—peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him—then it is comparable to his prohibition against urinating in a bathing place and his statement:

“For most obsessive doubts arise from this.”

For if someone urinates in a bathing place and then bathes there, he becomes troubled by doubts. Some traces of urine may also remain and splash back onto him. Likewise, if he urinates in water and then bathes in it, he may bathe before the urine has undergone transformation, while particles of it still remain. It was prohibited for this reason.

His prohibition against bathing in standing water, if authentically reported, relates to the question of used water. This may be because doing so makes the water repugnant to others, not because it becomes impure or acquires the status of used water. For it is authentically established that he said:

“Water does not acquire major ritual impurity.”

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was also asked:

If a man dips his hand into water, is it permissible to use that water or not?

He replied:

It does not become impure through this. Rather, it remains permissible to use according to the majority of scholars, including Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad. Another report from Ahmad holds that it acquires the status of used water. And Allah, Glorified and Most High, knows best.