Theology and Religion Research Seminar - Mehrdad Alipour (University of Exeter)

The Sunna on Modern Homosexuality

It appears that, similar to the Qur’ān, the sunna also does not address the modern phenomenon of homosexuality either positively or negatively. Therefore, it is not possible to extract an Islamic verdict either for or against homosexuality from the sunna. The likely reason why the sunna is silent on this issue is that the concept of homosexuality, as referring to those who identify as homosexuals and practice egalitarian relationships with other same-sex mates, seemingly did not exist in the era of the Islamic revelation. In other words, there is no reference to this phenomenon in the sources attributed to the tribes and people of early Islamic society. Therefore, homosexuality seems not to have been an issue for Muḥammad, the Twelve Imāms, and their companions and apparently it was not felt necessary to address this issue in the sunna, either explicitly or implicitly.

Nevertheless, there are various groups of khabar attributed to Muḥammad or the Twelve Imāms which Shīʿa jurists usually use to justify prohibiting two other phenomena, namely liwāṭ and musāḥiqa. Shīʿa jurists commonly describe liwāṭ and musāḥiqa as male and female same-sex sexual practices, respectively. Therefore, by applying these aḥādīth, they have argued for the prohibitions of male and female same-sex practices only under the two categories above.

A close reading of such reports, however, shows that these aḥādīth have been mentioned in different contexts and refer to various phenomena which can hardly be reduced to the two juristic categories of liwāṭ and musāḥiqa. Although ḥadīth compilations have also collected such aḥādīth in one or two chapters (bāb), as the earliest ḥadīth treaties or the surviving uṣūl testify, aḥādīth had not been generally ordered or structured as such. These books normally contained various ḥadīth on different issues which had been set all together. Therefore, it is plausible to imagine that in the case of same-sex sexual behaviours the aḥādīth were not also all in one place or collected under specific titles. Whether there were two categories, as Shīʿa jurists generally categorise, or multiple categories, as suggested in this study, the question now is whether these aḥādīth can be applied to argue against homosexuality. Before this question can be answered, the chains and contents (matn) of such aḥādīth must be reviewed and examined. However, if one knows about the Shīʿa ijtihādic process and ḥadīth literature, one would realise that this is indeed not an easy task to accomplish in a small project such as this. It is even more challenging when it comes to such a sensitive issue, namely same-sex sexual behaviours, as the volume of the akhbār on this subject is quite large.

Having said that, in the following, I will try to investigate the typology, the context, and the content of the aḥādīth related to same-sex sexual behaviours in as much detail as possible within the scope of this study. The chains of such aḥādīth shall also be examined where needed. However, the aim of this research is neither to decisively or dogmatically present a conclusive approach on modern homosexuality in Islam, nor to claim an inclusive ijtihād to derive a legal ruling on homosexuality as a mujtahid or a mufti would be expected to do. With knowledge about traditional ḥadīth scholarship, one may acknowledge that there are various complications and layers of debates needed in order to understand aḥādīth around a highly sensitive issue such as same-sex sexual behaviours. Therefore, it is not difficult to learn that a complicated topic like same-sex sexual behaviours with a high quantity of collected aḥādīth cannot be fully debated in a short presentation. Rather, the goal of the discussion here is to provide scholars who study Islamic law (in particular traditional Muslim jurists) with potential discursive spaces on the issue of Shīʿa ḥadīth and homosexuality. I believe, and hopefully I am not delusional, that my reflections on Shīʿa ḥadīth literature and the issue of homosexuality, in this study, modestly suggest or outline various existing discursive spaces on aḥādīth and same-sex sexual behaviours which are surprisingly elastic and dynamic, despite powerful attempts of traditional jurists to ignore them or claim otherwise.