Impulse and Transgression

A question that naturally arises is how one answers the objection about nature: Islam and other faiths reject homosexuality as a perversion, but we all know people who are born like that — we see them as children, boys acting feminine, and they have no choice.

Femininity is from the location itself. Femininity is not encouraged for a male; but the maʾbūn, an effeminate person, is mentioned in the books of fiqh: somebody who acts effeminate is mentioned as one for whom it is undesirable that he lead the prayer. But there is no moral stigma there. One is not saying that this person is bad or evil. It is when that person makes a choice to transgress a boundary.

Now, see, the thing here is the idea of impulse. One does not know from the inside, if that is not one's own experience of the world — having been attracted to the opposite sex. That does not mean that one does not recognise a handsome man on seeing him. It is natural for us to recognise beauty. There is an attraction to beautiful people, whether it is a male or a female; that is quite normal.

From the Islamic perspective, if there is an impulse, then what is demanded of the individual is that they suppress it. So from the Muslim point of view, if a person does have homosexual impulses or desires — which obviously there are people who have — the Muslims would say that that is the same as somebody having an impulse to steal: that they like something, they want it, and they desire to steal. They have to say: no, I will not transgress the boundaries. There are implications.

And there is an idea within modern Western culture that as long as I do not harm anybody else, it is all right. From the Muslim point of view, there is a harm when this emerges into the public space. As far as the Muslims are concerned, what people do behind their closed doors is their own business; that is not my area of judgement. If I see an effeminate man, I should not assume that he is a homosexual — by Islamic law that is not my place. If somebody is openly doing these things, that is what becomes condemned: when there is an open breach.

The same with alcohol. Somebody who makes wine in their house and drinks wine — that is between them and God. The minute they step out into the public space, that is where the sharīʿah says no. So in terms of Islamic law, what applies to them in this world is only what moves into the public space, not what is in the private space. But in terms of the next world, we believe that God takes people to account for the public and the private space. So that is really the way the Muslims would look at it.

And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that from his community there would be different types of homosexuality: he said there would be homosexuality of the glance, and homosexuality of touch, and then homosexuality of the action. It is in the hadith. And it is also considered one of the signs of the end of time — a subject for the chapter on the end of time — that homosexuality and lesbianism become very prevalent, according to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). It is one of the signs of the end of time. And he actually said that men would marry men, and women would marry women. That is in one of the hadiths.