How is the prayer performed en route in/on a vehicle?

The first precaution in travels is to get on the vehicle that you think will not stop in prayer times having taken the ritual ablution. This is because before anything else, if you have ablution there is the possibility of performing the prayer right away if need be. If you do not have ablution, then there is no possibility of praying even if the occasion shows up.

Having put it that way, we can list some important points to know during travels:

1- During travels, if it is hoped that the vehicle one travels in will halt somewhere before the time of the prayer is over, one should wait. Getting off right away where the cehicle stops within the time of the prayer and performing the prayer normally must be opted for. For the prayer performed on ground is complete. The one performed inside the vehicle on the seat is, however, lacking. Its constituents of standing and prostration are half. It will surely not be appropriate to choose the half prayer while the complete one can be performed. For this reason, one should request from the responsible people to stop in an appropriate place to perform the prayer and should endavour to perform his prayer on ground even when it is drawing to the end of the prayer time.

2- If it becomes apparent that the vehicle will not stop and if it has drawn to the end of the prayer time, then there is no need to wait any longer. Instead of postponing the prayer to a later time, one must perform it on the seat in the way possible. In such a prayer, sitting on the seat is accepted as the standing position, bowing a little is accepted as bowing, and bowing a little more is accepted as the prostration. Here, there is no obligation of putting the head on the front seat. It is enough to prostrate to the emptiness, the head facing the tips of feet.

3- It is a good beginning to start the prayer by saying the starting word while facing the direction of Mecca, the Kabah. However, if this is not possible, then the obligation to face the Kabah is annulled. Thus, the person who retains his ablution in the bus easily performs his prayer where he sits, when it draws nearer to the end of the prayer time.

4- The thing to be done for the one who, in spite of all this easiness, misses the opportunity to perform his prayer in the vehicle is to pay back this debt right away.

5- The prayers that could not be performed en route are performed later as traveler prayer. In other words, the person who is accepted as a traveler in Islamic Jurisprudence performs the prayers that he could not perform while travelling later by shortening them, just as during the travel. One performs how many prayers he has missed.