# Why does Islam forbid homosexual activity?

*Why homosexual activity is prohibited: family units and the absence of clear hadith*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ejs0ibhhpg0/s/1/
- Date: 2019-08-02 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Why are homosexual activities forbidden? | Mufti Abu Layth (0:01–5:12)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJS0IBhhPg0&t=1s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ejs0ibhhpg0/

**Topics:** Sexuality and orientation; Sexual ethics; Legal theory and method

**Question as asked:** What is the rationale for the prohibition of homosexual activity in your religion?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Islam did not address homosexuality directly; it outlawed all sex outside marriage to build strong family units, and homosexuality was prohibited as a by-product. There are no clear sahih hadith on it, and scholars differed on related questions such as anal sex.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that Islam did not address homosexuality directly but outlawed all sexual activity outside marriage in order to build strong family units, so that homosexuality was prohibited as a by-product, and that there are no clear sahih hadith on it.

**Evidence, his words at 2:32:** “homosexuality became outlawed as a byproduct the main thing what Islam was trying to do was set up a family unit that's in my understanding because there are no clear hadith to do with homosexuality at all” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJS0IBhhPg0&t=152s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth reads a question asking for the rationale behind the prohibition of homosexual activity in Islam. He says there is a difference of opinion even on what homosexual activity means, and that the fiqh texts capture much of the Sunnah but also much opinion shaped by the issues of their age. In his understanding Islam did not address homosexuality directly: it focused on building healthy, stable family units as the foundation of a civilisation, and because men would rather not shoulder the responsibility of a relationship it outlawed all sexual activity except through marriage, so that homosexuality was outlawed as a by-product. He says there are no clear sahih hadith on homosexuality, which he has gone through in the past. A second layer, he says, was the attitude of Muslim scholarship to anal sex, which many ulama declared haram and by which male homosexual relationships were further condemned; yet not everyone considered it haram, some transmissions from Imam Malik, many Malikis and the Shia argued that what a couple does behind closed doors is their business, as Imam Malik's teacher said, and this diversity was later silenced.

## Sources and names cited

- Imam Malik
- fiqh
- sahih
- haram
- Maliki school

## Transcript (machine tier, 0:01–5:12)

[0:00] what is the rationale for the prohibition of homosexual activity in your religion war is the rationale for all right where's that question gone o robber rational awful right homosexual activity what is that like like camp behavior almost sexual know that I've explained this in a lot of detail previously that look they have been there's a difference of opinion as well believe it or not even in this because what does homosexual activity mean and I

[0:39] think really this comes back to me earlier on when I was speaking about the FIP texts and I was saying that they are out of sync you have to see that thick does capture a lot of Sun a buddy you know on the same kind of token what it does is it it's a lot of opinion as well because there's contemporary issues of their age that they're responding to so Islam in my understanding didn't really address homosexuality so clearly I think what Islam did is it just focused on

[1:16] family and it it understood that for a society to be built upon a strong foundation for it to kind of set out a trajectory for a civilization we need healthy family units okay so we need kind of households with healthy families with kind of and buy healthy I don't just mean physically healthy but mentally and they have stability and that kind of you know that they are kind of grounded so what Islam did was it

[1:55] kind of to do that it needed people to take up to shoulder the responsibility of a relationship but as men often would rather just chill and rather not kind of shoulder responsibilities so it outlawed any sexual activity and less through marriage now this is as a main understanding a mainstream I'm not saying I'm trying to kind of it is a bit simplified it is a bit simplistic but it's to get you so you can get the gist

[2:32] of it now by doing so as a byproduct they outlawed things like homosexuality so homosexuality became outlawed as a byproduct the main thing what Islam was trying to do was set up a family unit that's in my understanding because there are no clear hadith to do with homosexuality at all that asahi Ansari and I've been through some of them in the past so that that's what I think then I think the other issue so that's one layer the other layer was the other layer was the Muslim attitude or them

[3:10] this the attitude of Muslim scholarship towards towards anal sex this became a I think this became another I don't know if I could say a spanner in the works or a pain in the butt shallots right it became another problem a problem this on so what happened is a lot of the orlimar out started to declare that Haram as well by declaring that Haram they were homosexual relationships

[3:49] especially male homosexual relationships were deemed kind of well they they've gone anyway then so but that said not everybody considered anal sex Haram I mean many in fact some of the transmissions from Imam Malik were that it wasn't many of the Maliki I argued for his permissibility the Shia argued that for his for me but it wasn't that they were arguing for dist anal sex but they were saying that look any sexual practice between can between a couple is their business as imam alex teacher said he said that when people are behind

[4:28] closed doors it's their business it's nobody else's business so they had that kind of approach so there was a diversity as well but people tried to silence and this diversity so that's the second layer of the kind of problems that many scholars because they then outlawed things like anal sex and stuff like that it by extension further distanced the legitimacy and permissibility of homosexuality the third layer is and I think this one was

[5:07] utterly cruel is gonna be honest was Humaira Deitz okay which in the Arabic language and in the Sharia were referred to were referred to as Hansa so in Arabic you have the term Hansa now alpha is a sometimes they called Han thermo-skin right but confer is in Arabic a a hermaphrodite so it's a person either a mmm I mean I suppose in some ways may be

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment eJS0IBhhPg0/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ejs0ibhhpg0/s/1/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.