Determine whether your journey qualifies for shortening (Qasr) and combining (Jam') prayers — with clear thresholds from both the Shafi'i and Hanafi schools.
Enter where you started from and where you currently are. We compute the great-circle distance using the haversine formula.
Only the 4-rak'ah obligatory prayers (Dhuhr, Asr, Isha) are shortened to 2 rak'ahs. Fajr and Maghrib remain unchanged.
A traveler may combine certain prayers, either earlier (taqdim) or later (ta'khir).
Pray both at the time of Dhuhr (jam' taqdim) or both at the time of Asr (jam' ta'khir). Combine in one session.
Pray both at Maghrib time or both at Isha time. Fajr is never combined — it stays in its own time.
Fajr is always prayed in its own time and never combined with another prayer, regardless of travel.
When a Muslim travels beyond a defined distance from his city, Allah has granted two beautiful concessions: Qasr (shortening the four-rak'ah prayers to two) and Jam' (combining Dhuhr with Asr, and Maghrib with Isha). The Quran says: "And when you travel through the land, there is no blame upon you for shortening the prayer." (An-Nisa 4:101) The Prophet ﷺ never prayed four rak'ahs on a journey — he and his Companions always shortened. To leave Qasr while travelling is not piety; it is opposing the Sunnah.
The four major schools agree that there is a minimum distance, but they differ slightly on the exact figure. The Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools take it to be approximately 88 km (about 48 miles), based on the classical "two-day camel journey". The Hanafi school takes it as 77.25 km — derived from a slightly different reading of the same hadith. In practice, almost every modern car or air journey clears both thresholds.
Only the four-rak'ah fard prayers — Dhuhr, Asr, and Isha — are shortened to two. Fajr stays at two and Maghrib stays at three: these never change. As for sunnah and nawafil, the regular sunnahs of Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha are dropped during travel (except the two sunnah of Fajr and Witr, which the Prophet ﷺ never abandoned). This makes travel prayer brief and merciful.
Jam' means praying two prayers in one time slot — Dhuhr with Asr, and Maghrib with Isha. You may do jam' taqdim (combining at the earlier time) or jam' ta'khir (combining at the later time). Fajr is never combined with any other prayer. The Prophet ﷺ combined prayers in travel, and also in extreme rain or fear — but the routine context is travel.
A traveler returns to praying the full prayer the moment he reaches home (the residential area of his city). If he intends to stay in a place for four days or more (according to the Shafi'i school), he resumes the full prayer there too. The Hanafi school sets this at fifteen days. Below those thresholds you are still legally a traveler and the concessions apply.