Evolution of Positive

Muslim Thought
Tensil Toes
DIAM
Diversity of Identities and
Acceptance of All Minds
Outline
• Motivation
• Addressing Misconceptions
• Qur’an
• Classical Period
• Contemporary Period
• The Three Cases
• Further Readings
• Final Thoughts
Motivation
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
• The most terrible poverty is loneliness and
the feeling of being unloved.

• Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for,

forgotten by everybody, I think that is a
much greater hunger, a much greater
poverty than the person who has nothing
to eat.
Mother Abbess
Mother Abbess

• Maria, these walls were not meant to

shut out problems. You have to face
them. You have to live the life you
were born to live.
International Humanist and
Ethical Union: Homosexuality
in Pakistan
• Families may tolerate a gay son or daughter, as long
as this does not clash with their duty: the
requirement to marry and procreate.

• Police will usually blackmail a known homosexual

and extort money for their own personal gain.

• gay men from poor backgrounds will .. join the Hijra

subculture. Lesbians .. will be easily …married off….
Many turn to prostitution to subsist. … and safe sex
is an unfamiliar concept

• this individual will be shunned by neighbors, friends

and extended family. They will almost certainly lose
their job or a place at an educational institution …
Suicide would be an option
Suicide
• Two nights ago, I got a call at 3:00 am
from an 18 year old Lebanese Muslim gay
boy who had been suicidal. We talked for
an hour and a half.

• Hamid Natosh was a fourteen year old in

Vancouver from an Afghan family who was
driven to suicide on March 11, 2000.
Schoolmates persistently bullied him with
accusations of being gay and he found no
consolation or protection in his religious
tradition as it had been presented to him.
Parents
• It is much more common, he said, for gay
young men to be forced into marriages
they do not want. Those who display the
wrong inclinations are likely to be beaten
by their fathers until they find a wife or run
away from home. In better-off families
they may be sent for a "cure".
Ahmed told of a friend whose father
discovered he was having a gay
relationship and, after a beating, bundled
him off to a psychiatrist.
"The treatment involved showing him
pictures of men and women and giving
Itrath Syed
Excommunication

• She and her elderly parents were

effectively excommunicated from the
Richmond Mosque which her parents
helped build and which she had
attended since her youth.
Rape
• CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ An Egyptian who was
seen being tortured in a widely circulated
video testified Monday against the police
officers who he claims sexually abused
him and used a cell phone to film the
abuse.

In November, several Egyptian bloggers

posted a video, which also later appeared
on the popular video-sharing Web site
YouTube, showing a man naked from the
waist down being sodomized with a stick.
As he screamed in pain, those around him,
whose faces are not visible, ridiculed him.
Renaissance: Islam and
Women: Misconceptions and
Misperceptions
• When a husband calls his wife to bed, and
she refuses and [as a result] the husband
spends the night in anger, then angels
curse the wife all night till dawn. (Bukhari,
No: 3065)

• Firstly, a husband and wife safeguard the

chastity of one another by providing one
another a legitimate means of satisfying
the sexual urge. This protection of chastity
is essential for the preservation of the
family unit – the very institution on which
the stability of a society hinges. Hence
anything which puts chastity in jeopardy is
HIV statistics: UNAIDS
estimates
• Although overall HIV prevalence is low in
Pakistan, there is growing evidence of
substantial high risk groups which could
contribute to local concentrated
epidemics.

• The survey found 4% of 409 MSMs

sampled were HIV positive. There were
alarmingly high syphilis rates among Hijras
in Karachi (60%) and Lahore (33%). The
survey also found very low condom use
among these groups, particularly among
MSM.
The Lancet Infectious Diseases,
July 22, 2008.

• Dr Syed Ali, Aga Khan University, Karachi:

HIV among homosexual and bisexual
Pakistani men is reaching alarming
proportions
• fear of God…the moral approach only
serves to drive the behaviour underground
• Male sex workers … charging (50 to 100
rupees) per client, … Introducing condoms
is a challenge, as clients can often simply
find another prostitute who will assent to
unsafe sex.
• young boys who are sexual victims of
elderly men should be protected legally. 
Kingdom in the Closet

• If you practice something forbidden

and keep it quiet, God might forgive
you." Zahar, a 41-year-old Saudi who
has traveled widely throughout the
world, urged me not to write about
Islam and homosexuality; …… "The
original points of Islam can never be
changed."
Addressing Misconceptions
Abid Tanoli
Daily Times May 11, 2003
• Until July 1, when his religious teacher
threw acid on his face, leaving him blind,
he was like any other 14-year-old. The
teacher, Qari Amin, wanted to sodomize
the boy at his madrassah

• Abid is one of 672 children who suffered

sexual abuse in Pakistan in 2002, ….. Of
these, more than half, or 353, were males.
Three hundred and thirty-three of the boys
were sodomized.
Daily Times Dec 17, 2005
• MULTAN: A religious seminary student
Muhammad Asif, 12, was scarred with hot iron for
refusing to have sexual intercourse with his
teacher, Abdul Rashid, who injured his private
parts in anger.

• a madrassa teacher and two others are jailed

awaiting trial in Karachi for an acid attack on a
14-year-old boy in 2002 after he allegedly refused
to have sexual intercourse with the cleric. The
boy was blinded and badly injured. However, the
accused deny charges.

• Last year, a Pakistani official stunned the nation

by officially disclosing more than 500 complaints
The Guardian: March 22,
2006
• The Muslim parliament of Great Britain will
today urge the government to set up a
national register for the mosque schools,
coordinated and monitored by local
authorities, to meet their legal obligations
under the Children Act 1989.

• The report will warn of the widespread

existence of physical and sexual child
abuse in madrassas and follows
revelations that as many as 40% of
teachers in the schools hit or scold
Kingdom in the Closet and
Iran
• ..... reported that he's had sex with Saudi
men whose wives were pregnant or
menstruating; when those circumstances
changed, most of the men stopped calling.

• An Iranian "trick" or sexual contact, ….

"will pick up Playboy, never Playgirl. He
will turn to photos of women's rear ends….
he will point to the woman and point at
you. He does not ask if you like her; he
asks if you will be her."
Uromastyx
Uromastyx (Dabb Lizard)
• ‘Abdullah b. ‘Abbas reported: I and Khalid b.
Walid went to the apartment of Maimuna along
with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him),
and there was presented to him a roasted lizard.

• Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) lifted

his hand. I said: Messenger of Allah, Is it
forbidden? He said: No. It is not found in the land
of my people, and I feel that I have no liking for it.

• Khalid said: I then chewed and ate it, while,

Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) was
looking (at me).
The 1963 Quaker statement
• Surely it is the nature and quality of a
relationship that matters: one must not
judge it by its outward appearance but by
its inner worth.…

• Homosexual affection may of course be an

emotion which some find aesthetically
disgusting, but one cannot base Christian
morality on a capacity for disgust.
Sayyed Muhammad Hussein
Fadlullah
Sayyed Muhammad Hussein
Fadlullah
• Some jurists forbid anal-sex in principle, but those
who allow it differ juristically. Some believe that
anal sex is permissible during the menstrual
period, depending on the Holy Aya, [ 02:22 ]
which implies the forepart.

• Others interpret “Keep aloof from the women…”

as keeping aloof from the whole intercourse;
accordingly, they forbid it in both parts during
menstrual discharge.

• In general, we do forbid anal-sex as an obligatory

precaution
Ayatollah Al-Udhma
Sheikh Muhammad Fazil
Lankarani
Ayatollah Al-Udhma
Sheikh Muhammad Fazil
Lankarani
• Based on the widely held opinion of
Shiite scholars this act (anal sex) is
strongly Makrooh (undesirable, what
is not Haram to do, but it is better to
avoid).  If wife is consenting to it, it is
permissible but it would be
extremely undesirable.
Sahih Bukhari, Book 60:
Prophetic Commentary on
the Qur'an
• Volume 6, Book 60, Number 50:
Narrated Nafi':

• Nafi added regarding the Verse:--"So

go to your tilth when or how you will"
Ibn 'Umar said, "It means one should
approach his wife in ……….."
Ahle Hadith scholar Waheed-
uz-Zaman
Imam Shafii
Imam Shafii
• Imam Muhammad Ibnul Hassan reasoned against Imam
Sha’afi, saying that the word-cultivating field can only
mean the vagina.

• Imam Sha’afi said that this means, besides vagina, all

other places are forbidden.

• Imam Sha’afi further questioned, what if someone had sex

between the ankles of his wife or between her elbows,
would that be considered a fertile field?

• Imam Muhammad said, those areas cannot be fertile field—

Imam Sha’afi then asks the Imam, if he considered that
type of sex as ‘haraam’? Imam Muhammad said, “No.”
Imam Sha’afi then asked his opponent, as to how can he
rationalize about something, of which he himself is not
convinced?

• Imam Hakum states that perhaps Imam Sha’afi may have

believed in this tradition in his early years, as we notice,
that he gave clarifications against it in his later years.
Re-Cap
• Many gay men do not have anal sex. And while
many people stereotypically view anal stimulation
as a homosexual male act, anal sex is a sexual
behavior, not tied to a group of people. Physical,
emotional, social, and sexual attractions, not
behaviors, are key factors in a person's
understanding of his or her sexual orientation.

• Much of the pornography available, marketed

toward people of any sexual orientation, provides
extreme and stylized examples of fantasies. As a
result, it's easy to assume that these images are
the "right" way to have sex. Anal sex is portrayed
as quite normal in porn imagery, but, in reality, it
occurs much less frequently than other sexual
behaviors.
Al Razi (865-925 AD)
Al Razi (865-925 AD)
• A medieval medical monograph entitled "Treatise
on the Hidden Illness" and attributed to Ar-Razi
(865-925) is claimed as the first detailed medical
work to address the "hidden illness" of ubnah, or
passive homosexuality.

• The treatise ascribes a genetic origin to the

illness, the male or female properties of a child
being determined by the degree of "forcefulness"
of the male sperm in "transforming" the female
"sperm" at conception.

• Bruce W. Dunne, "Homosexuality in the Middle

East: An Agenda for Historical Research," Arab
Studies Quarterly 12/3 & 4 (1990), pp. 55-82.
Al Razi (865-925 AD)
• Ar-Razi's treatise reflects that passive
homosexuality was to some extent viewed as
"natural," that it was "feminine" and involved
performing the "feminine" sexual role
(acknowledged as pleasurable),

• that the "illness" was or could be found among

both the "affluent" and others, and that the
treatment, at least among the affluent, included
sexual stimulation by both female and male
servants. There is no suggestion that the
dominant role should, for therapeutic or other
reasons, be assumed only with a woman.

• Franz Rosenthal, "Ar-Razi on the Hidden Illness,"

Rabbi Gershom Barnard
Rabbi Gershom Barnard
• I must say that, in my lifetime, medical
opinion has changed from treating
homosexuals with hormones, to treating
them with psychoanalysis, to treating
them with behavioral conditioning, to
saying that there is no treatment, indeed,
that there is nothing to treat. As a non-
psychiatrist, the only rational and
responsible thing for me to do is to accept
the current prevailing psychiatric view of
homosexuality.
Rashid Rida (1865 – 1935)
Rashid Rida (1865 – 1935)
• shari'a consists of `ibadat (worship) and
mu'amalat (social relations). Human
reason has little scope in the former and
Muslims should adhere to the dictates of
the Qur'an and hadith. The laws governing
mu'amalat should conform to Islamic
ethics but on specific points may be
continually reassessed according to
changing conditions of different
generations and societies
Qur’an
Qur’an 7:80

• And (We sent) Lut when he said to

his people: What! Do you commit an
indecency which any one in the world
has not done before you? (7:80;
29:28)
Qur’an 7:80
Qur’an 7:80

• From iconographic evidence dating

from 3000 BC to the Christian era it
is clear that homosexual practice
was an accepted part of the
Mesopotamian scene. This conclusion
is confirmed by many literary and
legal texts in which homosexual
activity is mentioned.
Qur’an 7:81

• Most surely you come to males in

lust besides females; nay you are an
extravagant people. (7:81, 26:165-
166, 27:55)
Qur’an 7:81
• According to the understanding of most exegetes
and jurists, all these verses - (7:80-81; 26:160-
166, 27:54-55, 29:28-29) – refer specifically to
anal intercourse between males.
• only 2-3% of men are homosexual
• Bilal Philips: God cannot make people
homosexuals and then punish them as criminals.
• Daryabadi: in its general significance is ‘an
excess; an enormity; anything exceeding the
bounds of rectitude.’
• Jews and Christians v/s the Jews and Christians of
7th century Arabia
• Ibn Hazm: availability of excellent substitutes
Qur’an 7:81
Qur’an 7:81

• And you make strong fortresses that

perhaps you may last for ever?
(26:129)
• This camel is a sign for you, so leave
her to graze in Allah’s earth, and let
her come to no harm, or you will be
seized with a horrible punishment. …
…..Then they hamstrung the camel,
…So the earthquake took them
unaware… (7:73-78)
Qur’an 29:29

• What! Do you come to the males and

commit robbery on the highway, and
you commit evil deeds in your
assemblies? But nothing was the
answer of his people except that
they said: Bring on us Allah's
punishment, if you are one of the
truthful.
 Qur’an 29:29 Jarir al Tabari
(838 - 923 AD)
Qur’an 29:29
• Narratives  Ikrimah: Shortening: they would have a
procrustean bed in which they would put the traveller and if
he was too long they would shorten him, and if too short,
stretch him, resulting in his death.
• Narratives  Aishah: Abomination in assembly was passing
wind.

• Narratives  Mujahid: Abomination refers to sexual

intercourse.

• Narratives  Ibn Zayd: Abomination refers to accosting

riders, seizing them and mounting them.

• Narratives  Prophet via Umm Hani: Abomination refers to

cutting off wayfarers and mocking them.

• (Narratives on 29:29)
Qur’an 29:29
Qur’an 11:78-79
• He said: O my people! These are my
daughters-- they are purer for you,
so guard against (the punishment of)
Allah and do not disgrace me with
regard to my guests; is there not
among you one right-minded man?
They said: Certainly you know that
we have no claim on your daughters,
and most surely you know what we
desire. (11:78-79; 15:67-72)
Qur’an 11:78-79
• 22…….the men of that city, sons of Belial (that is, without
yoke), came and beset the old man's house, and began to
knock at the door, calling to the master of the house, and
saying: Bring forth the man that came into thy house, that
we may abuse him:

• 23 And the old man went out to them, and said: Do not so,
my brethren, do not so wickedly: because this man is come
into my lodging, and cease I pray you from this folly.

• 24 I have a maiden daughter, and this man hath a

concubine, I will bring them out to you, and you may
humble them, and satisfy your lust: only, I beseech you,
commit not this crime against nature on the man.

• 25 They would not be satisfied with his words; which the

man seeing, brought out his concubine to them, and
abandoned her to their wickedness:

• Judges 19
Qur’an 4:15-16
• And as for those who are guilty of an
indecency from among your women, call
to witnesses against them four (witnesses)
from among you; then if they bear witness
confine them to the houses until death
takes them away or Allah opens some way
for them.

• And as for the two who are guilty of

indecency from among you, give them
both a punishment; then if they repent
and amend, turn aside from them; surely
Qur’an 4:15-16

• Only one maverick commentator, the

Mutazilite Abu Moslem Esfahani (d.
934), understood two highly
ambiguous verses (4:15-16) as
referring to, respectively, female and
male homosexual behaviour…….
while otherwise there was unanimous
consent that the subject of both
verses was heterosexual fornication.
Qur’an 4:15-16
Abu Ala Maududi (1903 – 1979
AD)
Qur’an 4:15-16
• Even less convincing is the opinion expressed by
Abu Muslim al-Isfahani that the first verse relates
to lesbian relations between females, and the
second to homosexual relations between males. It
is strange that al-Isfahani ignored the basic fact
that the Qur'an seeks merely to chart a broad
code of law and morality and hence deals only
with fundamental questions. It is inconsistent with
the majestic style of the Qur'an to discuss
secondary details which have been left to people
to decide through the exercise of their legal
judgment. It is for this reason that when the
problem of fixing a punishment for sodomy came
up for consideration after the time of the Prophet
(peace be on him), none of the Companions
thought that the above-mentioned verse
Hadith and Opinions
• When a man mounts another man, the throne of
God shakes
• The lesbian’s testimony is unacceptable because
she is an evildoer
• Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets
it be done to him.
• May Allah curse him who does that Lot's people
did
• When men (i.e. homosexuals) will sexually satisfy
themselves with men and women (i.e. lesbians)
with women, then earthquakes will occur, faces
will become transformed and stones will rain
down from the skies.'
Classical Period
Hasan Al Basri (642-728/737
AD)
Hasan Al Basri (642-728/737
AD)

They were penetrating men’s anuses

and they DID NOT DO IT EXCEPT to
the strangers. (Tafsir al Kabir, 7:80)

From Hussein’s monograph

Abu Hanifa (699-767 AD)
Abu Hanifa (699-767 AD)
• Liwat (anal intercourse between men) is not as
Zina in terms of legislations, nor in the offense,
and therefore the punishment should not be
same for Zina and Liwat because of the lack of
equality in need (attraction); In Liwat, even
though the active partner likes it, the passive
partner does not by nature, and that is different
from Zina, where the attraction happens on both
sides (the active and the passive).

• (Tafsir al Kabir, 24:2)

From Hussein’s monograph
Ibn Hazm (994 - 1064 AD)
Ibn Hazm (994 - 1064 AD)
• It is clear that the stoning was not because of their lewdness
alone, but because of their Kufr as well.  one should not stone
the people who do the work of the people of Lut unless they were
unbelievers.

• Every one with a little brain knew that she (Lot’s wife) did not do
the works of the people of Lut.  then stone each person that
leads to this act, otherwise, you are contradicting yourselves.

• Burn each one that cheats with the weights, because Allah burnt
the people of Shuaib, and kill people that kill the camel of
another, as God did to the people of Saleh.

• Hadith: “ the blood of the muslims is not permitted to be spilled

except in three: Kufr after Iman, and Zina after marriage and
killing another person” ; the person who commits this act is not
one of those.

• There is no Correct evidence in killing such a person. There is also

no correct evidence from any of the Sahaba as well.

From Hussein’s monograph

Ibn Hazm (994 - 1064 AD)
• Abu Muhammad said: So, if the people of ignorance and
stupidity said: leaving them without being killed is aiding
them at that act.

• They will then be told: and leaving any person who commits
Zina will aid them at doing it again,

• and leaving the killing of the one who leaves Islam –even if
he repented-is aiding him at doing it again,

• and leaving killing of the consumer of swine is aiding him at

eating it as well

• (Al Kitab al-Muhallā bi'l Athār)

From Hussein’s monograph
Ibn Hazm (994 - 1064 AD)
• Tradition  from Abu Burda al-Ansari, that the
Messenger of Allah said, " No man shall be
beaten-, with more than ten lashes, save in the
case of a penalty sanctioned by Allah.“

• Allah has forbidden nothing, without having

provided for His servants lawful substitutes,
which are seemlier and more excellent than the
thing prohibited.

• The Ring of the Dove

http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/hazm/dove/chpt28.html
 Ibn Qudamah (1147 -1226
AD)
Ibn Qudamah (1147 -1226
AD)
• The male is not a place of intercourse for another
male. So owning him does not affect. And if a
man had anal intercourse with his wife or female
slave, that would be forbidden, but there is no
punishment on it, because the woman is a place
of intercourse. Some scholars approved anal
intercourse between a man and his wife or
concubine, and therefore, it is a (Shubha) error in
the interpretation of the law, which will prevent
punishment. This is different from anal
intercourse between men.
• (Al Mughni)

From Hussein’s monograph

Fakhr al Din Razi (1149 – 1209
AD)
Fakhr al Din Razi (1149 – 1209
AD)
• Sex mainly to have children, sex in its own is animalistic.
(Procreation)

• Masculine is the active partner in sex, and the feminine is

the passive partner. (Nature)

• Severe humiliation to the penetrated partner. (One sided

desire)

• Semen in anus  hurt, injury, diseases and tumors. This

is a danger that is known to the people of medicine.
(Reference to medicine)

• (Tafsir al Kabir, 7:81)

From Hussein’s monograph

Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328
AD)
Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328
AD)
• The tilt of the self to women happens in general
amongst all people. And many of them will be
tested in tilting towards males as the beardless
youth. And if he was not doing the big lewdness
(anal intercourse), then he will be involved in
lesser than that of trying, and if not, then in
looking, and the self suffers from this in what is
known amongst people…..

• (Tafseer Al Imran)
From Hussein’s monograph
Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328
AD)
• The address, was to the active partner,
because he was the one with the desire
and the want (for sex). This is opposite to
the passive partner for he has no sexual
desire (for the act) to start with, except
that it happens to him because of disease
or money that he takes from the active
partner or another aim. And Allah knows
best.

• (Tafseer An Nour)
From Hussein’s monograph
 Ibn Qayyim (1292 – 1350
AD)
Ibn Qayyim (1292 – 1350
AD)
• The killing of the passive man (in
anal intercourse) is better for him
than being penetrated. This is
because, when a man penetrates
him, then he killed him a death
where no life is wished after that.
But if killed, then he is a person who
was transgressed against, a martyr.

From Hussein’s monograph

Jalal ud Din Suyuti (1445 –
1505 AD)
Jalal ud Din Suyuti (1445 –
1505 AD)
• Tradition from bin Abbas: What made them (the people of
Lut) have sex with men other than women that they had
fruits in their houses and on the road and they were
inflicted by drought and lack of fruits, then some of them
said: If you prevented those fruits of the road from the
travelers that pass here, then you will have preserved
them.

• They asked how? They said: make it your tradition, that if

you take a stranger in your country that you penetrate him
(have anal sex with him being the passive partner), and
make him pay four Dirham. People will not come to your
place if you did that. Then this is what made them do this
abomination that no one had done before. (Tafsir Dur Al
Manthur)

From Hussein’s monograph

Khaled El Rouayheb
Khaled El Rouayheb (p. 45,
49)
• Abu Jahl, the infamous archival of the
Prophet Muhammad, was reputed to have
had ubnah.............

According to the Palestinian jurist Khayr al

Din al Ramli (d. 1671), the venerable Abu
Hanifah founder of the school of law to
which Ramli himself belonged, had seated
a handsome student of his in such a
manner as not to see him, "from fear of
betrayal of the eye"
Khaled El Rouayheb (p. 127,
137-139 )
• In assessing the gravity of a sexual sin, the mode
of intercourse was more important than the
genders of the partners. Illicit vaginal intercourse
between a man and a woman was a graver sin,
and was punished more severely, than kissing,
caressing, or intercrural intercourse between
men, or sexual intercourse between women.

• Even the otherwise severe Ibn Hajar al Haytami

conceded that kissing, fondling, and intercrural
intercourse (mufakhadhah) are minor sins
(saghair).
Khaled El Rouayheb (p. 127,
137-139 )
• The underlying principle assumed by Egyptian
Maliki scholar Abd al Baqi al Zurqani was that
major sins required repentance to be wiped off
the sinner's debit side on the Final Reckoning,
while minor sins did not. The latter would be
compensated for by simply avoiding major sins.
Even if the minor sins were committed repeatedly
and willfully (ma al israr), they would be
compensated for by supererogatory works, even
if the perpetrator did not repent.

• Some scholars believed that the "venial faults"

(lamam) mentioned in the following Quranic
verse: " Those who shun great sins and iniquities,
all but venial faults, verily thy Lord is of ample
forgiveness" (53:32), referred specifically to non-
Khaled El Rouayheb (p. 127,
137-139 )
• In accordance with such a scaling of the
seriousness of sins, jurists envisaged situations in
which one would be religiously obliged to perform
a minor sin to ward off a more serious situation.
For instance the Egyptian jurist Shihab al Din
Ahmad al Ramli (d. 1550) was asked whether it
was permissible for a lover to kiss an unrelated
woman or boy if, in line with accepted medical
theory, he feared that he would die if his passion
remain frustrated.

• Ramli answered that kissing the object of one's

passion in such a situation was not only
permissible but actually a duty and that it was
incumbent on the beloved woman or boy to allow
this.
Khaled El Rouayheb (p. 124)

• Hanafi Mufti of Aleppo Al Kawakibi (d.

1685): If, however, he commits liwat
with his male slave, or female slave,
or wife, then he is by consensus not
liable to hadd, since there are those
that deem it permissible on the basis
of the Exalted [23:6 and 70:30]:
“Except for their wives or what their
right hands possess”
Khaled El Rouayheb (p. 2 )
• The Egyptian scholar Rifaah al Tahtawi, who was
in Paris between 1826 and 1831 noted:
Amongst the laudable traits of their character,
similar really to those of the Bedouin [arab], is
their not being inclined toward loving male
youths and eulogizing them in poetry, for this is
something unmentionable for them and contrary
to their nature and morals.
One of the positive aspects of their language and
poetry is that it does not permit the saying of love
poetry of someone of the same sex. Thus, in the
French language a man cannot say: I loved a
youth (ghulam), for that would be an
unacceptable and awkward wording.
Therefore if one of them translates one of our
Khaled El Rouayheb
• Scholarly opinions can be summarized by
the Rector of Al Azhar Abdallah al
Sharqawi (d. 1811) as follows:

'Among the martyrs is one who dies from

passionate love if he refrains from
transgressions of religious law... and keeps
the love a secret....whether the passionate
love is for what could become available for
licit intercourse or not, such as a beardless
boy, according to authoritative
verdicts.......'
Khaled El Rouayheb
• The Rector of Al Azhar from 1758 to 1767,
Shaykh Muhammad al Hafni of Al Azhar
actually summarized the contrasting
opinion of the scholars at that time:
• It has been said: liwat is not permissible in
paradise because of its filthiness; and it
has been said: it is permissible, and the
mentioned reason has been countered by
pointing out that there is no filth or
reproduction in Paradise.
Contemporary Period
Khalid Duran
Khalid Duran
• Islamic scholar Khalid Duran, who now
teaches in the West, believes that the best
hope for those Muslims who self-identify
as gay or lesbian is to seek "theological
accommodation" by establishing a new
shari’a derived from the Prophet’s
teachings on justice (much like the gay
and lesbian Christian apologetic which
seeks to overcome the biblical prohibitions
through recourse to the love ethic of
Jesus).
Farid Esack
Farid Esack
• I am reminded of the way most Muslim
communities deal with gay people. They are
welcome as flamboyant camp singers at
weddings on the Indo-Pak subcontinent,
hairdressers for the bride, handy to come and do
the washing and ironing. All of these are
acceptable at a social level and passed over in
silence at a theological level, as long as they are
very clearly effeminate, obviously 'funny' and
'know their place'.
•
Heaven forbid that they try to be just 'ordinary'
and 'normal' and visit our homes or befriend us
like any other human being. It's then that the roof
caves in.
Khaled Abou El Fadl
 Khaled Abou El Fadl
• In Islamic juristic discourses, Muslim jurists were
quite explicit that effeminate characteristics are
not evidence of homosexuality. By contemporary
Islamic standards, the Islamic juristic discourses
would appear shocking and even liberal. At the
literary level, we find homosexual desire
expressed in poetry and literature without there
being punitive legal measures taken to silence
such expressions.

• Enforcing criminal laws as to sodomy are subject

to very strict evidentiary requirements. It is worth
noting that we do not find a large number of
prosecutions or successful punishments of acts of
homosexuality.

• Islam & Freedom of Expression

 Scott Siraj Al Haqq
Kugle
Scott Siraj Al Haqq Kugle
• Al Rawandi asserts that the sexual acts of the
people of Lut were acts of violence to drive away
strangers, travelers, and those in need. They
were not sexual acts expressing a distinct
sexuality or even fulfilling the desire for sexual
pleasure.

• When Lut offers up his family members (who

happen to be female daughters) in exchange for
his guests (who happen to be male visitors), he
displays in most extreme terms the sacredness of
protecting guests who are elevated even above
the status of offspring.

• Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and

Scott Siraj Al Haqq Kugle
• Hadith: Al Rawandi: Abu Jafar  Prophet
Muhammad

• The people of Lut were inhabitants of a city that

refused to share its food with others. This
miserliness consequently became a disease that
had no cure that infected their sexual organs.
•
Their city was on the main highway between
Syria and Egypt, so caravans and travelers used
to halt there and stay as their guests. This
situation increased until their means were
stretched to the limits, and they grew dissatisfied.

• Greed and miserliness bid them follow its call, to

the extent that if any strangers stopped to ask for
their hospitality, they would rape them without
Ghazala Anwar
Ghazala Anwar
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Muslims are to be judged by the quality of
their faith, the purity of their intentions
and the goodness and selflessness of their
actions as any other Muslim or human
being.

• 'The larger Muslim community has to

come to the recognition that homophobia
and not homosexuality is the sin.
Siti Musdah Mulia
Siti Musdah Mulia

• Homosexuals and homosexuality are

natural and created by God, thus
permissible within Islam......”There is
no difference between lesbians and
non-lesbians. In the eyes of God,
people are valued based on their
piety,”
Abdel Nour Brado
Abdel Nour Brado

• Brado, defended gay rights,

considering it a “shame to persecute
gays in the Muslim world”, claiming
“gays are born gays and have no
choice about it”.
Khaleel Mohammad
Khaleel Mohammad
• "The solution is simple, I put the legal
ramifications to them of what the verses mean,
and that the society of that time had different
norms, that reproduction was a must for tribe
survival, etc. And so long as one is not being
other than who she or he is, God is loving."

• Many Sufis and Islamic scholars were either

allegedly or known to be homosexual, offering
young people another example of faith fitting
together with identity.
•
"We know that God, for all the talk of perfect
creation, has made hermaphrodites, has made
people who are outwardly physically male, yet
with the inner reproductive systems of females.
Why should we see it any different for gays?"
 Zaki Badawi (1922 –
2006)
Zaki Badawi (1922 –2006)
• A handful of Muslims are believed to be among
the hundreds of gay men and women who have
taken out civil partnerships in the past month.
The country's other top Muslim, Dr Zaki Badawi
has urged gay Muslims to take advantage of their
financial benefits so long as they are not sexually
active.

• If the civil contract allows for two sisters or

brothers to be covered by its rules I would advise
Muslims to enter into such a contract.
Sheikh Mohammed Hashim Al-
Hakim
Sheikh Mohammed Hashim Al-
Hakim
• "I used to be very hard against
homosexuals and sex workers,"

• "But I learned to respect their

humanity. I advise them to change,
but if they are going to continue they
must practice safe sex so they don't
harm themselves and their partners."
Muhsin Hendricks
Muhsin Hendricks
• "Man arafa nafsahu, arafa rabbah"
• "He who has discovered himself, discovered his
creator."
• "La tahkumu wa laa tuhkam"
"Do not judge and you will not be judged."

• If two homosexuals want to have a bondage of

intimacy, based on love and loyalty with each
other, I do not have a problem with that, as long
as it is not viewed as synonymous to a
heterosexual marriage.
Daayiee Abdullah
Daayiee Abdullah
• I believe it is not ‘haraam’ to have a
monogamous, same-sex relationship
that indicates by looking at it, there
is a consensual loving relationship
and they share their intimacy with
each other; I call it a marriage, plain
and simple.  You as a Muslim man, or
woman, deserve to seek a consensual
monogamous relationship as would
any Muslim, regardless of sexual
orientation.
Qazi Rahman
Qazi Rahman

• Dr Qazi Rahman, a lecturer in

cognitive biology at Queen Mary,
University of London, said that he
believed that these brain differences
were laid down early in foetal
development.
• "As far as I'm concerned there is no
argument any more - if you are gay,
you are born gay," he said.
Pamela Taylor
Pamela Taylor
• I find it hard to condemn an entire subset
of humanity, who God created to be as
they are, to either a life of celibacy (which
the Prophet clearly discouraged) or a life
of sin.
• The Prophet said we are not true believers
until we want for our brothers and sisters
what we want for ourselves. I want a
satisfying, committed, loving relationship
with my spouse. How could I want to deny
that to anyone?
Pamela Taylor
• When talking about the institution of
marriage, the Qur'an uses the word "zauj"
to describe both partners. While much of
the discussion of details surrounding
martial life and divorce clearly assume a
male and a female partner, the fact that
the word "zauj" is used for both sides in
the most fundamental descriptions of this
unique bond between two human beings
seems to me to leave the door open for
that relationship to be more expansive and
inclusive than the traditional husband-wife
pairing.
Pamela Taylor
• The Qur’an clearly discusses marriage with
the assumption that the marriage partners
are male and female. It does not address
marriage where both spouses are of the
same sex. One canonical position
throughout the history of Islam has been
that whatever is not expressly forbidden is
permissible.
• Following that position, one could argue
that same-sex marriage is allowed, since
the Qur’an has not forbidden it.
The Three Cases
Hussein
• The prohibition against same sex interaction was
always within the context of sex outside of legally
sanctioned or authorized contexts. So, the
question is: Could there by any legal base to
allow same sex relationship and was there
consensus against it?

• Were the scholars ever asked about their opinion

regarding same sex unions, through marriage or
mulk Yameen? NO.

From Hussein’s monograph

Hussein
• What was asked is if a male can have sex
with his male slave. There was no
consensus to that question, although the
dissenting voice is a minority.

• Were the scholars asked, Can a man give

himself in a legally binding manner to sex
with another man? Can the same be done
for a woman? NO.
From Hussein’s monograph
Hussein
• Hanafis: khuntha (ambiguous gender) can be
married by his father to man or to a woman, if he
was able to perform intercourse. Otherwise, he is
like an impotent person.

• Malikis and Shafiis: he cannot marry in both

situations.

• Ibn Munther from Shafii: He can marry members

of either sex, according to his desire, then he
cannot change. It is thought by that statement
that it applies if he chose one partner and was
able to have sex. However, if he chose to marry
but did not have sex, then he can choose to
change opinion and marry a member of the other
sex.
Hussein
• The Hanbalis differed in his marriage. Kharqi
mentioned that the khuntha decides according to
what he says. If he said that he is a man and that
he desires women, then he can do it. If he said
that he is a woman and he desires men, then he
can do it. This is because only he can decide and
no one other than him can decide this. So, his
word is accepted as the word of the woman is
accepted when she says that she has
menstruation or the period. He, the Khuntha may
know himself according to the desires as he sees
which of the two sexes he desires.

• From Hussein’s monograph

Hussein
• Opinion of Kharqi who accepted that a Khuntha
(ambiguous sex) can decide who to marry
according to what he/she desires sexually. This is
also agreed upon by one of the statements that
were attributed to Shafii.

• Could the homosexual be a “natural” khuntha

when it comes to sexual orientation?

• If one is to say that homosexuality is not natural

khuntha, then, from an Islamic point of view, one
can pose the question: According to what criteria
in the book of God or his prophet’s Sunna? Or
according to what criteria of medical knowledge?

• From Hussein’s monograph

Hussein
• The prophet (pbuh) never officiated such a union because
he was never asked to. One cannot conclude that this
means a prohibition.

• There is Hadeeth evidence that this kind of situation did

not raise itself to the prophet. In fact this situation
never raised itself to any scholar before our time.

• The rule is that a practice is allowed unless there is a

ruling in the Qur’an or by the prophet to make it illegal.
One will then say, what about the Suras related to the
people of Lut? One cannot compare a same sex activity
without legal authority to the one that asks and obtains
legal authority.

• There are many situations that the Prophet never

practiced but are considered perfectly acceptable in our
days. The prophet never had a Turkish bath, but most
scholars consider Turkish baths as perfectly acceptable.
TVQ
TVQ
• According to Al Ghazzali....., marriage has five
main purposes: bearing children, satisfying the
sexual drive, establishing a household and a
family, companionship and providing for women
in a humane manner. ….The Maliki jurist al
Shatibi (d. 1388) adds to these benefits the
enjoyment of the beauty….

• More pivotal for the preservation of marital

relations than bearing children a child seems to
be that the couple are both healthy enough to
engage in physical and emotional intimacy and in
sexual intercourse
In the Shii lexicon the term nikah is equivalent to
wat, which means sexual intercourse….... Hence
TVQ
• In all other situations (including leprosy), as difficult as it
might be for the wife to stay with her husband, she may not
request dissolution, Jabb (being amputated of penis) , unna
(asynodia), and khisa (castrated) are exceptions to the
above rule because in their presence the primary purpose
of marriage, namely sexual intercourse, is denied.

• Dr. Ahmad Kanan says: 'Unna (asynodia) is the man's

inability to penetrate a woman, and often the reason is
psychological, such as shame or revulsion......

Unna can be proved by asking the husband to take an oath

if he declines to take an oath his disability is proved.

• Disability in Islamic law / by Vardit Rispler-Chaim. (p. 47, 56,

117-118)
TVQ
• One has to bear in mind that Islam provides facilities to
those who are subject to hardships and therefore Islamic
law takes cognizance of needs and necessities which are
genuine and legitimate. To satisfy such needs and
necessities the believer is allowed to overstep even the
clear text of law but he must know his responsibility to God
if he does so unscrupulously.

• Need whether of a public or private nature is treated as

necessity.

• The determination of the extent and the time of necessity

and need, and whether it is necessity or need, depends in
individual cases upon one's conscience and taqwa or fear of
God which is the true measure of judgment of human
actions.

• Islamic jurisprudence and the rule of necessity and need /

TVQ
• The classical scholars did not define what exactly
qualifies as a necessity, need or luxury. However,
in principle, they sought to differentiate between
things that must be guaranteed to people
because they are essential for a healthy,
respectable, and dignified life, and things that are
less important or essential.
The classical scholars contended that it falls upon
each generation of Muslims to explore and define
in accordance with the shifting demands of the
circumstances and changing times what ought to
be defined as the necessities, needs, and
luxuries.

• The great theft : wrestling Islam from the extremists /

TVQ
• There are some people who are born extroverts,
and there are others who are introverts by their
natural inclination. It is neither possible to
change the nature of individuals nor is it
the purpose of the Almighty’s message that
our personalities be artificially changed. We are
expected to operate within the boundaries of our
personalities. The diversity in human nature
is a beauty and it would be a disaster if it is
attempted to be bulldozed by a system for its
own narrow purposes. We can only come up with
the best of our potential if we are given to
perform in accordance with what we are.

• http://www.renaissance.com.pk/Decq42y5.htm
Rules of Jurisprudence

• What is not expressly forbidden is

allowed.
• General rules always allow for
exceptions.
• Necessity trumps prohibition.
• Recognition of sexual need
• Accommodation of intersexuals
Further Readings
 Dr. Khalid Sohail
Har Daur Main Masloob
 Dr. Khalid Sohail
http://www.drsohail.com/Poetry/Masloob/masloob.htm
 Qazi Rahman and Glenn
Wilson
J.W.Wright and Everett K.
Rowson
Ruth Vanita and Saleem
Kidwai
Islamic Homosexualities:
Culture, History, and Literature
Khaled El Rouayheb
Final Thoughts
Rabbi Harold Schulweis
Rabbi Harold Schulweis
• We have little control over natural
catastrophes: earthquakes, floods,
hurricanes, tornadoes. But there are
catastrophes over which we have control
because we have created them. The curse
upon the gay person we have pronounced.
This tragedy we have imposed on our
children is not the will of God. It is our
doing. The blessing and curse, life and
death given us is our choice. We are not
coerced to silence.
Bishop John Shelby Spong
Bishop John Shelby Spong

• Words shape consciousness and

therefore words have consequences.
When religious voices claim to speak
for Christ suggest in their prejudiced
ignorance that homosexual people
are sinful, abnormal, unclean or
subhuman, we do nothing less than
to sow the seeds that are used to
justify hate, and even murder.