THE DISTANCE OF SHORTENING PRAYER IN THE PAST AND PRESENT

The basic principle is that Islamic rulings are derived from the original sources of Islamic law, namely the Quran, the Sunnah, consensus, analogy, and other legal evidence whose validity is agreed upon and whose validity is disputed.This research paper examines the opinions of ancient and modern jurists regarding the ruling on the distance required for shortening the four-unit prayers for travelers, whether traveling by old means of transportation such as camels and other means of transportation commonly used in the past, or on foot. It also examines modern means of travel. In the past, travelers, whether on camels or on foot, experienced extreme hardship, fatigue, and exhaustion that cannot be compared to those experienced today. Travelers using modern means of transportation can cover the distance required for shortening prayers in a short time, perhaps minutes or hours at most.

Is the ruling based on the distance traveled by any means, or is there another reason, namely the difficulty involved in traveling? This research paper aims to answer several questions, including: Is it permissible to consider the same distance for shortening prayers when traveling by modern means of transportation as for old means of transportation?In describing the problem under study, the researcher used the scientific method, which involves collecting and critiquing scholarly material and arriving at conclusions derived from the premises. The researcher sought to document texts from their reliable sources, transcribe Quranic verses in the Ottoman script, and extract hadiths from recognized Sunnah books. The descriptive and inductive approach was used to describe the problem, as was the comparative approach, which involved comparing the opinions of jurists and determining the most preponderant opinion, along with the reasons for the preponderance, if any.