Allah's ﷻ statement: "O you who have believed, when you rise to ⌜perform⌝ prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles." (Maʾidah 5:6)

Abū ʿAbdullāh said that the Prophet ﷺ clarified that "the obligation in wuḍūʾ is ⌜washing⌝ once, and wuḍūʾ ⌜can be done by⌝ washing twice and thrice, but to not exceed washing thrice." The people of knowledge disliked excess in ⌜wuḍūʾ⌝ and going beyond what the Prophet ﷺ had done.

وَقَوْلِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى: {إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلاَةِ فَاغْسِلُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ إِلَى الْمَرَافِقِ وَامْسَحُوا بِرُءُوسِكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ إِلَى الْكَعْبَيْنِ}

قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ وَبَيَّنَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ أَنَّ فَرْضَ الْوُضُوءِ مَرَّةً مَرَّةً، وَتَوَضَّأَ أَيْضًا مَرَّتَيْنِ وَثَلاَثًا، وَلَمْ يَزِدْ عَلَى ثَلاَثٍ، وَكَرِهَ أَهْلُ الْعِلْمِ الإِسْرَافَ فِيهِ وَأَنْ يُجَاوِزُوا فِعْلَ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ.