ENDLESS BLISS FASCICLE-4

Waqf Ikhlas publications Endless Bliss Fascicle-4 http://www.hizmetbooks.org
woman. A woman does not stretch her hands forward while making dua, but she keeps them
inclined towards her face."
15- SALAH (NAMAZ) ON A JOURNEY
Being Safari or Musafir means being a traveler. If a person intends to go to a place that would
take three days by the short days of year by walking or by riding a camel during the short days of
the year, he becomes a musafir as soon as he reaches beyond the last houses on one or both sides
of his way. If he passes by the last house without intending to go to a place that is three days'
way, he does not become a musafir even if he travels all over the world. An example of this is
the case of soldiers searching for the enemy. But he will become a musafir on his way back. If a
person who has started off with the intention of going to a place that is two days' way, intends on
the way or after reaching the place to go to another place which is two days' way from his first
destination, he does not become a musafir when he is on the way to the place which is four days'
way. While leaving one's temporary home with the intention of going three days' way, one
becomes musafir as soon as one passes beyond the last houses on both sides on one's way. Yet
the last house does not have to be out of sight. One does not have to have reached beyond the
houses that are only on one side of the way. Nomads camping at the seaside or near a forest
become musafir when they leave their tents. A person who lives in a city must have passed
beyond the houses outside the city as well as the houses adjacent to the city and the villages
where rows of houses from the city reach. It is not necessary to have gone beyond empty fields
or vegetable gardens adjacent to the city. Even if there are farmers' or watchmen's houses in the
fields or vegetable gardens, they or the villages beyond them are not counted as parts of the city.
In empty fields, those large cemeteries that are close to town are called Fina. Grounds which the
townsfolk use for threshing grain, for horse-riding, for diversion, and parts of a lake or sea which
they use for hunting etc., [factory buildings, schools, and barracks] are counted as part of the
town. That is, they must be passed. If a fina is more than two hundred meters away from the
town or if there is a field between them, it is not a part of the town. But it is sahih to perform the
prayers of Friday and Iyd at a fina that is far away. Villages, cities in between which and the city
is a fina are not counted as parts of the city. It is not necessary to pass beyond such villages. One
becomes safari when one reaches beyond the fina only. With large cities, a fina is still counted as
a part of the town when it is more than two hundred meters from the town. It is written in
Imdad's commentary titled Tahtawi that according to a narration called Mukhtar, even if there
are houses or a fina in between, having gone beyond the villages is not a condition.
It is not a condition that one will walk all the time until evening. On a short day, it will be
sufficient if one walks from the time of morning prayer until the time of the early afternoon
prayer. This journey is called, marhala, manzil, or qonaq (hotel like place). It is also permissible
for one to rest in the meantime. Even one goes on a journey of three days on a fast vehicle, such
as a train, one still becomes musafir. [Majalla, 1664] If there are two ways of going to a place,
one of the ways being shorter than the other, the person who goes the shorter way does not
become a musafir. If the longer way takes three days by walking, a person who goes by that way
on any vehicle becomes musafir.
Ibn-i Abidin says: "All 'ulama have described the "way of three days" by a unit called farsah, the
distance traveled in one hour. Some of them said a way of three days was 21 farsahs; some said it
was 18 farsahs; and others said it was 15 farsahs. The fatwa has been given according to the
second judgement." In the fatwa of the majority, one marhala, the distance traveled in one day, is
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