remove it, and he does not perform dry ablution if there is impurity on his garment or on the place where he is praying.
The correct view is that dry ablution is performed only in place of ritual impurity, for the following reasons:
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This is what the textual evidence states.
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Purification from ritual impurity is an act of worship. Thus, when water is unavailable, one worships Allah by dusting his most honored limbs with earth. Physical impurity, however, is something from which one seeks to free oneself, not something whose removal must be deliberately brought about. Therefore, whenever one is free of impurity—even without an intention—one is purified from it. Otherwise, he prays according to his circumstances, because purification through dry ablution has no effect in removing physical impurity. What is required in removing impurity is for the body to be free of it; when one performs dry ablution, the impurity does not leave the body. Accordingly, if he finds water, he removes it with it; otherwise, he prays according to his circumstances, because purification through dry ablution has no effect in removing physical impurity …
When the time for an obligatory prayer begins, or a voluntary prayer becomes permissible …
His statement, “When the time for an obligatory prayer begins, or a voluntary prayer becomes permissible”: “When” is a conditional particle; the conditional clause is “the time begins” and what is coordinated with it, while its response is his later statement, “dry ablution becomes prescribed.”
That is, the commencement of the prayer time, or the permissibility of a voluntary prayer, is a condition for dry ablution. This is the first condition for the validity of dry ablution. It is based on the view that dry ablution merely permits and does not remove ritual impurity, which is the established position of the school. It is therefore restricted to necessity, namely, that it be performed within the time of prayer.
His statement, “or a voluntary prayer becomes permissible,” means that offering it becomes permissible, which is when it is outside a prohibited time. If it is a prohibited time, he does not perform dry ablution to offer a voluntary prayer that may not be offered at that time.
Our statement, “that may not be offered at that time,” excludes what is permissible at that time.