in an air-conditioned limousine. I am sorry but I do find it dumbfounding? Islam has the unique distinction amongst all the religions of the World to mention “the PEN” ^[3]  — an obvious reference to critical thinking and knowledge ^[4]   — in the VERY FIRST WAHEE, followed by repeated reference to “people of understanding, folks who think, men with knowledge” through out the Holy Book. Taking a cue from this, the Muslims achieved great heights in science, philosophy and other fields of human knowledge and became the torch bearers of civilisation in the five to six centuries of our initial history. No wonder the intellectual stagnation betrayed these days is exasperating to many Muslims. Moreover I have solid support of very eminent and outstanding personalities of Islam for my practice of challenging the opinions of some highly esteemed scholars. In his very first Khutba after being elected the first Caliph, Hazrat Abu Bakr requested loyalty ONLY if he is following the Quran and practice and preaching of our Holy Prophet; if not he expected the Muslims to correct him. One of the four great Imams, Shafai’ has stated that every action and statement of a great scholar is not necessarily correct; he may be wrong at times and may have to be corrected. Oh yes, we need our Ulema and Shaikh’s and Imams to guide us and teach us our religion. However, we have to learn from them and understand them; not be pulled and led by them by a leash; please do not make padres out of them. Please remember and remember very clearly, we will be on our own on the Day of Judgement; no promptings or help from even the Four Great Imams of the four Schools of the Sunni Islam, not to speak of our present  day scholars and imams. Allah Ta’aala Subhanahoo has vividly described the scene on the Day of Reckoning — the ultimate goal for all our struggle and scramble in this world — in these words: ^[5]  “At length, when there comes the Deafening Noise, That Day shall a man flee from his own brother, And from his mother and his father, And his wife and his children, For every man, that Day, will be a matter adequate for him.”  (Yusuf Ali) “Every man” in this ayah, includes Imams, Mufassiraan, Muftis, Mohaddesin, Ulemas,Sheiks, Maulvis and Maulanaas. So, if I want to shorten my prayers after a forty-eight miles journey in my air-conditioned car, I have to be ready with my personal explanations, based on the Holy Quran and the example of my beloved Prophet on the Day of Judgement. I will have to give reasons to equate twenty-four hours journey on camel back in the desert of Arabia to a two hour car drive in America. I may be asked why did I like to avail of the “charity” generously offered by the Holy Prophet to a camel rider under the hot desert sun when Allah Ta’aala has blessed me with comforts and luxury of an air conditioned limousine. Quoting our Imams or books of hadith or books of the four schools of Islamic law will not help me on that day because these are not sources of reference in the Final Court of Almighty God which is mine and ought to be every Muslim’s ultimate driver and goal in life.  And Allah knows best.

 

My experience at the Annual Convention of MAS-ICNA at Chicago last year provided a vivid practical demonstration of the anachronistic (and perhaps farcical to my taste) practice of Qasr Namaaz by most of us and our scholars. It was a very impressive five day affair with a big attendance, bursting with activity and enthusiasm. State of Art arrangements for lectures and presentations by eminent scholars. Five star arrangements for board and lodge, shopping, entertainment and children activity. Each and every comfort of Home was taken care of with additional luxury. An extra bonus was available in the form of no cooking, no washing, no cleaning and no vacuuming. It was a display of twenty-first century standard of religious education with full comfort and luxury. Folks had spared full five days from their pursuits for continual religious education; the five days were  full of energy and enthusiasm. At prayer time, suddenly it appeared as if we have rolled back in time and space to the seventh century. Out of respect for our Aslaaf, it was imagined that we have travelled on camel back, taking us more than a day and night to arrive at the convention; so Qasr prayer is not only Jaaizbut is called for. It is noteworthy, Imam Nawaai (of the 40 hadith fame) had declared in the eleventh century CE that offering qasr is optional; short and full prayers are equally blessed. ^[6] But we will opt for qasr because we have full five days for lectures from our scholars and cannot spare the usual time for our visit to the the Almighty. So we will follow Imam Abu Hanifa who regards qasr as Wajib. But his mazhab does not allow Jama’(combing prayers) except when we are actually traveling; once we break our journey we have to offer all five prayers separately. No problem; for this purpose, we we will follow Shafia’ who allow this practice of combining the prayers; however they do recommend to pray the five prayers separately during the break and restrict combining the prayers only actual travel time. But the organisers and the scholars advising them decided to accept the permission but ignore the recommendation of Shafia. Also, this mazhab allows only four days as journey; a journey of five days require full prayers. No problem again; we will follow Hanafia this time who allow 15 days. According to the rules of Imaamat, it would have been a reasonable proposition to choose a local imam to lead the prayers. In this case all the participants could join the congregation and offer full prayers and receive full rewards under all the three schools except Maliki.  But our priority in this convention is to listen to our eminent scholars; prayer is secondary. So we will follow malikia and not invite a local imam. In short the whole attitude for the mandatory prayers was “get over with it in the shortest time and as infrequently as possible” switching from the guidelines of one school to another and then the third one to achieve our goal of praying qasr and jama’. The organisers and the scholars who advised them seem to think that we have a whole year for prayers but only five days to listen to our scholars for which we have used a lot of money, time and energy.  I think that was the practical lesson given to our growing children. On the other hand, It would have been much better to add some spirituality and piety to this primarily religious extravaganza by organising complete prayers for all the participants at one time and adding some melodious qira’t in slow measured sequence, as prescribed in the Holy Book. It could have served as a practical outcome of all the high sounding lectures on Islam we heard at this meeting. However on balance, it was a wonderful experience and I do intend to attend the convention this year as well, Insha Allah. I will not shorten my prayers, though; nor did I do it last year.

 

The account hitherto is the perspective of the Muslims who regard Islam as a dynamic and progressive Divine Religion which was revealed in the seventh century CE to remain relevant till the doomsday. Our Lord and Cherisher has commanded a set of fundamental and eternal principles in life and encourages and expects “those who believe” to use their God given intellect and prowess of critical thinking to respond to the demands of time and place while remaining true to the core and the essence.

 

There is another perspective — distinct and opposite — which is very dear to a large section of Muslims. The philosophy of Taqleed. A group of eminent scholars, fuqahaa and muftis decided in the late fourth century Hijra that the work of carving out Islamic Law and Jurisprudence has been completed by the four great Imams and their schools. No additional work is possible or needed. They, therefore shut the door of Ijtihaad or reasoning on the Muslims. Only deductive analogy is permitted to later Ulemaa and Mujtahedin. Then onwards the Muslims are only allowed “taqleed” — compulsory and exclusive following — of the four major schools of Sunni Islam. No out of box interpretations are allowed. A vast number of Muslims subscribe to this view. One group among them truly believes in this approach and has carved our their entire personal and family life and their career on these lines. Another group of modern educated Muslims have developed a sort of dichotomy in their approach. They use their

Divine blessing of Intellect to the full in pursuit of their worldly matters. Hence they are very successful in achieving a good life for themselves and their family. In matters of religion, however they opt for taqleed (which can be interpreted as mindless following) of the fourth century Hijra Classical Sunni Islamic Fiqh. Many of them truly  believe in this approach but many others do it as a path of least resistance, or lack of interest or time or just carelessness.