‘Abdallah b. ‘Amr b. al-‘As said that the Prophet came upon Sa'd when he was performing ablution and asked, “What is the meaning of this extravagance, Sa'd?” He replied, “Is there extravagance in ablution?” He said, “Yes, even if you are beside a flowing river.’’
Muhammad b. Yahya b. Hibban said that he asked ‘Ubaidallah b. ‘Abdallah b. ‘Umar from whom ‘Abdallah b. ‘Umar got the practice of performing ablution for every prayer whether he was in a state of purity or not, and he replied that Asma’ daughter of Zaid b. al-Khattab told him that ‘Abdallah b. Hanzala b. Abu ‘Amir al-Ghasil told her that God’s messenger was commanded to perform ablution for every prayer whether in a state of purity or not; but when that became a burden to God’s messenger he was commanded to use the tooth-stick before every time of prayer, and the performance of ablution was remitted to him unless his state of purity had been broken. He said that ‘Abdallah considered that he had power to do that, so he did it up to the time of his death.
Abu Huraira, Ibn Mas'ud and Ibn ‘Umar reported the Prophet as saying, “He who performs ablution and mentions God’s name purifies his whole body, but he who performs ablution and does not mention God’s name is pure only where the ablution reached.”
Anas said that God’s messenger used to perform ablution for every prayer, but that they made the ablution serve as long as they did nothing which broke the state of ceremonial purity.
