Should pilgrims who are residents of Makkah shorten their prayers in ‘Arafah, Muzdalifah and Mina?
Question

                Should the pilgrim who is a resident of Makkah shorten his prayers in the places of the rituals?
Praise be to Allah.
	The well-known 
	view among the companions of the three imams – ash-Shaafa‘i, Maalik and 
	Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on them) – is that the resident of Makkah should 
	not shorten his prayers or put his prayers together, because he is not 
	travelling, since what is regarded as travel is a distance of eighty-three 
	kilometres or more. It is well-known that ‘Arafah is the furthest of the 
	places of the rituals from Makkah, and it is not that far away. Based on 
	that, the residents of Makkah should not put their prayers together or 
	shorten their prayers; rather they should offer the prayers in full and 
	offer each prayer at its own time, whether in ‘Arafah, Muzdalifah or Mina.

	Abu Haneefah 
	(may Allah have mercy on him) was of the view that they should put their 
	prayers together and shorten them. He said: The reason for putting the 
	prayers together and shortening them is the pilgrimage, not travel, so they 
	should shorten their prayers even if they are in Mina, which is the closest 
	of the holy places to Makkah.

	But the correct 
	view is that the reason for shortening the prayers in Mina, ‘Arafah and 
	Muzdalifah is not the pilgrimage; rather the reason for that is travel, and 
	travel is not defined by distance; rather it is defined by the situation, 
	which means that if a person goes out and he makes preparations for this 
	going out, and takes food and drink with him, then he is travelling.

	Based on that, 
	we say: At the time of the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah 
	be upon him) the people used to take provisions with them for Hajj, whether 
	they were residents of Makkah or otherwise, therefore the people of Makkah 
	who were with the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) 
	during the Farewell Pilgrimage put their prayers together and shortened 
	them, following the Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), 
	and he did not say: O people of Makkah, offer your prayers in full. This is 
	the more correct view, and it is the view favoured by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn 
	Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him).

	According to the 
	second view, which we regard as more correct, when a person is in Muzdalifah 
	or in ‘Arafah, he is in a place that is separate from Makkah, so let him 
	avail himself of the concession of travel. But when he is in Mina, Mina 
	nowadays has become as if it is one of the neighbourhoods of Makkah, 
	therefore we think that to be on the safe side, the resident of Makkah 
	should not put his prayers together and not shorten them in Mina. Moreover, 
	there is no putting together of prayers in Mina even for one who is not a 
	resident of Makkah, because in Mina the Sunnah is for the non-resident of 
	Makkah to shorten the prayers without putting them together. As for 
	Muzdalifah and ‘Arafah, they are separate from Makkah, and are not connected 
	to it as far as I have seen, because the built-up area is not connected to 
	it. Whatever the case, if we assume that Makkah grows larger in the future 
	and Muzdalifah becomes part of it like Mina, then the ruling will be the 
	same. End quote.