Would you please clarify how to pray while traveling in terms of shortening and combining prayers? I will visit a relative of mine in an Arab country and will stay there for about a week. Taking into consideration that we have a house in this country, does this mean that the rulings of prayer while traveling are not applicable to me?

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.

Similar questions were answered in this regard. Here I will give a short summary. Shortening prayers is allowed when one travels for a lawful purpose a distance of 83 kilometers or more. Shortening prayers ends when one comes back to his homeland, reaches a place where he has a wife with whom he had consummated marriage or intends to stay for four days or more. The house you have in this foreign country does not affect the ruling unless you have a wife with whom you had consummated marriage, as mentioned earlier.

It is also permissible to combine two prayers which are performed at close times, such as Thuhr (i.e. noon) and ‘Asr (i.e. afternoon) or Maghrib (i.e. sunset) and ‘Ishaa’ (i.e. night) at the time of one of them.

Scholars have different opinions regarding whether a traveler is permitted to combine prayers only while on the path or upon arrival as well. The preponderant opinion is that he is allowed to combine prayers in all cases. Mu'aath reported that while the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was in Tabook, he combined the Thuhr and 'Asr prayers together. Then he entered and came out and prayed the Maghrib and 'Ishaa' prayers together and he did this on more than just one day. [Muslim]

This Hadeeth means that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was camping in a certain place and not moving, as he would enter and come out of his tent.

In summation, you are not allowed to use the Sharee‘ah concession of shortening and combining prayers as well as other concessions as long as you intend to stay there for four days or more.