Islam & the Modern World · Modesty & Sexual Ethics
Same-sex questions, answered without cruelty
Handle with care. Handle with care: never volunteer this topic, never mock, never out anyone, never justify violence. If the conversation heats up, end it warmly.
In short
- 1.The prohibition is on the act, and it is established in the Qur'an and the consensus of scholars; do not pretend otherwise.
- 2.Feeling an inclination is not a sin in Islamic law. Only acting is.
- 3.Mockery, violence, outing and prying are all separately forbidden.
The claim being examined
This is the question most likely to end a conversation badly, and the one most people are testing you with.
The Islamic position
Islam prohibits the act, forbids mockery and persecution of any person, forbids spying into private life, and treats the temptation itself as no sin at all.
Analysis
Handle this card slowly and never volunteer it. The prohibition is established in Q 7:80-81 and Q 26:165-166 within the account of the people of Lut, peace be upon him, and is the position of all four Sunni schools by consensus; contemporary attempts to argue that the Qur'an addresses only coercion or inhospitality are outside mainstream Sunni scholarship and should not be presented as the Islamic view. That is the honest statement of the ruling. Four further points are equally part of the religion and are usually omitted. First, inclination is not sin: Islamic law addresses actions, and a person who feels an attraction and does not act is not sinful — they may in fact be rewarded for restraint, since intention is judged and the one who resists is described in the tradition as struggling. Second, mockery is forbidden by Q 49:11, and Muslims who post cruel material about individuals are sinning. Third, spying is forbidden by Q 49:12, so seeking out anyone's private life is itself a violation. Fourth, violence and vigilantism have no basis; punishment in Islamic law is a matter for a court under an evidentiary standard that is effectively unmeetable. In a Western street context the correct behaviour is: state the position once if asked, refuse cruelty, and change the subject if it cannot remain calm.
From the Qur'an
أَتَأْتُونَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مَا سَبَقَكُم بِهَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِّنَ الْعَالَمِينَ
Do you commit an immorality no one in the worlds has done before you?
لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ
Let not one people ridicule another.
وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا
And do not spy.
From the Bible
Sources
Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-Mujtahid · Qur'an 49:11-12 · Qur'an 7:80-81; Qur'an 49:11-12
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