# Does Islam say homosexuals should be thrown off buildings or executed?

*Does Islam require killing homosexuals? The hadith, the Ali reports and the early jurists*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yfej-qks-km/s/1/
- Date: 2018-12-20 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Homosexuality and Islam -Mufti Abu Layth (0:00–7:56)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFeJ-QkS-kM&t=0s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yfej-qks-km/

**Topics:** Sexuality and orientation; Hudud and punishments; Authenticating hadith

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** There is no sahih hadith in which the Prophet spoke about homosexuals, the reports of Ali ordering executions are not authentic in Mufti Abu Layth's view, and the early jurists disagreed, with the Hanafis holding it is not a hadd offence. The claim of a consensus that homosexual acts deserve death is false.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says there is no sahih hadith in which the Prophet spoke about homosexuals, that he does not believe the reports of Ali ordering executions to be authentic, and that the claim of a consensus that anyone who commits homosexual acts deserves death is false, since the jurists disagreed and the Hanafis held it is not a hadd.

**Evidence, his words at 5:24:** “now people have started to say that there is ijma that these people have anybody who commits homosexuality deserves death this is what they're saying that is nonsense that is nonsense” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFeJ-QkS-kM&t=324s)

## Longer summary

Prompted by a message about a debate in Denmark and by a viral clip of a teacher at an Islamic school in the UK saying homosexuals should be thrown off a cliff, Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that Islam requires throwing homosexuals off buildings is nonsense and that those who say such things damage Islam. He says the Prophet never spoke about homosexuals: every hadith on the subject, including the report in Abu Dawud about whoever does the act of the people of Lut, is weak, and there is not a single sahih report. He objects in passing to the literature calling homosexuals 'Luti' after a prophet. He turns to the five differing reports that Ali ordered such people executed, beheaded, thrown from a height or burned, says he does not believe any of them to be authentic, and adds that if they were accepted they should be read against Ali's struggle with the Khawarij, whom he compares to ISIS, so that they may concern particular culprits from that group rather than homosexuality in general. He then surveys the jurists: Imam Malik is transmitted as saying 'I have heard it said' that they ought to be stoned like those guilty of zina, which Mufti reads as dismissive; al-Shafi'i and others treated the act under the ruling of zina; Ibrahim [?], al-Hakam [?] and Abu Hanifa held it cannot be a hadd because Islam never legislated it, so a ruler may impose a discretionary punishment for public indecency but not capital punishment. He calls the claim of a consensus that anyone who commits homosexual acts deserves death nonsense, and reads Ibn Taymiyya's student Ibn al-Qayyim describing the act as the greatest crime after disbelief and arguably greater than murder, a statement Mufti calls seriously misplaced.

## Sources and names cited

- report: whoever does the action of the people of lut (unresolved; Abu Dawud, number not stated)
- report: ali said execute them chop the head off throw them off a cliff burn them (unresolved; five differing narrations)
- Sunan Abi Dawud
- Ali ibn Abi Talib
- Khawarij
- ISIS
- Imam Malik
- al-Shafi'i
- Ibrahim al-Nakha'i [?]
- al-Hakam [?]
- Abu Hanifa
- Ibn Taymiyya
- Ibn al-Qayyim
- zina
- hudud (prescribed punishments)
- ijma'
- Luti (the term used for homosexuals in the literature)

## Transcript (machine tier, 0:00–7:56)

[0:00] so there's been this discussion in europe uh uh about about homosexuals and how they should be punished in islam let me just clarify somebody sent me a message saying in i think in denmark this is quite a hot topic right now that people believe in islam you're meant to chuck homosexual homosexuals off buildings

[0:27] this is nonsense people utter nonsense let me just clarify this right now this thing what is this about and there's a viral clip there's a clip that went viral about in the uk some woman teaching in an islamic school in a burka saying that we all know that you know hot gays and whatever they meant to be chucked off a cliff

[0:54] these people that say these things do more damage to islam than 30 the gels put together could possibly do honestly these people really need to get a grip of themselves and study islam it is not true people first of all the prophet never spoke about homosexuals okay let's just get let's get the facts clear these hadiths that they're bringing in abu dhabi and everything that

[1:32] he whosoever acts does an action of the people of luth right this is by the way on the side note it's so i think it's so raw if i can just use the word another word ain't coming to my mind it's so raw and so unacceptable but it's so widespread that homosexuals in the islamic literature are called luthi like the associates of luth and it's just like this was the name of a prophet and it's just so it's just it's just such a disservice to luth al-islam

[2:12] nobody would ever name their child luth now like that's never going to happen because you just they've used the term to mean gay right so any but that's a different discussion but so this all these hadith every single hadith to do with this homosexuality is naive there isn't a single sahih that the prophet spoke about this okay i'm just saying about the prophet then there's some discussion did the companion speak about this

[2:48] now people say swan they take back five different varying narrations to say the ali the satan ali said oh execute them he said chop the head off no he said throw them off a cliff no he said burn them no he said this i don't believe any of these to be authentic um i believe but if people were going to take them authentically if people i mean as the words of satan ali radhiallahu this was referring if they were that he had said we're going to kill these particular people we have to look at who was

[3:28] in his lifetime dealing with and his greatest problem were the khawarij those people who were massacring and butchering people and they were the proper they were like the fathers of they were like isis on steds on steroids they were the fathers of of this kind of isis movement and they're known as the hawari like an extremist group anybody who commits a sin is a catholic so to them the companions were careful so they were the target of satan ali's kind of that battle and struggle if anything maybe if anything somebody wanted to believe that said

[4:07] ali was speaking about certain culprits from that group that they needed to be executed and people and maybe whether they were also accused of homosexuality or not i don't know some amongst them but generally just about homosexuality not about them i don't believe these to be authentic okay and that's a different discussion that someday we can go through the chains and i can show you why they're weak now the scholars when asked about this imam malik and other scholars said we believe like imam malik some people transmit that he said oh i've heard it still being said and i believe that he's

[4:46] this comment of his is dismissive he said i heard it still being said that they ought to be stoned like the way people of zina are stoned and stuff like this now to me this i heard it being said was a dismissive way because rather than why not him just say it that's one thing now other scholars said that look this hasn't been discussed therefore we're going to just treat this like zina this is the same ruling as zinna like imam shafe and these scholars other scholars like

[5:24] ibrahim and other scholars like al-haqam and they said look this can't be ahad in islam because islam never spoke about it so yes imam hanifah you can punish these people if you want if you felt this was a public indecency you could punish this with a punishment that you come up with but it couldn't be capital punishment because in the hanafi method it doesn't reach the state of hud so that's the background now people have started to say that there is ijma

[6:04] that these people have anybody who commits homosexuality deserves death this is what they're saying that is nonsense that is nonsense okay let me just clarify and there's a quote from ibn tayyim because we're down on time but you can find it online ibn al jazeera and even even tamiya is one of the harsh people against uh all this homosexuality as well but his student ibn goes on to say that we believe this is the greatest crime of humanity

[6:41] after disbelief he and he says here and it is arguably greater than murder [Laughter] honestly i don't even know what to say to that that is seriously misplaced that i mean i honestly these kind of things are disappointing statements disappointment isn't the word from ibrahim who sometimes makes very interesting uh uh interesting things

[7:15] that on the left there is nobody are you talking about this thing this is part of this is my couch it's one of those reclining uh so now ignore him makes this statement saying that this is the greatest crime after disbelief is just sodomy and he says sodomy with anybody or anything it's just the greatest sin ever and it's greater than murder arguably which is ridiculous and i don't want to go into a psychoanalysis right there because i don't want to be disrespectful to hypno but we know what psychoanal analysis would kind of lead us to there

[7:54] but uh this kind of thing is absurd and people said nobody first of all no let me kind of uh let me kind of just add something here first of all this is gonna come as a real shock to people they have actually even been scholars that have said homosexuality is fine right so i'm just going to scare the hell out of everybody by saying that i'm not saying i agree with those scholars but i'm saying that they have been scholars great scholars like al qaddi who was a great scholar

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment yFeJ-QkS-kM/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yfej-qks-km/s/1/

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