Thoughts Around the LGBT Issue - 4

At last, I came to the final episode of my quest on the LGBT issue from an Islamic perspective. If you are interested in reading the previous episodes, below is a list with links:

1- Biological aspects (in Turkish language)
2- Human rights and ethical aspects (in Turkish language)
3- Analysis of Quranic verses on the issue (in English language)

In this episode, I am going to focus on the hadiths (the words of the prophet Muhammad pbuh) on the issue of LGBT. Due to the length and breadth of the topic, I first prepared another blog (Chosen From Among Us), in which I made a critical analysis of the methodology of extracting injunctions from hadiths. I strongly recommend that you read it in order to better understand the discussion here. Regardless, before I start my analysis here, I am going to remind the key points from that study again.

When the life details and his sayings are considered in their entirety, and also when the judgments of the scholars in the decades following his death are put in perspective, the below categorization can be made about the injunctions from the example of Prophet Muhammad pbuh:

1- There are things that the prophet Muhammad said or did, and are corrected or completed by Allah. Some of these are expressed in the Quran and others are reported in history.

2- There are things he said, and were not corrected through revelation, but were corrected by himself with his own initiative.

3- There are things he said, and were not corrected through revelation, but were corrected by himself with the initiative of his companions.

4- There are ways of doing certain actions that he told, but at some occasions he did the opposite of what he said.

5- There are things he said, and were not corrected through revelation, were not changed by himself during his lifetime but were interpreted and put under a conditional validity by the scholars of later times. 

The reason for going into such detail and categorization is that as time progresses, new situations and conditions arise. For such unprecedented issues, we need to try our best to come up with solutions that are pleasing to Allah. In doing so, of course, the example of the prophet is a prime guide; but it has its own limitations due to the human condition of the prophet. So, what do we do?

The messenger of God, pbuh, when faced with situations where he was left to his own judgment without a clear divine sign, used to consider the applications among the people, the existing scientific knowledge and his own wisdom. So, today on the LGBT issue, we can follow his example. That is we read the 1- the creation (science), which is depicted as signs/verses of God in the Quran, and 2- Quran itself, 3- existing social conditions.

From the previous blog on the analysis of the Quranic verses on the LGBT issue, I had concluded that the Quran did not portrait a picture totally against such people. Rather, the violent actions of the people of Lot without a consideration for human rights or respect for family, and an obsession to their actions that is going to derail everybody else in their society is what is targeted.

With that perspective, if you think about those of the LGBT people who are living as chaste individuals or as couples with moral values and who are possibly practicing a divine religion, it is obvious that these people cannot be put into the same perspective as the people of Lot.

Now, is this what we see in the words of the prophet Muhammad? Let's read the hadiths on the issue of LGBT:

"What I fear most from my Ummah is the behavior of the people of Lut." (Grade: Weak - Tirmidhi, Punishments, 1457)

"Whomever you find doing the actions of the people of Lut then kill the one doing it, and the one it is done to." (Grade: Good, Tirmidhi, Punishments, 1456)

"Allah's Messenger pbuh cursed those men who are in the similitude (assume the manners) of women and those women who are in the similitude (assume the manners) of men." (Grade:Sahih, Bukhari, Dress, 5885)

"An effeminate man who had dyed his hands and feet with henna was brought to the Prophet. He asked: What is the matter with this man? He was told: "Messenger of Allah! He imitates the look of women." So he issued an order regarding him and he was banished to an-Naqi'. The people said: Messenger of Allah! Should we not kill him? He said: I have been prohibited from killing people who pray. AbuUsamah said: Naqi' is a region near Medina and not a Baqi'." (Sahih - Abu Davud 4928)

When you read through the first three hadiths, they look like a definite position against those who are not straight. With that momentum, when you start reading the fourth hadith, you expect  a sanction just like suggested by the companions, i.e. killing. However, that is not what the prophet commands. If the person is a practicing believer, unlike the rebels of the people of Lot, then things are taking a different turn.

If there had been a clear position in the Quran against homosexuality, the prophet would stand against it no matter what. Remember what he said of sanctions against theft, even if it had been his daughter. By the same token and considering the diverse conditions of the LGBT people today, we can deduce that the general framework for LGBT was something that the prophet was not informed of by revelation.

Accordingly, living in today's conditions where the percent of LGBT people is increasing day by day, even among Muslims, is it not possible that the messenger of God would hold a broader perspective on the same issue? And accordingly, is it not better for us, Muslims, to honor our prophet, who is sent but as a mercy to the worlds (Al-Anbiya 21/107)?

Here, I would like to give a metaphorical and hypothetical case to further clarify my point. If you read hadith about being overweight (fatness) and gluttony (yet another homework) , and if you add on top of them the Quranic verse that says "eat and drink but do not waste" (7/31), you can clearly come to the conclusion that being overweight is a sin! Now, do you see anyone going around, and preaching this? Rather, we hear a discouragement from overeating and different diseases that lead to/stem from obesity. We also hear sermons on the virtues of eating less, but nobody voices it as a sin! On the contrary, there are many Muslims (leaders, imams, regular individuals, etc.) who are overweight! At this point, read verse 174 from chapter Al Baqara, which tells that those who conceal something of the book of God are eating nothing but fire! So, those who are hiding the fact that "overeating is a sin" are eating nothing but fire! But seeing the silence of the majority on the issue, are we to conclude that "if a sin is committed by enough number of people, especially the imams and leaders, it is ok to do it?" This doesn't sound right, does it?

Remember, the above paragraph is a hypothetical thought experiment to clarify my point, and it does not reflect a fatwa. But let's project the understanding thereof to the LGBT issue. As I discussed it in my previous blogs, there are different genetic and social conditions leading to LGBT character, and besides them, yes, there might be some individuals who are distorting the creation similar to the people of Lot. But this last group deserves their own judgment without negating the rights of the rest. To further clarify the matter, take the following examples.

Remember the position of the Muslims against science in the last millennium. Other than the first two-three centuries, science basically diminished in the hands of Muslims, and eventually was announced as evil, because it had became an instrument of disbelief. This went on until the Muslim countries were invaded by the "disbelievers" and there was no escape from that evil, i.e. science. But behold! When crushed under science and technology, we saw the scholars interpreting the Quran and hadith in a way to encourage practicing the science!

Remember the situation of women? Although it is still open for discussion, in the last millennium, women rights continuously diminished in the Muslim world. They were practically cast out of the society, "because they were the source of many sins". What's more, the Western disbelievers had unleashed that devil, i.e. women, in their social lives. Along with the Westerners, that devil, i.e. social presence of women, invaded the Muslim countries, and Muslim women started to take their place in the social life again. We saw Muslim families migrating to Western countries. What a shame and divergence from religion! But lo! When the disbelievers started criticizing Islam in respect of women rights, we started seeing our scholars preaching about the women rights in Islam and how Islam actually paves the grounds for their presence in the social life.

It seems that Allah is teaching/reminding us our religion through the hands of non-Muslims! And now, we are witnessing the same story unfold again on the LGBT issue. "Western disbelievers" are pushing forward on LGBT rights and fighting against prejudices against them, while "Muslim scholars" are fighting to stop such evil in their opinion. I am not questioning their intentions, may God reward them for their good intentions, but I wonder what is going to happen when, say, 10% of the Muslim population becomes biologically LGBT, 20 years from now. You think this is unlikely? Then, I would like to present you the following hadith that, I am sure, you must have heard countless times:

"From among the portents of the hour are the following: ... men will decrease and women will increase so much so that for every fifty women there will be one man to look after them." (Grade: Sahih. Bukhari, Drinks, 5577)

Traditionally, guided by the war-governing atmosphere of the past, this hadith has been interpreted to refer to the wars near the end of time that is going to slay most men so that the women are going to remain in great numbers compared to men. In more recent decades, the same hadith has been interpreted as pointing at the ubiquitous portrayal of female body in social life. Not excluding these interpretations, consider this one now: the percentage of LGBT people substantially increases worldwide so that, among the heterosexual people, most are women and few are men! In that case, probably the scholars are going to find a way for the Muslim LGBT individuals. But it would be nice, if they didn't wait until so late!

In conclusion, when we scrutinize the example of the messenger of God pbuh with the help of Quran and with reason, we see that the sunnah does not present us a rigid pattern against the people of non-traditional genders, especially if they are Muslim. The condition for general acceptance, as with anyone among Muslims, is to abide by the regular rules of conduct in daily life.

Allah knows best...