Delaying a prayer beyond its time range or combining tow prayers is only accepted in situations of maximum difficulty. Although some scholars have permitted in case or work conditions and other situations.  

Offering Two Prayers Together Due to Study or Work Requirements or Time Overlap

Similar Questions 

· Combining prayers for a reason.
   · Combining prayers for study0
   · Combining prayers due to work conditions.

The Issue

Many people work late hours, or are very busy in their work. Sometimes, the time range for prayers is too short with prayers becoming due within a short period. The short time range and work conditions may make it difficult for workers to attend to every prayer on time. On the other hand, the indicators when some prayers should fall due disappear, as happens in certain periods of the year in some areas in the north and the south of the earth. Is it permissible to offer two prayers together for any of these reasons?

Ruling

Contemporary scholars have varying views on this question. 

The first view considers it permissible to offer two prayers together because of the short time range or because 'Isha prayer becomes due very late at night. 

1. The European Council for Fatwa and Research considers it permissible to combine the Maghrib and 'Isha prayers because 'Isha falls very late at night or because its mark disappears for a period during the summer. Indeed, 'Isha may only fall due near midnight. The Council also considers it permissible to combine the Zuhr and 'Asr prayers in winter, due to the short hours of the day which makes it difficult for people at work to offer each prayer at its time in their workplaces. However, the Council makes clear that people should not resort to such combination when there is no need for it, and they must not make it their habit.
2. The General Secretary of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America published his view on the Assembly’s website making clear that it is permissible to bring the 'Asr prayer forward and delay the Maghrib prayer so as it may be offered together with the 'Isha prayer, if work conditions require this, until the person concerned can organize his working times differently. However, he emphasized that the normal situation is to offer each prayer at its appropriate time. This concession should be exercised only when there is pressing need, or to remove hardship, or when the time of prayer cannot be properly defined.[1]
3. A number of scholars are of the view that combining two obligatory prayers together occasionally is permissible, and in rare cases essential, in order to remove difficulty and make things easier for people engaged in work that cannot be interrupted, such as traffic police or a surgeon carrying out an operation. 
4. The Fatawa issued in Tunisia in the fourteenth century AH (1883–1980 CE) considers the different views that outline the reasons permitting combining prayers together and concludes that it is permissible to follow any of the major schools of Islamic Fiqh. A special reference is made to the Hanbali school of Fiqh which states that ‘it is permissible to combine the Zuhr and 'Asr prayers together, as well as the Maghrib and 'Isha prayers’ and offer each two during the time range of either one in different situations, including circumstances and work that permit the non-attendance of Friday prayer, as clearly stated in Dalil al-Talib by Marie ibn Yusuf. These scholars add: ‘The preferable option is to follow the Hanbali school of Fiqh.[2]
5. Shaikh Muhammad Abu Zahrah is of the view that combining prayers in situations of difficulty is permissible.[3]

Evidence

1. Removing difficulties at the personal and the community levels.
   2. The authentic hadith that mentions that the Prophet offered the prayers of Zuhr and 'Asr together as well as Maghrib and 'Isha together in normal situations that involved no state of fear and no rain. Ibn 'Abbas was asked what was the Prophet’s purpose in doing so. 

He said

He wanted that his followers should not endure difficulty

Related by Muslim, hadith No. 705

The second view does not permit combining prayers in such situations. 

The Permanent Committee for Research and Fatwa in Saudi Arabia states that it is not permissible to delay a prayer beyond its time range except in situations of maximum difficulty or for legitimate reasons such as travel and rain. Every Muslim must adjust his time so as to offer prayers in their respective time range.[4]

Evidence

The Qur’anic verse that says

Indeed, prayer is a time-related duty, binding on all believers

4: 103

God says in the Qur’an

Attend regularly to your prayers, particularly the middle prayer, and stand up before God in devout obedience

2: 238

3. The authentic hadith that mentions that the angel Gabriel led the Prophet in prayer twice at home and

then told him

that the time range for each prayer extends between the two marks shown for each

Related by al-Tirmidhi, hadith No. 138 and Abu Dawud, hadith No. 393

Sources

· The website of the European Council for Fatwa and Research: www.e-cfr.org. 
   · The website of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA): www.amjaonline.org.        
   · Fatawa by the Permanent Committee for Research and Fatwa.
   · Muhammad ibn Yunus al-Suwaisi al-Tawzari, Al-Fatawa al-Tunisiyyah fi al-Qarn al-Rabi' 'Ashar      al-Hijri, ‘Tunisian Fatwas issued  during the fourteenth century AH (1883–1980 CE)’.
   · Khalid Abd al-Qadir, Min Fiqh al-Aqaliyyat, Kitab al-Ummah, No. 61.
   · Liwa’ al-Islam Magazine, No. 9, 1966, p. 591.

references

  1. This fatwa is published on the Assembly’s website on 24 August 2009. Similar rulings were published on2 January 2007, 25 February 2009, 14 March 2009and 26 June 2009
  2. Al-Fatawa al-Tunisiyyah, vol. 1, Fatwa No. 77. 
  3. Liwa’ al-Islam Magazine, No. 9, 1966, p. 591. 
  4. The Permanent Committee for Research and Fatwa, vol. 8, pp. 50 and 153. Also Fatwas No. 19,827, vol. 7, p. 41; 18,074, vol. 7, pp. 31–2; 5,741, 18,850, vol. 5, p. 134; 20,654, vol. 7 p. 40; 21,369, vol. 7, p. 39; 19,763, vol. 7, pp. 36– 7; 20,619, vol. 7, p.19; 18,095, vol. 5, p. 130; 17,883, vol. 7, p. 32, 11,762, vol. 8, p. 145

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