Boundary of Greater Toronto Area in terms of Islamic Traveler Rulings

One of the most common questions for Muslims who live in the Greater Toronto Area (Ontario, Canada) is that whenever they travel within Toronto and adjacent cities are they deemed to be a traveller according to Islamic jurisprudence (Figh) or not?

The traveler ruling is precisely explained in Imamiyah Jurisprudence references and this note does not intend to elaborate on that. This note aims to answer this question: “where is the exact geographical boundary of the Greater Toronto Area in terms of the Islamic ruling pertinent to travelers?” in other words “how much a person who reside in Toronto area should move to be considered as a traveller according to Imamiyah Islamic Law (perform a two raka’ah salat instead of four raka’ah and break his/her fast)?”

First of all, it is necessary to define some related terms:

1. End of the city: based on Islamic jurisprudence is the specific spot that the last houses of the city are extended and after this point there are no more residential units within a city.
2. Certain distance:  eight parasangs (or 44 kilometers or 27.3 miles) in the direction of journey or to and fro together.

 The main condition of to be considered a traveler is that the intention to travel the complete distance should be present at the start of the journey. It is necessary that either the walls of the town should disappear from sight or its adhan should not be hearable. This limit is around 1350 meters after the end of the city. The limit they have set for the beginning of the journey is also the limit for terminating it; i.e. if a person is returning back home, he is supposed to pray qasr until he sees the walls of his town or is able to hear its adhan.

This article is solely dedicated to scrutinizing the geographical boundary of the Greate Toronto Area for the purpose of determining the notion of “end of the city” in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). These are the assumptions for drawing the line of the boundary in determining the end of the city:

• as long as the residential urban texture of the city is linked together, the area is considered inside GTA. The measure for determining this linkage is the distance between the buildings for less than 800 meters. Religiously there is no certain metric for this distance and the distance should be determined based on the common sense. In this article 800 meters is chosen because it seems that most people deem this distance enough to consider two neighborhoods separated from  each other. Based on TTC standards the distance between three bus stations in Toronto is between 600-800 meters. Eight hundred meters is the distance that a healthy person can walk in 10 minutes. If two persons position in this distance they can barely see each other or hear the voice of each other. Thus, it seems that 800  meters is a proper metric for determining the separation of two adjacent towns.
• The integration of only residential buildings not industrial, recreational, mines, and other non-residential buildings are considered as the factor in defining the city boundary.

Based on the Google Earth satellite imagery that has been taken in Summer 2018 the cities that ARE part of the Greate Toronto Area from East to the West are Ajax, Pickering, Toronto, Markham, Richmond Hill, Aurora, Newmarket, Vaughan, Brampton, Mississauga, Oakville, and Burlington.   The adjacent cities that are NOT part of the Greater Toronto Area are Whitby, Whitchurch, East Gwillimbury, West Gwillimbury, Kettleby, King City, Nobleton, Caledon, Georgetown, Milton, and Hamilton. It is worth noting that due to the fast urban development in the GTA this boundary should be updated at least each five years. Therefore, the introduced boundary for the GTA in this article is only valid until 2025 not beyond that.

Details of the end of the city boundary:

East: the boundary between Ajax and Whitby. This boundary is aligned with the highway 412 between the intersection 401 and road number 41. In this area the minimum distance of the houses is 2 kilometers which is far more than 800 meters (as our metric).

North: The northern boundary of Ajax at the road number 4, the northern boundary of Pickering at the road number 3 and Finch Avenue, the northern boundary of Markham at Major Mackenzie Drive East, the northern boundary of Newmarket at the road number 19 or Green Ln East, the northern boundary of Vaughn at the road number 49 or Teston Road, and the city of Brampton at the road number 14 or Mayfield Road.

West: the boundary between Burlington and Hamilton at the intersection of Hwy 403 and Hwy 6.

South: Lake Ontario.

The boundaries which needed more elaboration are the far East and far West. At the Eastern end, the boundary of Ajax and Whitby is determined by Highway 412 and its buffer. At this area the residential buildings are completely separated and located around 2 km apart from each other. The green and brown area on the map shows the agricultural or unbuilt lands and the gray areas are the residential units and houses.

The author would be happy to receive any comments and suggestions through this email: hdrezvani7@gmail.com

Finally, the higher resolution of the boundary of the GTA from East to West are provided below. As a reminder the areas with yellow hue are inside the Greater Toronto Area boundary.

Map no. 1: the Eastern boundary of GTA between Ajax and Whitby

Map no. 2: the east and north boundary of the GTA between Pickering and Toronto

Map no. 3: Northern boundary of GTA at the Markham area

Map no. 4: east, west and northern boundary of the GTA at the Markham, Richmond Hill, and Vaughan areas

Map no. 5: east and western boundary of the GTA at the Aurora and Newmarket areas

Map no. 6: east, west and northern boundary of the GTA at the Newmarket area

Map no. 7: west and northern boundary of the GTA at the Vaughan area

Map no. 8: west and northern boundary of the GTA at the Vaughan and Brampton area

Map no. 9: the western boundary of the GTA at the Brampton area

Map no. 10: the western boundary of the GTA at the Mississauga area

Map no. 11: the western boundary of the GTA at the Oakville area

Map no. 12: the western boundary of the GTA at the Burlington area