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Fatwa CenterCalculating the Distance from the City to Shorten Prayers when Traveling
Question
Al Salam Alaikum,You said that if a person wants to shorten his prayer due to travel he must measure the distance from the city limits to the intended place of travel. However, what about a someone who lives in a non-Muslim country and does not know the city limits, what can he do? Can he measure it from his house? Jazakum Allahu Khairan
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
As you mentioned, the distance that is related to the rulings of traveling (i.e. that permits a traveler to shorten and combine the prayers as specified in the Sharee’ah) is calculated from the last buildings of the town or city where a traveler starts his journey to his destination.
An-Nawawi 
said:
“The journey starts (and the rulings pertaining to travel become applicable) when a traveler passes beyond the developed areas of his town or city of residence; i.e., passing beyond the buildings therein – whether they are near and attached to each other or are far apart from each other – and the undeveloped areas connected to the developed ones are considered within the boundary of the town or city.” [Al-Majmoo’]
The traveling distance is not calculated from the traveler’s home in the town or city of his residence in any case. We believe that technological advancement made it possible to know the exact boundaries of a town or city where the developed areas end with the help of the available accurate electronic maps. Even if it is assumed that this is not possible and a traveler covers a distance that he does not know whether it is a traveling distance or not, and he is unable to know it, it is obligatory on him to perform the prayers in full without shortening them, and it is impermissible to shorten them. This is because the basic principle is to perform the prayers in full without shortening them, and therefore he should not shorten the prayers based on mere doubt. The Hanbali scholar Al-Mirdawi said Al-Insaaf: “If he doubts the distance covered, he should not shorten the prayers.”
Kash-shaf Al-Qinaa’ reads:
“If he doubts that the distance from his town of residence to his destination is a traveling distance, being unable to know whether it warrants shortening the prayers or not, he should not shorten them until he knows for sure because the basic principle is performing the prayers in full without shortening them and he did not know the reason that warrants shortening the prayers (as per the Sharee’ah).” [End of quote]
Allah knows best.
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