Reaching your destination doesn't automatically end your travel. What matters is your intention about how long you will stay. Stay long enough and you are a resident there, praying in full. Stay less and you keep shortening. Each school sets that limit differently.
The residence limits
| School | You pray in full if you intend to stay |
|---|---|
| Hanafi | 15 days or more in one town |
| Shafi'i | 4 full days, not counting arrival and departure days |
| Maliki | 4 full days (20 obligatory prayers) |
| Hanbali | More than 4 days (more than 20 prayers) |
| Shia Ja'fari | 10 days or more in one place |
The Hanafi 15 days is based on reports from Ibn Abbas and Ibn Umar. The majority's 4 days draws on the Prophet's ﷺ permission for the Muhajirun to stay three days in Makkah after Hajj, and his four days in Makkah before Hajj while shortening.
When you don't know how long you'll stay
Sometimes you are waiting for something: a visa, a repair, the end of a job. You expect to leave any day, but it keeps getting extended.
- Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali: you keep shortening as long as you have no intention of staying the resident period, even for months. Ibn Umar is reported to have shortened for six months in Azerbaijan, held back by snow.
- Shafi'i: you shorten for up to 18 days, then pray in full.
- Shia Ja'fari: you shorten for 30 days. From the 31st day you pray in full, even if you leave shortly after.
Ibn Abbas reported that the Prophet ﷺ stayed 19 days in Makkah during the conquest, shortening (Bukhari). Some scholars treat 19 days as the limit for an undecided stay.
Students and workers abroad
A student on a four-year degree has a clear intention to stay far longer than any limit, so they pray in full in their university town from the start. The same applies to someone on a long work contract. When they travel back to their family's town, the question becomes whether it is still their home.
Home, and having more than one
You always pray in full in your watan (homeland), even on a short visit. The schools define it slightly differently:
- Hanafi: the watan asli is where you were born, or where you settled with your family intending to live permanently. You can have more than one. If you move away permanently and leave nothing to return to, it stops being your watan.
- Shia Ja'fari: your watan is your original hometown or a place you have chosen as a permanent home and lived in long enough to be considered local. Passing through your watan during a trip interrupts the journey.
Situations like shared custody, married couples from different towns, or migrants with homes in two countries are exactly where a scholar's advice is worth getting.
The calculator handles stay length, uncertain stays and the hometown question under Your stay and More factors.