Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Asalam-o-Alaikum Burhan,

I will like to ask a question about the salaat time that increased if we travel by the sun. What I mean is if I flew from Canada to Pakistan at Zhur time. The Sun remained with whole journey and the Zhur time became 14 hours. We start from Friday and reach Pakistan next day same time.

So is there any guidance from Quran or Sunnah or any Fatwa on this situation. Should we only pray Zhur during this journey?

Looking forward to hear back from you.

Allah Hafiz

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Prayer when traveling east can-pak

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

The prayer times in Islam are indeed determined by the movement of the sun. If one flies on a long journey from east-to-west (eg. Pakistan to Canada) and finds that the valid time for ‘dhuhr’ has increased from the customary 2-3 hours to (lets say) 14 hours….there is absolutely no harm and one would be liable to offer only their one obligatory ‘dhuhr’ prayer during this journey.

Alternatively, if one flies on a long journey from west-to-east (eg. Canada to Pakistan), one would find the prayer times being contracted, and prayer instead of becoming due every 2-3 hours becomes due every hour or so.

If one starts their flight in Canada on Friday and reaches Pakistan the same time next day, the person should offer the five obligatory prayers during their flight time.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan