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

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.