Voices of Islam (264 page)

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within accepted norms of modesty: without invasive staring, manipulative strategies, or abusive cunning. The Qur’an enjoins both men and women to wear modest clothing (though what constitutes modesty is left to social norms), speak respectfully, and lower the gaze. In general, the Qur’an announces the principle of avoiding objectifying others in a sexual way to uphold our common humanity. It permits pleasure bounded by care. It enjoins reciprocity, both of rights and pleasures, within a relationship.

This basis of sexual ethics applies to men as well as to women. In a plural- istic Islamic community, it would apply to homosexual couples as well as to heterosexual ones. The purposes of ‘‘fi ing one’s mate’’ are the same for hetero- and homosexual couples, so the ethical guidelines for establishing relationships should also be the same. Fortunately for Muslims, the marriage contract is not a sacrament as in Christianity but a contract; in form and sub- stance is it quite close to a secular ‘‘civil union’’ that is increasingly being adopted by Western democracies. Heterosexual Muslims living as citizens of Western countries register their marriages as civil unions, even if they have a religious ceremony to mark the occasion. Legally, this is no different than homosexual unions under those governments that allow same-sex marriage or civic union, such as Canada, Britain, many European states, and South Africa. In these places, homosexual Muslims can now form legal unions between same-sex partners, which have equal legal status to their heterosex- ual neighbors. Would Muslim citizens of such nations recognize the legality and validity of same-sex marriage contracts, even if they found them morally questionable or even repugnant? Increasingly, Muslims living in the West will be have to confront this reality, and in places like the Netherlands the answer Muslims give may determine whether they are seen to be citizens who accept the laws and values upon which the nation rests or outsiders who are a threat. Sadly, on-line
fatwas
document how Neo-Traditionalists fail to live up to this challenge.
39

JUSTICE AND BEAUTY

Why is it important to grant homosexuals the same right to marry and establish ethical contracts between partners? It is not a matter of pleading for ‘‘special rights.’’ It is not merely demanding equal rights, to have the same possibilities and responsibilities as heterosexual couples. It is a matter of justice, of clearing a way for homosexual Muslims to partake, with honesty and dignity, in the Prophet Muhammad’s paradigm so that they can cultivate an ethical life along with their heterosexual sisters and brothers in finding a sincere way to return to God. This is because the four levels of personality development outlined above are not just descriptive but rather establish a framework for each person’s spiritual development, for one cannot return to God except through one’s own distinctive personality. Sufi psychologists

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have distilled from the Qur’an four distinct phases of the soul’s struggle toward God, and each corresponds to a level of the personality. If the levels of personality mark a descent deep into the world of materiality, embodi- ment, particularity, and contingency, then the four phases of the soul’s return to God mark an ascent (
mi‘raj
) through sincere awareness toward greater spiritual refinement and universal love.

The soul while struggling in outward behavior, the level of
sura,
can be called
the soul that commands toward evil.
At this stage, the soul strives to

understand right and wrong, beneficial and harmful, conditioned by its par- ticular place and personality resources (Qur’an 12:53). After maturing through that struggle, the soul is refined a little and can identify with greater clarity the sources of its selfish urges and repressed pain; it can struggle with the subtler forces of egoism and family trauma at the level of
shakila,
and can be called
the soul full of blame.
At first, the soul criticizes others for its pain while later, as insight grows, it blames itself (Qur’an 75:2). Resigning itself from blame and gaining greater self-knowledge through exploration, prayer, and meditation, the soul engages its primal limitations at the level of
tabi‘a,
confronting its material limitation, its penchant to decay, and its body’s ultimate mortality; the soul that comes to peace with this reality can be called
the tranquil soul,
for it is at ease in humble harmony with its limitations (Qur’an 89:27). Finally, through tranquility and inner peace, the soul can gain sustained contact with its original nature at the level of
fitra,
to worship with utter sincerity and act in the world with pure spirituality, acknowledging God directly as its only Lord; such a soul can be called the soul
well-pleased and well-pleasing,
the state of the souls called into paradise (Qur’an 89:28). In Islam, none of these stages of spiritual development are obstructed by sex- uality or sexual relationships, although if they are not in balanced harmony, sex and family life can certainly distract one from spiritual aspiration and hard work (Figure 7.2).

Developing a well-tempered personality in the downward arc toward diversifi and individualization is a necessary condition before one can aspire to complete the cycle, pursing the upward arc toward spiritual realization. This is because sincerity is the only fuel for the journey, as a great Sufi jurist expressed, saying ‘‘Whoever journeys to God through his own nature, his arrival to God is closer to him than his own nature, and whoever journeys to God through abandoning his own nature, his arrival to God is dependent on his distance from his

own nature; attaining distance from one’s own nature is difficult indeed.’’
40

In other words, those who know themselves know their Lord. Clearly, if people are in denial of their true natures or are denied the dignity of expressing their true nature, internal and external pressures obstruct them from aspiring to return to God with sincerity. This is true whether people’s personalities are under pressure by racism, by sexism, by poverty, or by homophobia. It is a matter of justice to clear away such obstacles,

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Figure 7.2
Depiction of States of the Soul in Relation to the Layers of Personality

whether they are caused by internalized fear, social stigma, or a moral sys- tem based on patriarchal prejudices. It is necessary for homosexual Muslims to achieve a minimum of justice in their families, communities, and religion before they can help themselves and their heterosexual neighbors to do what is beautiful, to achieve ethical refinement—‘‘God enjoins acting justly and doing what is beautiful.’’
41

Sexual Diversity in Islam
163

At the end of the day, many Muslims will respond that it is too much for lesbian, gay, and transgendered Muslims to ask for Islam to change to accom- modate them. However, this is not really what they are asking for. In reality, they assert that Islam must change to grow, to continue growing as it had in the past, confident that in facing new challenges with a keen sense of justice Muslims will renew the roots of their faith. Lesbian, gay, and transgendered Muslims assert that they may be agents in this slow but necessary change, along with women, youth, and other disempowered groups. But that is only because of God’s granting them a pivotal place in the diversity of humanity— at the edge, a place of both danger and insight. In reality, they ask only to be treated as fully human, while those who believe insist on being recognized if not embraced as equals in faith. For they know that in the end, they are responsible before God through God’s Prophet, rather than to any other authority; and God will ask whom they have injured in being homosexual or transgendered and who has committed injustice against them. They can answer with words the Prophet conveyed, ‘‘If I err, I err only against my own soul, and if I follow a right direction, it is because of what my lord reveals to me, for God is surely One who hears, an intimate One’’ (Qur’an 34:50).

NOTES

1. Scott Kugle, ‘‘Living Islam the Lesbian, Gay and Transgendered Way: a View of the Queer Jihad from Cape Town, South Africa,’’
   ISIM Review
   16 (Summer 2005). I give many thanks to colleagues and friends in the Al-Fatiha Foundation, Salam Queer Community, The Inner Circle and other support groups for sharing their experiences and interpretations with me. All of them are reflected in this essay, with special thanks to Khalida, Daayiee Abdallah and Muhsin for offering constructive advice.
   

2. Abu Mansur al-Maturidi,
   Kitab al-Tawhid,
   2nd ed. (Beirut [Lebanon]: Dar el-Machreq Editeurs Sarl, 1982), 3.
   

3. Maturidi,
   Kitab al-Tawhid
   , 10.
   

4. Though homosexuals and transgendered persons share many challenges, there are also important differences between them. In this chapter, I focus on homosexual- ity rather than transgender experiences, solely because of the limited space and not to imply any hierarchy of importance. I hope to give transgender experiences detailed attention in later writings.
   

5. Asma Barlas,
   Believing Women in Islam: Un-reading Patriarchal Interpreta- tions of the Qur’an
   (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2002).
   

6. The Qur’an uses ‘‘colors’’ to speak of the varieties of plants which grow in the earth (16:13), of food crops (39:21), of fruits and soils (35:27), diverse hues and tastes of medicinal honey (16:69), as well the diverse natures of humankind, beasts of burden and animals of the fields (35:28).
   

7. Bernadette Brooten,
   Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism
   (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 115–142
   

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   documents astrological theories of pre-determined sexual orientation common in Greek, Roman and Early Christian contexts.
   

8. Muhammad Omar Nahas,
   al-Junusiyya: nahw namudhaj li-tafsir al-junusiyya
   (Roermond, The Netherlands: Bureau Arabica, 1997). My own documentation of lesbian and gay Muslim’s life stories can be found in Kugle, ‘‘Living Islam the Lesbian, Gay and Transgendered Way: a view of the Queer Jihad from Cape Town, South Africa,’’
   ISIM Review
   (August 2005).
   

9. Bukhari,
   Sahih,
   bk. 1, chap. 1, report 1.
   

10. Fakhr al-Din Razi,
    Mafatih al-Ghayb
    (Cairo, 1346–1354 A.H.), 2:383.
    

11. For the use of ‘‘desire’’ in descriptions of heaven, see Qur’an 21:2, 41:31, 43:71, 16:57, 56:21 and 77:42. For the use of ‘‘desire’’ the fulfi of which is absent in hell, see Qur’an 34:54.
    

12. See Qur’an 19:59, for example, where sensual desire and egoistic desire are juxtaposed to describe why people have perverted the prophets’ teachings that have come before Islam.
    

13. Egoistic desire is clearly more dangerous than simply desiring bodily pleasure, for the legal terms for prostitution and violent rebellion are derived from the same linguistic root as
    bagha.
    

14. See Kugle, trans.
    The Book of Illumination
    (Louisville, Kentucky: Fons Vitae, 2005), 161–177.
    

15. See Scott Sirajul Haqq Kugle, ‘‘Sexuality, Diversity and Ethics,’’ in
    Progressive Muslims: on Gender, Justice and Pluralism,
    ed. Omid Safi (Oxford: Oneworld Press, 2003) where I discuss in detail the interpretive assumptions of Tabari and Qurtubi. Others were more broad-minded to include same-sex acts as only one type of a range of actions that constituted their infidelity, from murder and robbery to public nudity, gambling and idolatrous worship (as mentioned in Surat al-‘Ankabut 29-26-35).
    

16. Basim Musallam,
    Sex and Society in Islam: Birth Control Before the Nineteenth Century
    (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
    

17. G..HA. Joynboll, ‘‘Sihak’’ in
    Encyclopedia of Islam
    2nd ed., vol. 9, 565–566.
    

18. Amreen Jamel, ‘‘The Story of Lut and the Qur’an’s Perception of the Morality of Same-Sex Sexuality,’’
    Journal of Homosexuality
    41/1 (2001): 1–88.
    

19. The Companions of Rass are mentioned only in Qur’an 25:38 and 50:12; the cause of their destruction is never specified.
    

20. Farid Esack,
    The Qur’an: a Short Introduction
    (Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 2002) provides an excellent overview of the tools for and varieties of tafsir.
    

21. Historians who assert the ‘‘social construction’’ of homosexuality sometimes claim that homosexuals did not exist before the term was invented to name them; same-sex acts may always have existed between man and man or between woman and woman, they contend, but homosexuality as a concept did not. I would not go to this extreme, and instead follow a more moderate course between constructivism and essentialism, as charted by John, Boswell, ‘‘Concepts, Experience and Sexuality’’ in
    Forms of Desire,
    ed. E. Stein (New York: Routledge, 1992).
    

22. Zahir al-Din Miftahi,
    Nasl-Kushi: ghayr-fitri jinsi maylan ya‘ni ‘amal qawm lut aur us ke dawa‘i ki qabahat o mafasid pur pehli muhaqqiqana kitab
    (Deoband, India: Salim Company, 1982), 20–21.
    

    Sexual Diversity in Islam
    165
    

23. Bruce Bagemihl,
    Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity
    (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999); Joseph Alper, ed.,
    The Double-Edged Helix: Social Implications of Genetics in A Diverse Society
    (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), chaps 9–10.
    

24. There have been many proponents of Hadith scrutiny, from Syed Ahmed Khan in the mid-nineteenth century through the contemporary Muhammad al-Ghazali, in his
    The Sunna of the Prophet: Between the Legists and the Traditionists
    of 1989. For an excellent and even-handed summary of this debate, see Daniel Brown,
    Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought
    (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 81–112.
    

25. Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri,
    Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab
    (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1964), 206.
    

26. Arno Schmitt, ‘‘Liwat im Fiqh: Ma¨nnliche Homosexualita¨t?’’
    Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies
    4 (2001–2002): 49–110 is the most complete study of the legal sources for rulings on male homosexual acts.
    

27. Malik ibn Anas,
    al-Muwatta
    (Lichtenstein: Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, 2000), Kitab al-Hudud 41, 41. chap. 1, report 11. ‘‘Malik told me [Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi] that he had asked Ibn Shihab [al-Zuhri] about those who commit the act of the people of Lot; Ibn Shihab said, ‘He is to be stoned, whether he is married or unmarried.’’’
    

28. Muhammad ibn Tahir Patani,
    Tadhkirat al-Mawdu‘at
    (Bombay: Maktaba al-Qayyima, 1343 A.H.), 107.
    

29. Noor al-Deen Atabek, ‘‘The Modernist Approach to Hadith Studies’’ (2004), posted at IslamOnline www.islamonline.net/english/Con
    temporary/ 2004/09/Article03.shtml.
    

30. Fatima Mernissi,
    The Veil and the Male Elite:A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam
    (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1991) presents this argument about misogynistic teaching alleged to be Prophetic Hadith.
    

31. This question will be addressed below in the section on ‘‘pairs and partners.’’
    

32. Hanafi jurists defended their caution against capital punishment by citing another hadith, ‘‘The blood of a Muslim is not liable to be shed, except in these three cases: fornication (
    zina
    ) after marriage, infidelity after adopting Islam, and murdering an innocent person.’’ See Abu Bakr Ahmad al-Jassas,
    Ahkam al-Qur’an
    (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1978), 2:363.
    

33. Sachiko Murata,
    The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought
    (Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 1992). The discussion will be refined and sharpened by the able analysis of Sa‘diya Sheikh,
    Spiritual Cartographies of Gender: Ibn Arabi and Sufi Discourses of Gender, Sexuality and Marriage
    (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina, forthcoming).
    

34. Freud was the pioneer who rejected the conventional notion that sexuality is a ‘‘problem’’ to be solved by morality and convention and argued instead that sexuality was an inherent force in each person from infancy, a force that threatens social order but also can spur individuals to greater personal development and insight. Freud saw homosexuality as a pathological condition (rather than as a crime or sin), but psychol- ogists who came after him have seen homosexuality as a deviation from the norm that
    

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    is not pathological, degenerative or liable to reduce the value of an individual within society. Jung reinterpreted Freud’s ideas with greater attention to religion and spiri- tual archetypes, toward the goal of balance within the individual rather than conform- ity to social norms. Finally, Lacan refi d psychoanalysis further, arguing that sexuality is not a primordial force in the personality as Freud theorized, but is rather one manifestation of the primal confrontation between self and other which shapes the ego at multiple levels, which brings psychoanalysis into even closer dialogue with Sufi metaphysics, as illustrated in Katherine Pratt Ewing,
    Arguing Sainthood: Moder- nity, Psychoanalysis and Islam
    (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1997).
    

35. Judges apply rational criteria to measure the situation: adult responsibility of the thief (
    baligh
    and
    ‘aqil
    ), intent (
    niya
    ), minimum value of the stolen object (
    nihab
    ), type of good stolen (
    mal
    ), relation of the thief to the victim, and the location of the stolen object (
    hirz
    ), as described by David Forte, ‘‘Islamic Law and the Crime of Theft,’’
    Cleveland State Law Review
    (vol. 34–35), 54.
    

36. The best exposition of the purposes of the
    Shari‘a
    (
    maqasid
    ) which limit dog- matic literalism by rational understanding of social welfare is by the Maliki jurist Shatibi. His ideals are much needed today, and one work attempts to reintroduce them into contemporary discussions: Muhammad Khalid Masud,
    Islamic Legal Phi- losophy: a Study of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi’s Life and Thought
    (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1977).
    

37. Article available at www.tariqramadan.com/article.php3?id_article=
    0264& lang=en
    

38. Abdelwahab Bouhdiba,
    Sexuality in Islam
    (London, U.K.: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985).
    

39. For instance, on 17 May, 2004,
    www.islamonline.net posted a
    fatwa
    to the query ‘‘My brother, who is not Muslim, is homosexual. Now it is legal in Ontario for same sex couples to get married. I am worried that he may wish to do this. I get along very well with my brother. In fact, when I became a Muslim he was the only one in my whole family who supported me and helped me. We are very close. If he decides to have a marriage ceremony, would I be committing a sin if I attended?’’ The response by a mufti in Toronto, calls homosexuality
    fahsha
    ’, an atrocious and obscene act, and states that ‘‘Islam teaches that believers should neither do obscene acts, nor in any way indulge in their propagation,’’ quoting Qur’an 24:19: ‘‘Those who love to see obscenity published broadcast among the Believers will have a griev- ous penalty in this life and in the hereafter.’’ The ruling offered is that ‘‘You are not allowed in Islam to attend a so-called marriage ceremony between homosexuals. By ‘marrying’ so, those people are waging an open war against Allah Almighty. Remember, homosexuality is the most heinous sin because of which Allah destroyed an entire nation. So, never mind your good relationship with your brother. You should never attend such a ceremony.’’ There are several diffi with this response. The verse quoted discusses the ‘‘obscenity’’ of false accusation of adultery (specifically about accusation against ‘A’isha), not about any sex act or about homo- sexuality. The response also ignores the reality of law in Ontario, in which these ‘‘so-called marriages’’ are actual marriages. The ethics of commanding a brother to refuse to attend his brother’s wedding is, of course, questionable.
    

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40. Ahmad Zarruq,
    Sharh Asma’ Allah al-Husna
    (mss. Rabat: al-Khizana al- ‘Amma), 249 paraphrases a teaching of Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili (d. 1258
    CE
    ).
    

41. Qur’an 16:90. ‘‘God enjoins acting justly and doing what is beautiful, provid- ing for those near you in need and God forbids indecency, evil and rebellion, admon- ishing you so that you might be mindful.’’ It is very signifi that the formative principles of ‘‘acting justly and doing what is beautiful’’ come before specifi ritual demands (providing for those in need through
    Zakat
    ) and before legal or moral restraints (forbidding indecency, evil and rebellion).