Illit­er­a­cy of Chris­t­ian Polemi­cists : The Con­sen­sus on Homo­sex­u­al­i­ty in Islam

Among the most laugh­able argu­ments of Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies and athe­ists is their argu­ment to show that Islam does not pro­hib­it homo­sex­u­al­i­ty and that it is per­mis­si­ble in Islam. This is indeed an ide­al exam­ple of how igno­rance and incom­pe­tence can make a per­son become a joke before his oppo­nents. In order to dis­pel the Islam­ic illit­er­a­cy of these types of peo­ple, we are pro­vid­ing an edu­ca­tion­al guide to those who ignore that homo­sex­u­al­i­ty is utter­ly pro­hib­it­ed and giv­en the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Islam.

Before we bring our legal proof that homo­sex­u­al­i­ty is pro­hib­it­ed and pun­ish­able in Islam, let us think log­i­cal­ly : does not homo­sex­u­al­i­ty fall under the cat­e­go­ry of adul­tery ? Is it not cor­rect to say that adul­tery — by def­i­n­i­tion — is the sex­u­al inter­course between two unmar­ried per­sons, which thus implic­it­ly includes homo­sex­u­al­i­ty ? Unless you pro­vide evi­dence that Islam per­mits the mar­riage of two men, we can log­i­cal­ly con­sid­er it a sub­cat­e­go­ry under adultery.

Homo­sex­u­al­i­ty is described as lewd­ness in the Qur’an. Grand Imam al-Shan­qi­ti explains :

The Almighty said, ​“Do ye com­mit lewd­ness such as no peo­ple in cre­ation (ever) com­mit­ted before you?” (al-A’raf : 80). Allah has explained that what is meant by lewd­ness is sodomy, for He said after that, ​“For ye prac­tice your lusts on men in pref­er­ence to women.” And He clar­i­fied that by say­ing, ​“Of all the crea­tures in the world, will ye approach males” and by say­ing ​“and prac­tice wicked­ness (even) in your coun­cils?“¹

Ibn Kathir notes :

It is meant that homo­sex­u­al­i­ty is the worst abom­i­na­tion. It was not known among the Arabs of the past, as their igno­rance of it was men­tioned by more than one of them. There­fore, al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik said, ​“If Allah Almighty did not nar­rate to us the sto­ry of the peo­ple of Lut, I would have nev­er thought that a man could be on top of anoth­er man.” And in the hadith report­ed by Ibn ​‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, the Prophet (saws) said, ​“If you find some­one com­mit­ting the act of the peo­ple of Lut, kill both par­tic­i­pants.” This was nar­rat­ed by the peo­ple of sunan, and was rat­ed authen­tic by Ibn Hab­ban and oth­ers. The Prophet (saws) cursed three times those who com­mit the act of the peo­ple of Lut, and he nev­er cursed any­one for sin three times, except those who do this. He com­mand­ed the par­tic­i­pants to be killed, for they are not wor­thy to live among the peo­ple because they are cor­rupt in their actions and sin­ful in their hearts. Who­ev­er has this like­ness, there is noth­ing with­in them that is ben­e­fi­cial for cre­ation if they remain. So if Allah saves us from them, our faith and lives will be more right­eous. But the curse is to be expelled and made dis­tant. So who­ev­er was expelled and made dis­tant from Allah, His Mes­sen­ger, His Book and His right­eous ser­vants, there is no good in him or in com­ing near to him.²

Please pon­der upon this insight­ful quo­ta­tion of Ibn Kathir ; for he does not just inform us about the ugli­ness of this form of lewd­ness and its penal­ty, he also pro­vides the legal and ratio­nal expla­na­tion for its penal­ty and tells us why its par­tic­i­pant should be exterminated.

Ibn Hazm clear­ly states :

The act of the peo­ple of Lut is from the griev­ous sins, the most for­bid­den deprav­i­ties like eat­ing pork, car­rion, or blood, drink­ing, adul­tery, and the rest of these dis­obe­di­ences. Any­one who allows it or allows any­thing from what we have men­tioned is a kafir. But the peo­ple dis­agreed regard­ing the penal­ty.³

And Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taimiyyah says :

In regards to sodomy, some schol­ars say its penal­ty is like the penal­ty of adul­tery, and some say it’s not. The truth is what the com­pan­ions have agreed upon, that both should be killed, whether they were mar­ried or not. Tru­ly the schol­ars of hadith nar­rat­ed on behalf of Ibn ​‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, that the Prophet (saws) said, ​“If you find some­one com­mit­ting the acts of the peo­ple of Lut, kill both par­tic­i­pants.” And Abu Daoud nar­rat­ed on behalf of Ibn ​‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, that if the unmar­ried is found to be a sodomite he is to be stoned. And ​‘Ali ibn Abi Tal­ib, may Allah be pleased with him, nar­rat­ed some­thing similar.

The Com­pan­ions did not dis­agree on his killing, but they var­ied regard­ing the method. It is nar­rat­ed on behalf of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, that he ordered him to be burned. And the oth­ers said that he should be killed : Some said that a wall should be pulled down upon him until he died, and some said that he should be impris­oned in the foulest place until death. And some said that he should be tak­en to the high­est build­ing and thrown down, then stoned, as Allah had done to the peo­ple of Lut. This is what most of the Salaf said. They said, because Allah had stoned the peo­ple of Lut, and He sim­i­lar­ly allowed the ston­ing of the adul­ter­er, so sodomites, whether slaves or freemen, should both be killed. But if one is an adult and the oth­er juve­nile, the juve­nile should be pun­ished with­out killing, and only the adult should be stoned.⁴

So we inform the illit­er­ate ene­mies of Islam that homo­sex­u­al­i­ty is not only pro­hib­it­ed in Islam but con­sid­ered one of the most griev­ous sins as well. The Prophet^(P) com­mand­ed with killing its par­tic­i­pants and cursed them three times, and he nev­er cursed any­one for sin three times, except those who do this. The Prophet’s com­pan­ions have agreed on killing whoso­ev­er do it, whether mar­ried or not, free or slave.

Mus­lim schol­ars of all times agreed upon con­demn­ing sodomy, Ibn Qudama says :

The schol­ars agree to warn against sodomy. Allah has spo­ken against it in His Book and the Mes­sen­ger of Allah spoke against it. Allah Almighty says, ​“We also (sent) Lut : He said to his peo­ple : ​“Do ye com­mit lewd­ness such as no peo­ple in cre­ation (ever) com­mit­ted before you?” (A’raf:80). And the Prophet said, ​“Allah has cursed those who com­mit the act of the peo­ple of Lut, Allah has cursed those who com­mit the act of the peo­ple of Lut, Allah has cursed those who com­mit the act of the peo­ple of Lut.“⁵

Abu al-Layth al-Samaqan­di says :

Sodomy is for­bid­den because the Almighty said : ​“We also (sent) Lut : He said to his peo­ple, ​“Do ye com­mit lewd­ness such as no peo­ple in cre­ation (ever) com­mit­ted before you?” (al-A’raf : 80). So He called it lewd­ness, and Allah Almighty has said : ​“Come not nigh to acts of lewd­ness, whether open or secret.” (al-Ana’am : 151)⁶

Imam al-Nawawi says :

Sodomy is when a man has inter­course with anoth­er man. It is for­bid­den, and it is the worst of sins, for the Almighty said, ​“Do ye com­mit lewd­ness such as no peo­ple in cre­ation (ever) com­mit­ted before you ? For ye prac­tice your lusts on men in pref­er­ence to women : ye are indeed a peo­ple trans­gress­ing beyond bounds.” (al-A’raf : 80 – 81)

Here Allah men­tions sodomy as sin to show that it’s adul­tery, because Allah said, ​“Nor come nigh to adul­tery, for it is a shame­ful (deed) and an evil, open­ing the road (to oth­er evils).” (al-Isra : 32)⁷

Abu Ya’la al-Far­ra’ brings a very valu­able note :

Sodomy is worse than adul­tery ; for indeed [a] female pri­vate can be law­ful under mar­riage con­tract.⁸

But cer­tain­ly, a male pri­vate can nev­er be law­ful under any con­di­tion whatsoever !

Due to the agreed-upon con­sen­sus of Mus­lim schol­ars based upon the Qur’an, the Sun­nah and agree­ment of the Prophet’s Com­pan­ions and all sub­se­quent gen­er­a­tions, pro­hi­bi­tion of homo­sex­u­al­i­ty is regard­ed one of the nec­es­sar­i­ly known facts of Islam and whoso­ev­er denies this pro­hi­bi­tion is con­sid­ered a kafir. Lit­tle else can be said for the illit­er­a­cy of the wor­ship­pers of a half-naked, Roman crim­i­nal swing­ing from a cross, whose igno­rance in such an intri­cate Islam­ic mat­ter is as blind­ing as the sun.

May Allah bless all those who fol­low His Path and guide those who do not.

1. al-Shan­qi­ti, Adwa’ al-Bayan, ²⁄₂₃₂)[↩]
2. Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah, ⁹⁄₄₆[↩]
3. Ibn Hazm, al-Muhal­la, ¹³⁄₃₈₈[↩]
4. Ibn Taimiyyah, al-Fatawa al-Kubra, ²⁸⁄₃₁₇[↩]
5. Ibn Qudama al-Maq­disi, al-Mugh­ni, ⁸⁄₁₁₆[↩]
6. al-Samar­qan­di, al-Muhathab, ²⁄₃₄₇[↩]
7. al-Nawawi, al-Muj­mou’, ²¹⁄₂₃₇[↩]
8. al-Far­ra’, al-Masa’il al-Fiqhiyyah, ²⁄₃₂₀[↩]