Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on Prayer of traveler

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Tuesday, the 19th of Jumadi al-Thani. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi pointed out the necessity of having the intention to travel in order for the Prayer to become shortened, and said: If a person does not intend from the beginning to travel eight farsakhs, and after starting the journey, the distance of travel increases over time, even if it reaches a hundred Farsakhs, his/her prayer will not be shortened, and so it is necessary for such a person to perform a complete prayer.

His Eminence went on to say: This issue has also been mentioned in Urwa al-Wuthqa, based on an authentic narration. Apparently, there is also a consensus that one of the conditions for shortening the prayer is that the journey must be eight farsakhs long. And, another condition is that the person must have the intention of travelling eight farsakhs from the beginning.

He also emphasized: Therefore, if a person initially starts their journey with the intention of going two Farsakhs, but later continues his journey for another four Farsakhs, if the situation continues like this, even if such a journey reaches a hundred or a thousand Farsakhs, the person must perform complete Prayers, and there is evidence for this in hadith.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi, regarding the duty of such a person when returning from a trip, said: When returning, since this person intends to travel eight farsakhs or more, their Prayer will be shortened.