How does Islam view LGBT issues?
Published: November 17, 2022 • Updated: November 21, 2022
Author: Yaqeen Institute
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Islam and LGBTQ were the topics of a webinar presented by the Yaqeen Institute with Dr. Omar Suleiman, Sheikh Mustafa Umar, Sheikh Ubaydullah Evans, and Sister Sarah Sultan. It answered concerns such as "How can Muslims confront LGBTQ issues while being faithful?" "What is the Islamic ethical framework?," and "How do we provide the necessary assistance to our community in a society that is always changing?"
The 10 Undeniable Islamic Laws, according to Dr. Omar Suleiman
In a video titled "The LGBT Question: What Does Islam Say?," Dr. Omar Suleiman simply outlines how we should tackle these challenges in 10 undisputed Islamic rulings about LGBTQ concerns. The Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research's founder and president, Dr. Omar Suleiman, is also an adjunct professor of Islamic studies in SMU's Graduate Liberal Studies Program (Southern Methodist University). Additionally, he serves as the Resident Scholar at the Valley Ranch Islamic Center and the Emeritus Co-Chair of Faith Forward Dallas at Thanksgiving Square.
First and foremost, let’s start with the hukm (ruling) in Islam.
- This is the clear, unambiguous, and something that no Islamic scholar or mainstream masjid or institution would deny.” Dr. Omar then discusses ten principles that Muslims should be aware of, the first being the Islamic hukm on any sexual relationship outside of nikah.
- The other principle is that desires are not sinful, nor should people be identified or ostracized by desires. Instead, every Muslim is defined by Islam which is submission to Allah with those desires.
- Same-sex actions are unequivocally haram, or not permitted in Islam.
- The one who acts upon those desires is sinful, but within the fold of Islam so long as they don’t justify the acts.
- The one who does not act upon them is actually rewarded by Allah for their striving.
- The one who denies the prohibition denies what is “known in the religion by necessity”, which takes one outside of the fold of Islam.
- Celebrating or supporting what Allah has prohibited is a form of fusuq, or disobedience, and cannot be done in the name of social cohesion or political mobility.
- We have and always will condemn the mistreatment and violence against people based on orientation, lifestyle, or belief, but that condemnation should not be conflated with making halal what Allah has made haram.
- We should still be the best of neighbors and colleagues and show all people the beauty of the Prophetic way with our character.
- We should always anchor our understanding of any issue in the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the ijma (consensus) and our scholars should use Qisas (analogy) when necessary to deal with any matter.
Sheikh Ubaydullah Evans on Addressing Nowadays Social Issues
Sheikh Ubaydullah Evans discussed the importance of looking at social issues in context. ALIM's first Scholar-in-Residence is Sheikh Ubaydullah Evans. In high school, he converted to Islam. Under the private tutelage of local scholars, Ustadh Ubaydullah studied some of the foundational books of Islam while pursuing a degree in journalism at Columbia University.
In the years since then, he has studied at Chicagoland's Institute of Islamic Education (IIE) in Tarim, Yemen, and Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he is the first African-American to graduate from its Shari'a program. Occasionally, Ustadh Ubaydullah instructs with the Ta'leef Collective and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN).
In his role as ALIM Scholar-in-Residence, Ustadh Ubaydullah teaches at the ALIM Summer Program. Along with other courses, he teaches the History of Islamic Law, Shama'il, and the Aphorisms of Ibn Ata'illah.
As he puts it, “In the U.S, discrimination has been a big problem. Racism has been a big problem. These are some of the “cardinal sins” of our nation. Now, the pendulum is swinging. We have recognized the immorality of much of that earlier discrimination and racism. Now the pendulum is swinging, and we’re coming to a place of the uncategorical embrace of everything. It reminded me of the statement of City Ahmed Zarouq that ‘every extreme is followed by its opposite.’ …The thing about our religion is that we are the faith of the middle course.”
Toward the end of the webinar, Sheikh Mustafa Umar says that being responsible is essential and “uncompromising but compassionate.” He emphasized that the struggles are real. “We have to express compassion, fraternity, sorority, and make sure that our community is not a place of tribunals and investigations, but rather, equipping people with the tools necessary to engage this struggle at any level that they need to… and being supportive.”
Imam Omar concludes the webinar by saying, “As much as we push back on world views and the politics of it all that come towards us as Muslims, we don’t want to push people away from within our communities. Finding that balance, which is a balance, where we actively hold our principles… we have to as a community helps each other – we have to help our institutions, our activists, our Imams, our counselors, our people, the Muslims being ostracized for having these attractions or any struggle they may have, and the Muslims ostracized for trying to hold onto their deen and their worldviews. With that, show people the beauty and the brilliance of Islam. And we pray to Allah that we can do that.”