Mufti Online — Madrasah Ta'leemuddeen

Salaah while travelling on an aeroplane

· 20 Dhuʻl-Qiʻdah 1434 AH1 min readEnglish

Question

I have a question regarding a person travelling through different time zones? How does one go about determining what Salaah to perform when if they are travelling from one time zone to another? For example a person intends to travel from New York city to India. A person travelling from New York city to India or a surrounding country will have lost a day in this journey. I am writing a more clear example related to my question, please kindly advise me.

I board the airplane after performing Esha salaah in New York city, it will travel via Dubia to India. When I arrive to Dubia/India, I will have lost a day. My questions are as follows:

Whilst the plane is in the air, what salaah do I perform (bear in mind that I performed my esha before boarding in New York city)?

How do I calculate the salaah times since the plane will be travelling over different countries and time zones?

Can a person perform salaah whilst they are seated in their seats even though they have ability and facility to perform it in normal position in the plane?

Any other clarification or explanation or additional information will be appreciated concerning this question.

Answer

1 - 2. You should calculate your namaaz times according to the time zones that you are passing through and perform your namaaz accordingly. Hence, you would not have missed out any namaaz. It will just be that you will be performing your namaaz in shorter intervals.

3. Nafl namaaz can be performed whilst seated. Fardh has to be performed standing.

And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.

References (Arabic / Urdu sources)

وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ طَرَفَيِ النَّهَارِ وَزُلَفًا مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ إِنَّ الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَ السَّيِّئَاتِ ذَلِكَ ذِكْرَى لِلذَّاكِرِينَ ﴿هود: ١١٤﴾

حَافِظُوا عَلَى الصَّلَوَاتِ وَالصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَى وَقُومُوا لِلَّـهِ قَانِتِينَ ﴿البقرة: ٢٣٨﴾

عن ابن عمر : أن النبي صلى الله عليه و سلم صلى إلى بعيره أو راحلته وكان يصلي على رحلته حيث ما توجهت به (جامع الترمذي # 352)

Answered by
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)
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People also ask

How do I pray on a plane, ship or train?

“Performing fard salaah on the plane seat is not valid for the person who has the ability to stand and perform salaah. Hence, the salaah performed on the plane seat was not valid and one's fard did not take place.”

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