Prayer while traveling

Prayer while traveling Adil Salahi | Arab News

When we travel by plane or train, we notice some people offering their prayers while seated, facing the direction in which they are seated, or in which their means of transport is moving. They believe that this is a concession like that of shortening prayer when traveling. How correct are they? Jabir ibn Abdullah reports: "The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to offer prayer riding his mount, facing the direction in which it was moving. However, when he wanted to offer an obligatory prayer he would dismount and face the direction of the Qiblah." (Related by Al-Bukhari). This Hadith makes clear which prayer can be offered while we are in the process of traveling, using a means of transport, and which cannot. The first point the Hadith makes is that only voluntary prayer, i.e. Sunnah, can be offered when our means of transport is moving. There is no need to turn into an uncomfortable direction in order to face the Kaaba in Makkah, which is the Qiblah. By doing so, the Prophet encourages us to offer such voluntary prayer to earn reward from God. When the Prophet wanted to offer one of the five obligatory prayers, he would stop, dismount, face the Qiblah and pray. This is due to the fact that obligatory prayer is the most important duty of Islamic worship. As such, it should be given its due attention. A traveler using a horse or a camel can easily stop to offer his prayers wherever he happens to be. The same applies to traveling by car today. It is when we are using public transport that we cannot choose where and when to stop. We sometimes spend 10 hours on a plane. How should we offer our obligatory prayers? There are simple rules to apply when traveling by plane or train. If we can stand up, face the Qiblah and do our prayer in the normal way, bowing and prostrating, then we must do so. Certain airlines have allocated space on their planes for prayers. We should make use of that arrangement. On other airlines, we may be able to use one side of the catering area to pray. In such cases, the prayer is proper and valid. Offering obligatory prayer in one's seat is acceptable only when we have no other choice. The concessions God has given us in respect of offering prayer during travel, including shortening and combining prayers, make such a necessity unlikely. In order for an obligatory prayer to be valid in this way, we should have boarded the plane before the prayer is due and we are certain that its time range will have lapsed before we can offer it at our destination. In such a case, we should try to offer it normally, next to the catering area, standing up and prostrating. If we are prevented from doing so, we may offer it in our seats. On the other hand, if we begin our travel after Dhuhr or Maghreb prayer becomes due, we should offer Dhuhr and Asr, or Maghreb and Isha before boarding the plane. This means, in most cases, that the next obligatory prayer will not fall due until we have reached our destination. The problem of time range arises when we begin a long flight shortly before Dhuhr prayer is due, and we are traveling eastward. Suppose our flight takes six hours, starting at 11 a.m., with three hours time difference between our starting point and our destination, we arrive at 8 p.m. when Maghreb has already fallen due. In this case we should pray on the plane. We pray in our seats only if we cannot use a proper space to offer our prayer in the normal way.