Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- A traveler can shorten the prescribed Prayers of Zhuhr, Asr, and Isha to two rakahs when one is travelling for a lawful reason and the journey is at least 81 km (50 mi) one way.
2- As long as the three homes among which you are travelling are your own, you are not allowed to shorten prayers while travelling among them.
Answering your question, Dr. Wael Shehab, PhD in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University and currently the Imam of the Downtown Toronto Masjid in Canada, states:
It is permissible for a traveler, out of Allah’s mercy and favor, to shorten the current prescribed Prayers of Zhuhr, Asr, and Isha to two rakahs each, when one is travelling for a reason that is not disobedience to Allah, and on a journey of at least 81 km. /50 mi. one way.
The legality of shortening the prayers while one is travelling is evidenced by the Quran and the Sunnah. Allah says in the Quran, {And when you (Muslims) travel in the land, there is no sin on you if you shorten the Prayer …} (An-Nisa 4:101)
Moreover, Yahya ibn Ishaq reported, “I heard Anas saying, ‘We travelled with the Prophet from Madinah to Makkah and offered two rakahs (for every Prayer) till we returned to Madinah.’ I said, ‘Did you stay for a while in Makkah?’ He replied, ‘We stayed in Makkah for ten days.’ (Al-Bukhari)
There is general consensus among scholars that if a traveling person is determined to return as soon as his work is done and does not know when that will be, then he may continue to pray qasr (short Prayer) as long as he is on travel.
If, however, a person decides to settle down in a city, the moment he does so, he ceases to be a traveler, and, therefore, he must pray full.
If, on the other hand, one is determined to stay only for a few days the number of which he knows precisely, then he should pray full, according to a great number of scholars, if his stay exceeds more than four days.
Regarding your specific case, I could understand that your house, your parents’ house, and your house in the village are all considered places or houses for your residence. Therefore, you are not allowed to shorten the Prayers in your residence places.
Some scholars have referred to cases in which a person lives in two different houses, in two different cities, and called him sahib ad-darayn (one who has two homes); so he cannot shorten the Prayer in either of them.
However, you can shorten and combine Prayers (Zhuhr with Asr and Maghrib with Isha) while traveling in between these cities if the journey is at least 81 km/50 mi. one way.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.