Shortening the prayer for a person who returned to a city after moving out from it
6-11-2007 | IslamWeb
Question:
My uncle was born in Lahore(city of Pakistan) . he used to live in lahore with his parents and his parents are still in lahore but now he has moved to Islamabad(300Kms away from Lahore). he is settled in Islamabad and have been living there for years with his family . Question is , he usually comes to lahore to meet his parents and now will he offer Qasr Namaz(Salah) or normal Namaz . someone told me that he will have to offer normal Namaz because he is in his parent's city where he can live in his parent's home if this is the case then if he comes to lahore and stays in his sister's or in-law's home then still he will offer normal Namaz because he is in the city where he was born . Please ! guide me under the light of Quran and Sunnah .
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Since your uncle is not residing in Lahore any more, then if he comes there, he is permitted to shorten the prayer unless he has a wife who lives there or he is sure he will stay there for four days or more. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 91127.
The fact that his parents or some of his brothers and sisters live there, and that he was born there, all this is not an obstacle for him to shorten the prayer. Indeed, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, used to shorten the prayer in Makkah when he came to it after he had migrated to Madeenah although Makkah was his birthplace and his parents and relatives used to live there.