Contemporary scholars have varying views on this question. The first view considers it permissible to offer two prayers together because of the short time range or because 'Isha prayer becomes due very late at night.
1. The European Council for Fatwa and Research considers it permissible to combine the Maghrib and 'Isha prayers because 'Isha falls very late at night or because its mark disappears for a period during the summer. Indeed, 'Isha may only fall due near midnight. The Council also considers it permissible to combine the Zuhr and 'Asr prayers in winter, due to the short hours of the day which makes it difficult for people at work to offer each prayer at its time in their workplaces. However, the Council makes clear that people should not resort to such combination when there is no need for it, and they must not make it their habit.
2. The General Secretary of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America published his view on the Assembly’s website making clear that it is permissible to bring the 'Asr prayer forward and delay the Maghrib prayer so as it may be offered together with the 'Isha prayer, if work conditions require this, until the person concerned can organize his working times differently.
However, he emphasized that the normal situation is to offer each prayer at its appropriate time. This concession should be exercised only when there is pressing need, or to remove hardship, or when the time of prayer cannot be properly defined.
3. A number of scholars are of the view that combining two obligatory prayers together occasionally is permissible, and in rare cases essential, in order to remove difficulty and make things easier for people engaged in work that cannot be interrupted, such as traffic police or a surgeon carrying out an operation.
4. The Fatawa issued in Tunisia in the fourteenth century AH (1883–1980 CE) considers the different views that outline the reasons permitting combining prayers together and concludes that it is permissible to follow any of the major schools of Islamic Fiqh. A special reference is made to the Hanbali school of Fiqh which states that ‘it is permissible to combine the Zuhr and 'Asr prayers together, as well as the Maghrib and 'Isha prayers’ and offer each two during the time range of either one in different situations, including circumstances and work that permit the non-attendance of Friday prayer, as clearly stated in Dalil al-Talib by Marie ibn Yusuf. These scholars add: ‘The preferable option is to follow the Hanbali school of Fiqh.
5. Shaikh Muhammad Abu Zahrah is of the view that combining prayers in situations of difficulty is permissible.
