If you ask: “Would this not be prescribed, since it falls under cooperating in righteousness and piety? Thus, should it not be regarded as prescribed rather than merely permissible?”

The answer is: There is no doubt that it falls under cooperating in righteousness and piety. However, this is an act of worship that a person should perform himself, and it has not been reported from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, that whenever he wished to perform ablution, he would ask someone to assist him with it.

Some scholars said that assisting one who is performing ablution is disliked except in cases of need, (1) because it is an act of worship and a person should not seek another’s help in performing it. However, the authoritative position of the school is more correct.

Drying one’s limbs.

His statement, “Drying one’s limbs”: drying means removing the moisture.

The evidence is the absence of any proof prohibiting it, and the basic rule is permissibility.

If you ask: “How do you answer the hadith of Maymunah, may Allah be pleased with her, who, after mentioning the Prophet’s ritual bath, said: ‘I handed him a cloth, but he did not take it; rather, he went away shaking the water from his hands’?” (2)

The answer is that this was an isolated incident that admits several possible explanations. Perhaps there was some issue with the towel, such as its not being clean; or perhaps he feared that he would wet it with water, and its becoming wet was unsuitable; or there may have been another reason.

Moreover, the fact that she brought him the towel may indicate that it was his usual practice to dry his limbs; otherwise, she would not have brought it.

The correct view is what the author stated: that it is permissible.