Reconsidering Homosexual Unification in Islam: A Revisionist Analysis of Post-Colonialism, Constructivism and Essentialism
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Homosexuality from the Muslim Revisionist View
3. Qur’ānic Interpretation of the Story of Prophet Lut
3.1. Homosexuality as a Sexual Orientation or Identity Has Never Been Explicitly Mentioned in the Qur’ān
3.2. Conservative and Centrist Muslim Scholars Argue Based on Cis-Hetero Morality Standards
3.3. Lut Story Needs to Be Read as Part of a Cluster, Not in Separation; Thus What Is Condemned in the Qur’ān Is Male Coercive Rape and Domination
Muslims who limit themselves to one interpretation or oppose different interpretations of the Qur’ān inhibit the potential of the Qur’ān to promote social and spiritual growth. Qur’ān 39:55 makes it clear that Muslims are instructed to extract, out of the many possible interpretations, the interpretation that achieves the greatest good.
3.4. The People of Lut Were Mostly Heterosexuals but They Perpetuated Male Violence
3.5. Verses Al-‘Ankabūt (29:28) and Al-‘A’rāf (7:80) as Referential Evidence of Male Violence
3.6. The Term Fahisha in the Lut Story Does Not Refer to Affectionate Same-Sex Relationships
4. No Authentic Hadith Claims That People Who Engage in Same-Sex Relationships Should Be Killed
5. European Colonialism and the Beginning of Revulsion to Homosexuality
“Because he is so tender and pretty, we spent that night together as if we were in paradise”.(Abū Nuwās, Abbasid Poet, d. 814)
6. Homosexuality in Post-Colonial Islam
7. Homosexuality as a Social Construct (Constructivism) and Inherently Inborn (Essentialism)
“A gay or lesbian Muslim is no less than a heterosexual Muslim, except by the intangible criterion of pious awareness of God (taqwa).”
7.1. Constructivism
7.2. Essentialism
8. Homosexuality Today as Both Essentialism and Constructivism: A Same-Sex Union Possibility in Islam
9. Conclusions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
1 | Hudud (sg. hadd) literally means limitations and is a legal technical term for offences with fixed, mandatory punishments that are based on the Qur’ān and ahadith (sg hadith). This includes, for example, theft, banditry, unlawful sexual intercourse, unfounded accusation of unlawful sexual intercourse and drinking alcohol. However, similar to adultery, homosexuality as a hadd crime is hard to prove, given the need to provide four untainted witnesses, and therefore it is a private sin (Bearman 2012). |
2 | Some upper-class men that acted as receptive partners were viewed as suffering from the ubnah disease. See the “Treatise on Hidden Illness” note by Ar-Razi, a prominent medevial Muslim pyshcian (Rosenthal 1978). Ar-Razi noted that such men might be cured through enemas and massages by good-looking maids. Ar-Razi describes ubnah as being derived from weak male sperm that makes the male child effeminate. Nonethelss, Ar-Razi demonstrates that homosexuality was viewed as a natural, genetic phenomenon. |
3 | The Qur’ānic phrase that describes men who approach other men lustfully “instead of women” (min dun al-nisa) actually means “besides the women”, indicating that these men might behave heterosexually with their wives. See http://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=dwn#(27:55:6) (accessed on 1 May 2022) (cited from Siraj 2018). |
4 | During the Abbāsid period, the Muslim world became an intellectual centre for science, astronomy, alchemy, mathematics, medicine, philosophy and education, in which the House of Wisdom (Grand Library of Baghdad) was a place where both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars sought to translate and gather all the world’s knowledge into Arabic. During this period, the Muslim world was a cauldron of cultures that collected, blended and advanced the knowledge gained from the Roman, Chinese, Indian, Persian, Egyptian, North African, Ancient Greek and Medieval Greek civilisations (Gregorian 2003). |
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Zaharin, A.A.M. Reconsidering Homosexual Unification in Islam: A Revisionist Analysis of Post-Colonialism, Constructivism and Essentialism. Religions 2022, 13, 702. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13080702
Zaharin AAM. Reconsidering Homosexual Unification in Islam: A Revisionist Analysis of Post-Colonialism, Constructivism and Essentialism. Religions. 2022; 13(8):702. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13080702
Chicago/Turabian StyleZaharin, Aisya Aymanee M. 2022. "Reconsidering Homosexual Unification in Islam: A Revisionist Analysis of Post-Colonialism, Constructivism and Essentialism" Religions 13, no. 8: 702. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13080702