a bengali in TO: Gays, Homosexuality and Islam

Friday, May 21, 2021

Gays, Homosexuality and Islam

Let's talk about gays, homosexuality and Islam.

One of the big, BIG, mistakes Muslims make is assuming our position is the SAME as that of fundamentalist (or Evangelical) Christians, or orthodox Jews. Similar to the debate on abortion, evolution - Islam has its own take. Some similarities, but also a LOT of differences.

First and foremost, Islam does not deny the existence of gays (unlike a former President of Iran). Even during the time of Prophet Muhammad pbuh, there used to be people called Mukhannathun (effeminate men). Ladies did not even observe hijab from these men and many senior female Companions employed them as servants. These are mentioned in several hadith.

Second, scholars also note an important distinction on the curse applied to Mukhannathun (and those who cannot be employed by women). This only refers to those mukhanathun who are pretending and not actually lacking desire for women. As for those who are not pretending, they are allowed to enter upon women. Similarly, Islamic scholars like Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani stated that all mukhannathun must make an effort to cease their feminine behavior, but if this proved impossible, they were not worthy of punishment. Those who made no effort to become less "effeminate", or seemed to "take pleasure in (his effeminacy)", were worthy of blame.

So you can already see that there is an acknowledgement of gays (and by extension lesbians) in early Islamic history, as well as rulings on acceptable behaviour. Punishments of gay behaviour used to be for public displays of lewdness, but not private sins (unless publicly admitted), and used to differ from Caliph to Caliph. There was also an attempt made to distinguish between nature (what you naturally are) and nurture (what you attempt to become). The later Umayyads persecuted these people (but to be honest, the later Umayyads persecuted everyone). There is rich history of them mentioned in Arabic literature, particularly during the Abbasid era.

Now to the most important ruling - what is Islam's stance on homosexuality?

It is evidently clear and precise. The homosexual act is to be condemned; it's a sin and an abomination, as evident from the Quran. There is no ambiguity in it. The story of the Prophet Lut (Lot) is mentioned in the Quran, and although it differs from the Bible in crucial details, it has the same moral message.

Here is another difference. The ACT itself is haram. It is a sin.

So if you are gay, and you are inclined to the act, that itself is not a sin, but if you act on your desires, you are committing a sin. If the sin is committed privately and you repent, it is forgiven. As long as you repent genuinely and try to avoid the sin, you are forgiven, EVEN if you fall into the sin from time to time.

The big sin is in public display. So if you are a believing Muslim who has gay inclinations, you are not to announce your sin publicly (to be honest you should not announce ANY sin publicly). You cannot promote the lifestyle, nor can you say it is normal and OK (as that would be disbelief in the Quran and take you out of Islam). It is considered a big test and everyone is tested differently.

Note this does not cover trans people or intergender people, whose cases are different. Again, that's a separate topic, but it IS covered in Islam. One madhab, for example, allows a trans person to choose his or her gender differently to what they normally express as during times of inheritance.

If you are a modern, secular person, obviously you will have a lot of disagreement with the various parts of this writing, as you do not believe homosexuality to be a sin. That is fine. To you is your religion.

If I have made any mistakes in this writing, it is mine. Please do your own research.

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