Deen Talk! LGBT+ in Islam: Evidences and Resources

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

Assalaamu alaikum w rahmatullahi w barakatu. This post is designed to go with my new Deen Talk! miniseries on LGBT+ people and Islam. This provides ahadith, ayat, and other sources as well as resources in order to learn more about the permissibility of being LGBT+ in Islam. I understand that the majority of traditional scholars believe that acting upon homosexual or “alternative gender” feelings is haraam. My position is that I believe, due to my personal research and understanding of suppressed ahadith, that it is, in fact, permissible. Allah ta’ala created us using His wisdom and He does not make mistakes. This includes with giving us our inborn feelings of who we are, be it sexual orientation or gender identity. I respect those who have other opinions than my own and ask everyone to do the same for me. Jazakum Allahu kheiran.

LGBT+ in Islam

To begin I would like to suggest people read the book Queer Jihad, available on kindle ($3) and in paper form ($15) via Amazon. It’s a collection of interviews of Queer Muslims, both scholar and layperson, and gives a full spectrum overview of the many different ways people understand what it is to be both Queer and Muslim. It has a lot of resources though may be slightly outdated on some (such as support groups) due to when it was written. 

Daleel/Primary Islamic sources: 

On Mukhannathun (re: gay men or trans women) viewing women without hijab: 

Umm Salama related the Prophet cake to her while there was an effeminate man (mukhannath) sitting with her. She heard the mukhannath saying to Abd’Allah ibn Abu Umaya that if he succeeded the next day in conquering Ta’if then he should take the daughter of Ghaylan in marriage because [she was so beautiful and fat] she has four folds of flesh when facing front and eight when she turns her back. The Prophet then said “These men should never visit you.” That mukhannath was called Hit. (SB v5 p428 n613; SB v7 p118 n162; SM v3B p445 n2181; SM v3B p445 n2180; IM v2u p41 n57)

Narrated Aisha, Unmul Mu’minin: A mukhannath used to enter upon the wives of the Prophet. They (the people) counted him among those who were free of physical needs. One day the Prophet entered upon us when he was with one of his wives, and was describing the qualities of a woman, saying: When she comes forward, she comes forward with four (folds in her stomach), and when she goes backward, she goes backward with eight (folds in her stomach). The Prophet said: Do I not see that this mukhannath knows what here lies. Then they (the wives) observed veil from him. (Sunan Abu-Dawud, book 32, number 4095)

Understanding from this Hadith shows permissibility in being around trans women, and possibly even gay men, without hijab, barring them describing what they see of women to other men for their pleasure. Possible understanding also bars them seeing a woman without hijab if they seem to have any attraction to women. But either way, mukhannath were allowed to mix freely with women in the home, either with or without hijab, depending on behavior. 

On emancipated slaves:

Umm Salama related Rasulullah said “when a slave of it be of you women has made an agreement to purchase his freedom and can pay the full price, you must wear the modest dress hijab when with him.” (T [MMR v1 p725], AD v3 p1101 n3917, IM [MMR v1]) 

Male slaves of the wives of the Prophet, radhi’Allahu 3nhun, were generally mukhannathun because they were understood not to have attraction to women. Again, this shows that mukhannathun were allowed to see women without hijab. 

Quran on Mukhannathun and if they can see the aurat of a woman: 

Surah 24 vs 31 specifically lists “ghair uli al-irbat min al-rijal” (men with no desire toward women) as allowed to see the aurat of a woman. As shown in the above Hadith, the Sahabah, radhi’Allahu 3nhum, and the Prophet, salla Allahu alaihi w salaam, counted mukhannathun in this group until they showed otherwise, in which case women wore hijab around that specific person. 

On Mukhannathun and prayer: 

Narrated ‘Ubaid-Ullah bin Adi bin Khiyar: I went to ‘Uthman bin Afghan while he was besieged, and said to him “you are the chief of all Muslims in general and you see what has befallen you. We are led in the Salat (prayer) by a leader of Al-Fitan (trials, afflictions, etc.) was we are afraid of being sinful in following him.” ‘Uthman said “as-Salat is the best of all deeds so when the people do good deeds to the same with them and when they do bad deeds, avoid those bad deeds.” Az-Zuhri said, “In our opinion one should not offer Salat begins an effeminate person unless there is no alternative.” (SB 695; v.1 b.11 n. 663)

From this we get the ruling that Mukhannathun should pray behind the men. 

Punishment for accusing someone of being Mukhannathun (rudely or erroneously): 

Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: That the Prophet said “if a man says to another man: ‘O you Jew’ then beat him twenty times. If he says ‘O you effeminate’ then beat him twenty times. And whoever has relations with someone that is a Mahram then kill him.” (T 1462; v3 b15 n1462) 

Here we see that Mukhannathun were known and understood in society and to accuse someone of being one (ie looking down upon Mukhannathun) was prohibited. 

Secondary Islamic sources (eg books/papers written by other scholars): 

Moreover, and besides the existence of transsexuals during the time of the Prophet[22], like Everett Rowson writes: “there is considerable evidence for the existence of a form of publicly recognized and institutionalized effeminacy or transvestism among males in pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabian society. Unlike other men, these effeminates or mukhannathun were permitted to associate freely with women, on the assumption that they had no sexual interest in them, and often acted as marriage brokers, or, less legitimately, as go-betweens” (1991: 671). [From Abdou on Sally]

Al-Azhar on what a “true hermaphrodite” is and how to determine this (he is drawing info from Sunnah): 

A natural hermaphrodite is one described as with ‘two naturally sexual, male and female, organs and whom was to be characterized by the sexual organ from which s-he urinates most’. Where ‘there are equal quantities of urination there is ambiguity,’ Al-Azhar states. One ought ‘wait until the hermaphrodite attains puberty and then look for the appearance of some feature of masculinity, but if none of these characteristics appears, facial hair, gets pregnant, gives milk, or if, on the contrary, they appear, but in a contradictory way, there is a fundamental ambiguity, and one is dealing with a true hermaphrodite’ (1985: 41). [From Abdou on Sally]

Ibn 'Abd al-Barr stated that mukhannathun in his era were "known to be promiscuous", and resembled women in "softness, speech, appearance, accent and thinking". These mukhannathun were the ones initially allowed to be the servants of women, as they did not demonstrate any physical attraction to the female body. (al-Maqdīsī, Ibn Qudamah. Al-Mughni wa al-Sharh al Kabeer. pp. 7/463.)

The most severe instance of persecution is typically dated to the time of al-Walid's brother and successor Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. According to several variants of this story, the caliph ordered the full castration of the mukhannathun of Medina. Some versions of the tale say that all of them were forced to undergo the procedure, while others state that only a few of them were; in the latter case, al-Dalal is almost always included as one of the castrated mukhannathun. (See Rowson)

Some variants of the story add a series of witticisms supposedly uttered by the mukhannathun prior to their castration:

Tuways: “This is simply a circumcision which we must undergo again.”

al-Dalal: “Or rather the Greater Circumcision!”

Nasim al-Sahar (“Breeze of the Dawn”): “With castration I have become a mukhannath in truth!”

Nawmat al-Duha: “Or rather we have become women in truth!”

Bard al-Fu'ad: “We have been spared the trouble of carrying around a spout for urine.”

Zillal-Shajar (“Shade Under the Trees”): “What would we do with an unused weapon, anyway?” (Roughgarden, Joan. Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. University of California Press. p. 363–364.)

In the late 1980s, Mufti Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy of Egypt issued a fatwa supporting the right for those who fit the description of mukhannathun to have sex reassignment surgery. Tantawy seems to have associated the concept with hermaphroditism or intersex individuals. Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued similar fatwas around the same time. Khomeini's initial fatwa concerned intersex individuals as well, but he later specified that sex reassignment surgery was also permissible in the case of transgender individuals. (Alipour, M (2016). "Islamic shari'a law, neotraditionalist Muslim scholars and transgender sex-reassignment surgery: A case study of Ayatollah Khomeini's and Sheikh al-Tantawi's fatwas". International Journal of Transgenderism. 17:1: 91–103.)

“homosexuality, in many cases, is indeed fiṭra and in-born and that it, is precisely part of the Creator’s intention.” (Samar Habib, 2008, p. 33) (see Alipour)

Homosexual acts are forbidden in traditional Islamic jurisprudence and are liable to different punishments, including the death penalty, depending on the situation and legal school. However, homosexual relationships were generally tolerated in pre-modern Islamic societies, and historical records suggest that these laws were invoked infrequently, mainly in cases of rape or other "exceptionally blatant infringement on public morals". (See Rowson)

A number of Muslim-majority countries have retained criminal penalties for homosexual acts enacted under British and Soviet rule. (Shafiqa Ahmadi (2012). "Islam and Homosexuality: Religious Dogma, Colonial Rule, and the Quest for Belonging". Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. 26 (3): 557–558.)

Shafiqah Othman Hamzah elaborates on LGBT in early Islam, as well as the Story of Lut: shafiqahothman.com/2017/04/12/mukhannathun-in-Islam/

Further reading: 

On Western influence with homophobia/transphobia:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/11/asia/british-empire-lgbt-rights-section-377-intl/index.html

On Islam’s initial acceptance and normalization of LGBT+ persons (relationships were meant to be kept private and in homes, but still accepted):

https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/secret-gay-history-islam/

https://amp.economist.com/open-future/2018/06/06/how-homosexuality-became-a-crime-in-the-middle-east

PhD Thesis by Muhammad Abdou (this is the second chapter - full publication is due this year. Also provides bibliography for further research:

https://www.academia.edu/38647128/Ph.D._Thesis_Islam_and_Queer_Muslims_Identity_and_Sexuality_in_the_Contemporary-CH2?email_work_card=title 

Paper on the case of Sayyid-Sally, a trans woman expelled from her school, which goes into the gender breakdown in early Islamic society which includes mukhannathun: 

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/mohamed-jean-veneuse-the-body-of-the-condemned-sally-paths-to-queering-anarca-islam

Rowson on mukhannathun (sorry I misspelled/mispronounced in the video): 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/khtuu1c4m3uob1p/Rowson%2C%20Effeminates.pdf?dl=0

Gesink also has a piece on intersex people in Islamic law showing that legal thinkers recognized 3 genders: 

https://read.dukeupress.edu/jmews/article-abstract/14/2/152/135014/Intersex-Bodies-in-Premodern-Islamic

Article on how the concept of homophobia was introduced to the Middle East: 

Moreover, despite the severe prohibition in the Koran, love and sex between men was very common in Islamic culture.

For example, 15th-century Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi noted that “among the Mamluke rulers, love of men became so common that the women in the empire began to envy the men and to wear elegant hats in order to imitate them.”

Israeli historian Yaron Ben-Naeh says that, despite the severe Koranic prohibition, “mutual erotic attraction between people of the same sex was seen as a natural feeling and did not arouse guilt feelings or shame among those involved.”

It’s important to note that pre-modern Arab society was not tolerant of “homosexuals.” That’s because the concept “homosexual” appeared in Europe only in the second half of the 19th century, and until the early 20th century there was no such concept, or anything similar, in Arabic-Islamic culture. 

(https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.haaretz.com/amp/world-news/americas/.premium-how-did-homosexuality-become-so-offensive-to-muslims-1.5397722)

Alipour’s PhD thesis on homosexuality in Islam and it’s permissibility:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00918369.2017.1289001

On translator bias in religious texts: 

https://um-insight.net/perspectives/has-“homosexual”-always-been-in-the-bible/

http://shafiqahothman.com/2017/04/12/mukhannathun-in-Islam/ (on translating the word for pederasty and sodomy [anal sex] as homosexuality)

For a breakdown of the Islamic medical diagnostics for Mukhannathun, as well as a more conservative approach, please see: 

muslimmatters.org/2017/07/24/and-the-male-is-not-like-the-female-Sunni-Islam-and-gender-nonconformity/