Performing dry ablution at the end of the prayer time is preferable for one who expects to find water.
His statement, “Performing dry ablution at the end of the prayer time is preferable for one who expects to find water,” means that if, when the prayer time begins, he does not find water but expects to find it near the end of the prayer time, then postponing dry ablution until the end of the prayer time is preferable, so that he may pray in a state of purification with water. However, if he performs dry ablution and prays at the beginning of the prayer time, there is no harm in that.
You should know that this issue has several cases:
Delaying the prayer is preferable in two cases:
The first: when he knows that water will be available.
The second: when it is more likely, in his estimation, that water will be available, because this preserves one of the conditions of prayer, namely ablution. Thus, it takes precedence over performing the prayer at the beginning of its time, which is virtuous.
Performing the prayer at the beginning of its time is preferable in three cases:
The first: when he knows that water will not be available.
The second: when it is more likely, in his estimation, that water will not be available . . .
The third: when neither possibility is more likely to him.
Some scholars held that if he knows water will be available, then he must delay the prayer (1), because this allows purification with water, which is the basic rule; therefore, he must delay it.
What appears more correct to me is that delaying it is not obligatory; rather, it is better, for the following reason:
- The general purport of the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “Whenever prayer comes upon any man of my community, let him pray” (2).