A Return Leg Of A Journey Not Included In The Safr Distance

If a person makes an intention of traveling 77.3kms or more from his residence, he will be regarded as a Shar’ie Musaafir (traveller) and all the laws of Safar will be applicable; however, if he makes an intention of travelling less than the distance mentioned above, he will not become a Shar’ie Musaafir (traveller). Additionally, for instance, if one intends to travel 40kms to a town at point A and only after reaching point A he intends to travel a further 40kms to another town at point B, his total journey will be 80kms. Even though he travelled 80kms he will not be a Musaafir since he has not intended to travel 77.3kms or more from the beginning of his journey, which is a condition to become a Musaafir. He only decided to travel a further 40kms after arriving at point A.

After mentioning the above basic ruling of Safar-e-Sharie we would like to answer your specified query:-

If you intended to travel 77.3kms or more from your residence, you will be considered a Musaafir in Shariah; however, in the enquired case, if you only made the intention of going to Central Johannesburg and then to Fourways which makes the total journey of 75kms, you will not be a Musaafir since the total distance from your residence is 75km which is less than 77.3kms.

The query that you have posed of travelling from home to your office (40kms) and then for a meeting to Fourways (35kms) and then back to your office (35kms) could have two scenarios depending on whether Fourways is regarded as part of Johannesburg city or not. If it is part of Johannesburg city and it falls within the borders of Johannesburg, then even if a person travels for a 1000 kilometres within the borders of a town or city (visiting different clients or attending several meetings in different parts of the city), he will not be regarded as a Musaafir. This is because of the fact that when a person goes on a journey, then to calculate the distance of a Shar’ie-Safar he will only calculate the distance from the exit-border of his town to the entry-border of his destination town. Whatever is travelled thereafter within the borders of the destination town will not be taken into equation. 

If the second scenario applies, that Fourways is not part of Johannesburg city but a separate town altogether, then the following rule will apply:-

If you made the intention from home to travel to your workplace in Central Johannesburg (40km) and from there another 35km for a meeting in Fourways (totalling 75km), you will not be a Musaafir in Fourways. When you decide to return to your workplace in Central Johannesburg (which is 35km), you are not travelling an additional 35km away from your home. Rather, you are coming back on your homeward bound route, merely stopping over at your office in Central Johannesburg to complete your office duties. So even though the total travelling distance is now 110km (40km + 35km + 35km), you will not be regarded as a Musaafir at your office in Johannesburg because the last 35km (from Fourways to your office) will not be added onto the calculation as this 35km is being travelled en-route to your home. 

This is similar to a person going from Lenasia to Benoni via Johannesburg (Lenasia to Johannesburg is about 30km and from there to Benoni about another 30km, totalling only 60km), so he will not be a Musaafir in Benoni even though he knows that he will be returning to Lenasia in the evening (via Johannesburg). In other words, he will not add on the 60km of the return trip home as that would then amount to 120km (which is more than the 77.3kms required to render one a Musaafir). The reason that he does not add on this 60km is that this additional 60kms is on his return trip. Even if he decides to stop over for some work in Johannesburg whilst returning home to Lenasia; resulting in him having travelled 90kms (60kms to Benoni via Johannesburg + 30kms back to Johannesburg), he will not be regarded as a Musaafir in Johannesburg. In the light of this latter example, it will be easy for you to realize that you will not be a Musaafir when you return back to your office in Johannesburg after the Fourways meeting.