Ibn Abu Shayba narrated that the Prophet (s) had said...

Ibn Abu Shayba narrated that the Prophet (s) had said: “The best of my umma are those, who witness that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, become happy when doing benevolence, ask for forgiveness when doing badly and shorten the prayer when traveling.” Anass bin Malik said: “I offered the Dhuhr prayer with the Prophet (s) in Medina in four rak’as and offered the Assr prayer in Thil Hulayfa in two rak’as as a traveler.”[^6] There were many other true traditions confirming that Allah the Almighty had legislated shortening the prayer in travel.

Legislating fast breaking There was no doubt that Allah had legislated fast breaking in Ramadan for whoever traveled to a distance that made him/her shorten his/her prayer. The umma agreed upon this unanimously and the Quran and the Sunna confirmed it clearly.

Allah said: ( The month of Ramadan is that in which the Quran was revealed, a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance and the distinction; therefore whoever of you is present in the month, he shall fast therein, and whoever is sick or upon a journey, then ( he shall fast ) a ( like ) number of other days; Allah desires ease for you, and He does not desire for you difficulty, and ( He desires ) that you should complete the number… ) 2:185.

When the Prophet (s) traveled during Ramadan, he broke his fasting and declared to the people that he had broken his fasting. He considered fasting in travel as disobedience. He said: “It is not of piety to fast in travel.” We shall quote all the tradition later on.

Abu Qulaba narrated-as it was mentioned in the Sihah-that the Prophet (s) had said to a man of bani[^7] Aamir: “Allah has freed the traveler from fasting and halved the prayer for him.” He, who investigated the Sunna and the sayings of the imams about taqseer and fast breaking in travel, would find that the fatwas and the consensus of the umma had confirmed that Allah had legislated fast breaking in Islam.

If travel required one of them; taqseer or fast breaking, to be done, it would be the very reason for the other to be done undoubtedly. The conditions of taqseer The Muslim scholars disagreed upon the conditions of taqseer. Some of them thought that taqseer was obligatory for the traveler. This was the belief of the Shia according to their imams.