Bathing and ablution in standing ponds

A question on bathing and ablution in a standing village pond, in which Ibn Baz separated the purity of the water from whether one may bathe in it. ¹

The questioner said his village has a pond whose water stands for more than three months. ¹ Many people, he said, bathe in it from major impurity, and some make ablution from it. ¹

Ibn Baz answered that a wide pond with plentiful water is not harmed by impurity falling into it so long as the water's taste, colour and smell have not changed, and it remains pure. ¹ He nonetheless ruled out bathing in it from major impurity, urinating in it or cleaning oneself in it, citing the reported prohibition on a person in major impurity bathing in standing water and on urinating in it. ¹ He advised drawing the water out and purifying oneself outside the pond so as not to foul it for others. ¹

The answer is published on binbaz.org.sa, the official site of Ibn Baz's legacy, as fatwa 1915 in the al-Jami al-Kabir audio series. ¹ The museum records this answer as a historical text attributed to its author; it issues no ruling of its own.