[Reader-list] views on the practice of homosexuality in the Muslim society

[arshad amanullah]

Views on the practice of homosexuality in the Muslim society

by: Arshad Amanullah

Irshad Mnji's book 'The Trouble with Islam Today: A Wake-Up Call for
Honesty and Change' (Imprint One, New Delhi, 2005) asks: Can Islam and
homosexuality be reconciled? (P23). The subject of homosexuality is
not new to the Muslim society. One may find recurring mention of the
concept in its theological literature. The Quran has a chapter called
'Lot', after the name of a prophet, who had been sent towards people
who openly used to practice homosexuality. The mission of this prophet
was to persuade them to give it up. Being disappointed with the
stubborn attitudes of the people, he invoked the Allah's wrath to turn
their settlements upside down and Allah responded to his plea.
Exegeses on the Quran written throughout history dealt with the issue
and, thus, kept on adding, though homogenous in nature, to the body of
the literature available on the theme. However, one may trace some
murmurs among the exegetes regarding the interpretation of the word
'ghilman' used for those small beautiful kids who, apart from hoors,
would be in the heaven to serve its residents.

Likewise, the Hadis literature, being the explanation of the Quran, is
replete with the references to homosexuality, denouncing it
vociferously. I have a madrasa day memory. Once a lady asked for the
opinion of the muftis about her husband who used to do only annul sex
with her. The council of muftis at Jamia Salafia, Varanasi,
unanimously advised her to seek khula from her husband if he does not
improve his ways. In the corpus of jurisprudence, there are
discussions about the fate of the person who does annul sex with
animals, like donkeys and horses.

>From a vintage point different from that of the Shi'a-Sunni divide,
segregation between the sharia and tariqa is another significant
division within Islam which paved the way for the emergence of a
subculture within the Muslim society. It is this division which
explains why the Sufis and ulema have been at the loggerheads through
out the history of Islam. Sufis are on record to accuse ulema of being
externalists, without understanding the kernels of the message of
Islam. Urdu as well as Persian poetry is full of such themes. In a
beautiful couplet, mocking at the obsession of Ulema with the
externalities of an individual's behaviour, one Sufi poet says:

Tar damani pe sheikh hamari na jaiyo
Daman nichor den to farishte wuzu karen
(O sheikh! Don't bother about the fact of being my attire drenched in
liquor. Its holiness can be gauged from the fact that if I   wriggle
it, the angels will rush to do wuzu out of its drops.).

On the other hand, ulema unfailingly used every opportunity to tell
the public that Sufis in most cases are homosexual. They ad nauseam
narrate how Sarmad was desperately in love with a Brahmin boy of
Lahore and how he kept on wandering naked on the streets of the city.
That's why, they justify, he was beheaded on the order of Aurangzeb
who, unlike Dara Shikoh, was strongly opposed to the Sufi Islam.

Am'rad, a widely used term in the madrasa circle, signifies those
males who are yet to grow moustache and beard. Madrasa authorities and
teachers are often accused of being 'amrad parast' for extending
unusual help to those students who are amrad. In the madrasa lingo,
they are also referred as golden or black golden, those who have dark
complexion. They are often teased by their class-fellows or/and room
mates, in case of boarding madrasa. Moreover, students normally look
at golden or black golden with suspicion of being involved in
homosexual activities.

Cases of their being sodomised, by teachers or elder students, also
sometimes, come into light. Subhashini Ali, the politician and social
activist, once relegated an account of a small boy whom she admitted
in a madrasa near Kanpur. After some days, the boy fled away from the
madrasa due to being subjected to the sodomy. Subhashini furiously
exclaimed: 'Had I arranged for the medical check-up of the boy, all
maulvis would have been caught red-handed'. In some cases, having
'caught', the partners confessed how it had started as sodomy and,
later on, transformed into the consented relationships. Here it should
be born in mind that most of the ulema who teach in a madrasa with
boarding facility, live within the campus, or in student's hostels as
wardens, away from their family. The meager amount they get as salary
is insufficient to meet the expenses of a full-fledged family. Also,
coming from rural agricultural background, they need to keep their
family at their ancestral place to look after the assets they have
there.

Historically speaking, people have been interpreting canons of Islam
in many ways, different from the popular Islam of their times. Started
under the Umayyads and culminated in the rule of the Abbasids in the
Baitul Hikmah, translations of the books dealing with Greek philosophy
from various languages into Arabic had taken place on an unprecedented
scale. Though the emergence of Mo'tazalites marks the break of a dawn
of reason and rationality in the history of Muslims, they had never
been the part of the mainstream Muslim society. Before the advent of
socialism, capitalism had already gained theological legitimacy.
Likewise, shari'a has been interpreted to make socialism compatible
with Islam in the last century and recently to substantiate feminism,
democracy, etc. So, through out the history, and especially after the
declaration of the death of the author by Rolan Barthes, one is free
to interpret the text in any manner one wishes. Therefore, efforts at
theorizing the interplay between Islam and homosexuality are welcome.
There is really no obstacle in the process. What is really problematic
is the social acceptance of a particular theory or interpretation in
the mainstream Islam as all the mentioned versions of Islam flourished
at the periphery, as the subculture.

It would be interesting to mention here that Pedro Almodovar's
Labyrinth of the Passion (1982) has a character Riza Niro (played by
Imanol Arias) who is an Islamic terrorist and homosexual in his
orientation. Being a son of a deposed Islamic shah who is a cancer
patient, Riza has acutely developed sense of smell and a porky shrink
bent on sleeping with a frigid gynecologist who is treating his
stepmother, the ex-empress, for infertility.

The question which sometimes arises in my mind is what the most
pressing need of the Muslim community, say of India, at the moment is.
Despite my fullest awareness of the role politics of desires plays in
shaping the course of a human life, I would like to name 'survival' as
the first priority. It is this concern for the survival of a Muslim
which overshadows all of his other concerns. Though I don't give the
canonical Islam a shit, I constantly live under the fear of being shot
dead on the pretext of my so-called connection with any shadowy
terrorist outfit. In this regard, my professional training in one of
the most fashionable disciplines and even my denial of any compliance
with the Allah of Bin Ladens, I stress, will not prove of any help to
me against the anti-terrorism brigade.


arshad amanullah
35,masihgarh,
jamia nagar
new delhi-25.