We say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade a person from bathing in stagnant or standing water that does not flow, and on this basis we say to these people: No.
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The questioner : This is a letter we received from one of our listeners. He says, “From your brothers in Islam,” and they did not mention their names. They say in their letter that our problem is that we are a group of teachers from an Arab Islamic country working in our brotherly Yemen. We are in one of the villages, and this village has a mosque with an imam. The mosque has a pool of water, and the worshippers from the village come to it. You find some who purify themselves in it, meaning they bathe and purify themselves, and we find some who clean themselves around it, and they also perform ablution in it. In other words, this pool is used for everything: purification, cleaning, and ablution. Its water changes approximately every week. We tried to forbid them from doing this, but they did not listen to us. The biggest problem is the imam, the imam of the mosque, who also performs ablution from it and did not listen to our words. What is your opinion on this?
The Shaykh : We say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade a person from bathing in stagnant or standing water that does not flow. And on this basis, we say to these people: Do not bathe in this water. If you wish to bathe, take water from it with a vessel or scoop it with your hands, and let what falls from your skin be outside this body of water or outside this pool of water. Likewise, regarding ablution, if they perform ablution from it and what falls is outside of it, then there is nothing wrong with that. And likewise, regarding cleaning oneself, if they scoop from it and what leaks is outside of it, then there is nothing wrong with that. But the problem is what the questioner or the questioners mentioned, that they were bathing in it.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade a person who is in a state of major ritual impurity from bathing in standing water that does not flow. So these people are forbidden from doing that. Also, from a health perspective, it may be harmful as well. It should be looked into from a medical standpoint. If this water becomes contaminated by these actions, then they are forbidden from it. Yes.
The Shaykh : We say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade a person from bathing in stagnant or standing water that does not flow. And on this basis, we say to these people: Do not bathe in this water. If you wish to bathe, take water from it with a vessel or scoop it with your hands, and let what falls from your skin be outside this body of water or outside this pool of water. Likewise, regarding ablution, if they perform ablution from it and what falls is outside of it, then there is nothing wrong with that. And likewise, regarding cleaning oneself, if they scoop from it and what leaks is outside of it, then there is nothing wrong with that. But the problem is what the questioner or the questioners mentioned, that they were bathing in it.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade a person who is in a state of major ritual impurity from bathing in standing water that does not flow. So these people are forbidden from doing that. Also, from a health perspective, it may be harmful as well. It should be looked into from a medical standpoint. If this water becomes contaminated by these actions, then they are forbidden from it. Yes.