Qur’ânic Illumination on the Phenomenon of Sexual Deviance
The rally that was held in Washington in defense of sexual deviance
raised an argument among people with regards to the nature of this phenomenon
and its significance. I have therefore thought it proper to present the Qur’ânic
answers to the Muslim reader to some of the questions, uncertainties, and claims
which the demonstrators raised regarding this phenomenon.
1. The perpetrators of this shamelessness
say that what they are seeking is a new thing that was not known in different
societies in the past, because it was disapproved of. They claim that such
disapproval is not right for societies (like Western society) that have made
great strides in progress toward democratic freedom and the care for human
rights. But we know from the book of our Lord that it is not a new thing as they
claim; all that they are seeking today was sought for and carried out by the
people of Lot, as we shall show. The Qur’ân teaches us that resemblances in
personal conditions result in resemblances in words and deeds; nations resemble
each other despite the difference in time.
“So said the people before them
words of similar import. Their hearts are alike.”
(Al-Baqarah: 118)
2. They claim that their deviant inclination
is something they were born with in their ‘genetics’ and nature – just as
some people were born with an inclination to the other sex, they were born with
an inclination to their own. But the Qur’ân denies this when it tells us that
the people of Lot were the first to start this shamelessness.
“So you commit lewdness such as no people in creation ever committed
before you? For you practice your lusts on men in preference to women: you are
indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.” (Al-Ā‘râf, 80-81)
Were their statement a ‘natural’ one, some earlier people would
have been born with it, some human individuals at least. If it were a natural
thing, why would Allâh have condemned the practice of it? And even if the basis
of it were a natural inclination, they could not possibly claim that practicing
it openly is a natural state of affairs. Because the heterosexual inclination is
a natural state. Practicing sexual activity openly, even with one’s spouse, is
not a natural affair.
3. Just as these deviants today want to come
out of the stage of concealment into the stage of openness, so did the people of
Lot:
“Indeed you approach men, and obstruct the road [i.e. commit highway
robbery and acts of aggression against travelers]? And practice wickedness
[even] in your councils?”
(Al-Ankabűt: 29)
What the people of this inclination are seeking is not to be
compelled by society to conceal themselves, despite their openly swerving away
from the straight way. Likewise, they seek to get what other people in the
society have, such as the right of marriage, respect, and employment in all
sectors of the state, whether military, political, educational, and diplomatic.
Why, they say, are you intruding into what I do in my bedroom? What
is the difference if a person does this with someone of the same type, whether
man or woman, or with the other type? It is merely a hereditary affliction.
However, the fact is that they are not simply seeking to
do what they do privately, in their bedrooms. For, if they do it privately, a
matter needs no permission from contemporary Western societies. It is not
counted as a crime when it is consented to by both parties. What they are
seeking now is really the right to proclaim openly that they are of this type,
and that society does not oppose their public behavior which indicates that they
are on this deviation, just as it does not oppose behavior that shows one to be
“straight.”
I say “straight” in quotation marks because the publicizing of
some sexual acts, even between men and women, even between married people, is
not customary for straight people, though it has become customary in Western
societies.
The open practice of vices is worse than concealing them, because
it offends straight people and tempts the weak ones among them to commit what
these deviants are doing openly.
4. But the state of the people of Lot – as
our Lord has told the story – shows that even this open publicizing is not the
end of the path; it is only the first stage followed by – when no one exists
to prevent them – the stage of supremacy.
When the deviants are predominant in the society, the righteous
people become constrained because they have to share the dwelling space in the
same town.
“And his people gave no answer
but this: ‘Drive them out of this city: these are indeed men who want to be
clean and pure!’” (Al-Ā‘râf,
82)
5. Yet they go further than this: they will
help each other to force righteous people to commit these vices with them, if
they are able. Thus, Allâh’s Messenger Lot (peace be upon him) was worried,
when the angels in the form of handsome-faced men came to him. He knew what
would happen to them with those people, who thought the guests were really men.
So there came about what he had dreaded, the people came rushing and panting.
Lot proposed marrying his daughters to them (whether that means daughters of his
own flesh and blood or just the daughters of his people). But they did not
restrain themselves and they humiliated him with his guests:
“When our Messengers came to
Lot, he was grieved on account and felt himself powerless to protect them. He
said: ‘This is a distressful day.’ And his people came rushing toward him,
and they had been long in the habit of practicing abominations. He said: ‘O my
people! Here are my daughters: they are pure for you if you marry! Now fear
Allâh, and do not disgrace me concerning my guests! Is there not among you a
single right-minded man?’
But they brazenly answered him:
‘Well do you know we have no need of your daughters: indeed you know quite
well what we want!’ He said: ‘Would that I had power to suppress you or that
I could betake myself to some powerful support.’”
(Hűd, 77-80)
6. The perpetrators of this sexual deviation
today want the law to respect relations between two of them with the status of
marriage, and grant them all the rights that married people have. However, what
we recognize from the case of the people of Lot is that this vice is of an
absolutely licentious nature, with no commitment to a single partner, or even a
limited number of partners. When this behavior takes control of one of them he
cannot recognize any boundary in his actions. When he hears that to which his
desires incite him, a sort of madness befalls him, and he throws himself blindly
into committing sin with anyone, whether he likes the person or not. Consider
the words of Allâh, the Most High, describing their condition as they confront
the guests of Lot (peace be upon him).
“And his people came rushing toward him, and they
had been long in the habit of practicing abominations.”
In the dictionary “Tahdîb Lisân al-‘Arab” the exact
definition of the original Arabic word: al-harâ’ and al-ihrâ’
does not mean only rushing. It shows also the intensity of drive and rapidity of
running that goes over the limit. It means that the men hurried and trembled
with haste and anxiety or anger or excitement...al-muhrâ’ (the person
who rushes) means ‘mad, insane.’ It is a vice that by its nature is
excessive and goes over the limit:
“For you practice your lusts on men in preference
to women: you are indeed a people transgressing beyond all bounds.”
7. And it is a vice linked – contrary to
what most people think – with violence and aggression against others, an
aggression which goes beyond sexual aggression. The people of Lot who practiced
this vice in their councils were also highwaymen (robbers):
“Do you indeed approach men, and obstruct the road?
And practice wickedness even in your councils?”
8. Another thing the straight person finds
odd is the confederation and cooperation between the male and female deviants.
Obviously one would expect that one would dislike the other, as long as there is
the difference between them with each side inclining to their own kind, and
wanting nothing to do with the other. However, the story of the people of Lot
reminds us that some of the women were impressed by this deviation among the
men, and they liked it. One such was Lot’s wife, the sinner whom Allâh
destroyed with her people while he saved Lot and other members of his family.
