Thank you very much for your question. It is our pleasure to answer it.

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright.

The Shar‘i texts clearly indicate that it is obligatory to offer the five daily prayers at the specified times, and that it is not permissible to put together Zhuhr and `Asr, and Maghrib and ‘Isha, without any excuse such as sickness, travelling, rain and the like which would make it difficult to offer each prayer at its own time.

Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning): “Verily, the prayer is enjoined on the believers at fixed hours” [an-Nisa 4:103], i.e., the prayer is obligatory at specific and known times. 

With regard to the report narrated by Muslim from Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace  be upon him) put together Zhuhr and ‘Asr, and Maghrib and ‘Isha , when there was no fear and he was not travelling and it was not raining – this does not mean that he put prayers together without any excuse.

Rather it was said to Ibn `Abbas concerning that: What made him do that? He said: He wanted not to make things difficult for his ummah. In other words, he did not want to cause them hardship and difficulty. This indicates that there was an excuse for putting prayers together in this hadith, and were it not for putting the prayers together it would have caused hardship for the people.

Based on that, quoting this hadith as evidence is not appropriate. What is required is to offer each prayer at the time specified for it in the Shari`ah. If there is an excuse or reason for putting prayers together, such as sickness or rain, then there is nothing wrong with putting prayers together in that case.

And Allah Knows best.