Abu Dawud and others recorded it with a sound chain of transmission that a number of scholars—such as Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalani—declared authentic; it is listed in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd, no. 21. Had the author relied on this report, he would have been correct!

He then wrote, under the etiquettes of relieving oneself, that one “should not urinate in still or running water.”

I say: As for still water, that is indeed prohibited, for the ḥadith concerning it is authentic; Muslim and others narrated it from Jabir, as cited in the book. It also has an even stronger corroborating narration from Abu Hurayrah, reported by the Two Shaykhs, and entered in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd, nos. 61 and 62.

As for running water, no proof exists, because the author quoted—immediately after Jabir’s report—the wording:

“From him: the Prophet ﷺ forbade urinating in running water.” Al-Haythamī says in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid: “Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it, and its narrators are trustworthy.”

That is his claim, yet the chain contains an unknown transmitter, another who is accused, and the mudallas narration of Abu al-Zubayr. Moreover, al-Layth related it from him with the wording “in permanent (dāʾim) water.” Muslim and others have reported this version, as noted above, and al-Layth’s transmission from him is sound, for he never narrated from him except what he had explicitly heard, as is well known. This, then, is the preserved wording in Jabir’s ḥadith.

The wording “running water” is in fact anomalous. Abū ʿAwānah even entitled the chapter for al-Layth’s report: “Clarification of the prohibition of urinating in stagnant water and the evidence for the permissibility of urinating in running water.”

With this clarification, the author’s attempt to equate running water with stagnant water collapses. I have discussed at length the anomaly of the ḥadith he used as proof in al-Ḍaʿīfa, no. 5227.

Note: In what the author attributed to Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid—that al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it—