“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859
It is both strange and beautiful how Charles Dicken’s apt description of the good and the ugly of the modern world still rings so true even a century and a half later, almost as if it was written precisely for this age of marvellous discoveries happening around a steep decline of morality and decency. While we are making great ventures into space and conquering the stars on the one hand, on the other we are racing backwards, towards the Bronze Age, where men and women are still considering the possibilities of more than two genders. It is baffling to see a basic biological decree being argued in classrooms, courtrooms, protest sites, scholarly podiums and shockingly so, even in textbooks right next to pages and pages full of the evidences of the human mind’s limitless capacities to see, comprehend, create, investigate, research and discover. It is almost as if in this matter man, intelligent, wise and honoured, deliberately chooses to dwell in the dark, ignorant and disgraced, because facing the reality would mean not only abandoning his carnalities but also acknowledging to the world at large that he hasn’t in fact ever risen above being a wild animal, that preys on the weak and devours without limits.
June 28th is to be celebrated as Pride Day in the United States of America, to commemorate the first pride march held in New York City in 1970. Different communities however, have chosen different days throughout June as Pride Day, hence celebrating the month of June itself as Pride Month. Pride, is the term used to represent the homosexuals comprising the ever-growing abbreviation of the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, asexual and more) community. While it truly is each individual’s inviolable right to live in the manner that best pleases him, is it also not a responsibility to let live, without creating environments and dogmas that become hurdles in the lives and societies of those who are simply trying to live too? If living with the choices made is the right of one individual, then isn’t the other too deserving of the same right to live and impart to his children the values of his choice? This then has become the latest debate of western societies that is slowly shaping the future and values of children and adults alike. The LGBTQ community’s growing population and assertions of victimhood have not only made them more favourable but also invincible. Their presence has now crept out of harmless Pride Marches and has walked right into legislations, schoolrooms, curriculums and has even begun to alter theologies.
The Muslim community, which by far was the only faith still guarding itself against the pervasive presence of homosexuality has now begun to see that the walls are weakening. In the last few years there have been many ‘well meaning’, ‘all-inclusive’ mosques that have cropped up across Europe being led by ‘queer’, ‘gay’ imams that preach the acceptance of homosexuality in Islam. Though Muslims know too well that these modern ‘imams’ and ‘preachers’ would not stand even the most basic test of Islamic jurisprudence, we are also well aware of the evil that social media can sometimes be. The Public Religion Research Institute recently reported that 42% of American Muslims have a favorable attitude towards same-sex marriage, while only 51% oppose. Among the general American population, a 2015 poll showed that 57% of the population supports same-sex marriage and only 39% oppose. Some neo-exegetes of the Quran, for the first time in fourteen centuries of scholarship, have even taken liberties to explain to the unassuming, ill-informed Muslim that the very argument of the condemnation of homosexuality in Islam, the story of Prophet Lot (as) wasn’t in fact referring to homosexuality but to sexual perversions limited to coercion and rape, completely forgetting the fact that the word ‘sodomy’ itself derives its roots from the town of Sodom that made history for just their wayward preferences. It wasn’t of any concern at all if these arguments were left limited to closed doors and research papers, but this battle has been dragged into the curriculums of the innocent minds that depend on schools and teachers to impart values that differentiate between right and wrong; moral and perverse, legal and illegal and beautiful and ugly. In 2021, a teacher in California went viral for teaching her students to show allegiance to the Pride Flag before the American flag. Recently, an audio clipping of a teacher in Canada, berating a student for skipping Pride activities had flung the school into headlines. The teacher called the student’s choice to not attend a Pride event as ‘unpatriotic’ and that if he has a stance that matches those of Uganda and other countries deemed to be homophobic then the child too did not deserve to be in Canada. “We believe that people can marry whomever they want. That is in law. And if you don’t think that should be the law, you can’t be Canadian. You don’t belong here”, she was heard saying. A 12-year-old boy was taken out of class because some children felt unsafe about the T-shirt quote that he wore. The T-shirt simply read: There are only two genders. A Democrat official equated Muslim children with ‘white supremacists’ and ‘outright bigots’ for opposing LGBT curriculum after they spoke out against sexuality discussions and materials in classrooms during a heated school board meeting. “I don’t believe my first-grade and third-grade cousins are prepared to read and discuss such issues,” said an attendee at the meeting. MailOnline, a few days ago, revealed the curriculum for children as young as six and nine years of age, which included not just scientifically false claims about biology but also had colouring books, stories and snippets that peddled narratives about gender fluidity, sex, the many possible genders, gender transformations and transgenderism. Shockingly, it even had practical ‘assignments’ for students to test out and experience as homework what was being taught in school. The pictures of textbook material revealed by MailOnline were not only too explicit and graphic for a child starting school but also disruptive for young minds struggling to come to terms with growth and hormones. Drag Queen Story Hours, is another school activity targeted at 3–11-year-olds, where a man dressed as a woman in flamboyant, colourful costume hosts a storytelling session for children to promote ‘inclusivity’, to normalize cross-dressing and to provide ‘role models’ for gender flexibility. One such drag queen caused sex-ed itself to be suspended in a school in Isle of Man after he claimed before the pupils that there existed 73 possible genders for human beings to choose from.
The most recent California Assembly Bill 957, passed on June 14th encourages parents to affirm their children’s gender identity, which will be the most considered aspect in the case of a custody battle, granting custody to the parent that affirms their child’s right to ‘choose’ what gender they belong to. The bill is being used as a weapon against parents who do not believe that gender is non-binary for charging them with child abuse. “It’s already happening,” Erica Friday, an opponent of the bill explained. “It happened to me when I refused to call my daughter by a male name and use male pronouns. CPS showed up at my doorstep. The police followed.” Abigail Martinez, a mother, claims that her daughter died because of the gender affirming policy of California. The sixteen-year-old was taken from her mother with the assistance of school authorities and was given testosterone against her parent’s consent and was later used as the poster boy for trans ideology. “My daughter was not a boy trapped in a girl’s body. She had mental health issues. Against my consent, my daughter was given testosterone instead of therapy. The LGBTQ group used her to raise money for them. ‘Look at the poor reject trans boy,’ they said. The abuse claim against me was finally dropped, but it was too late. The damage was done. By then my daughter was in horrible mental and physical pain. My daughter knelt down in front of a train. She was murdered by gender ideology”, Ms. Martinez alleges. Two more bills that are making their way through the legislature also deal with gender identity.
With this being the horrifying scenario, for not just Muslims in the West but even closer home in India where 53% adults are in the favour of legalizing same-sex marriages, parents and caregivers need to recognize the most urgent need to arm themselves against those that are scheming a sinister plot to take their children’s childhood away from them. The flames of the West don’t take too long spreading to the East, creating a wildfire that burns our bright futures to ashes beyond recognition. The battle against gender ideologies can be executed in a three-step strategy:
- Awareness
- Counselling
- Action
Awareness:
Far grimmer than the realities stated above is the reality of our times that despite knowledge being accessible at the click of a button, we are a community that has strayed far away from the very first obligation on man: to seek knowledge. Knowledge is not sought only in a certain age, in confined classrooms, just sufficient to last us throughout what is left of our lives. Knowledge calls to be refreshed, collected, categorized, grown as a treasure and to be made a part of our daily lives. Seeking knowledge is not to Google a ruling of fiqh as and when the need arises. To seek knowledge is to learn from the learned people, to keep the company of the righteous who remind each other of taqwa or God-consciousness, it is to undertake a journey along the path of Allah with knowledge being the single most purpose. Learning a single verse of the Quran with an uncredited translation devoid of the entire context or learning one ruling without the light of all other rulings simply does not make one a learned person, but rather he is more on the path of ignorance than the one who hasn’t learnt even a word of the Quran.
It is of foremost importance then to educate ourselves first of the stand of Islam on gender if we are indeed to educate our children of it. Islamic ideology relies heavily upon the concept of Fitrah, that is the basic foundation upon which a man is born. Fitrah, is a pure, unadulterated, God-conscious and the surest determiner between right and wrong. As Muslims we believe that Adam (as), the first man was created upon the fitrah as were all human beings after him. Fitrah if cultivated and protected by acting upon it beautifies the characters of men and likewise if acted against, deteriorates, stagnates and eventually rots away along with the hedonistic behaviours, beliefs and personalities of men. Haya, decency, bashfulness, inherent shyness or modesty, is the first, most intrinsic pillar of a man’s fitrah. Haya appeals to the believers to avoid anything considered to be unpleasant or repulsive and holds man back from lewdness and obscenity or fahisha. Hence, The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: “Every Deen or religion has an innate character. The character of Islam is modesty (haya).” The absence of haya deprives a man of the pleasure of obedience itself which is derived from enjoining the obligations of Allah and refraining from what He has forbidden. The Prophet (PBUH) said: “Indeed, from the teachings of the first Prophets which has reached you is, ‘If you do not have shyness, then do as you please.”
When Adam (as) was created, free of defect, the epitome of perfection, with the strongest conscience, the first obligation upon him, just like it is upon us too, was to seek and spread knowledge. Allah taught Adam (as) the knowledge that he needed and he further shared it with the angels upon the command of his Lord. Hence, man’s most important, primary relationship is that of obedience with his Maker. We as Muslims identify as believers and slaves even before we identify as men and women. We are first and foremost the highest of the creations of Allah, much higher and more perfect than the stars and angels, and were created only and only to glorify His Sublimity, Perfection, Oneness and Dominion over every living and non-living substance in the universe.
“I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me.” (Quran: Adh Dhariyat Verse 56)
Therefore, men and women are first commanded to seek knowledge and from that knowledge they glorify their Lord and bow down in obedience before His commands.
The second relationship that Allah facilitated for man or Adam (as) was that of a spouse, and of all the creations that could possibly be brought before him He chose for him a woman as a partner, establishing for all mankind that the source of pleasure, contentment, peace, joy and harmony has been sanctioned by Allah in a lawful relationship between men and women, and that any transgression beyond it has no place in Islam. The second most sacrosanct relationship after the relationship of Allah with his slaves, is that which is ordained between spouses. Of all the relationships that Allah could have glorified and chosen for paradise, it is this that He chose as a haven of comfort to be praised in the Quran. Allah created men and women biologically different, with varying capacities but with the same rights and responsibilities, designed as a balance for the fulfilment of the same purpose. It is of course only logical that for a puzzle to be perfected, the union should be of the two opposite but complementary pieces. Whoever has heard of a puzzle being completed with just the identical pieces? It is incredulous indeed that such basic biological information needs to be discussed and debated for the sake of sanity and the protection of our societies.
Somebody with even a cursory knowledge of Islam knows what the stand of Islamic jurisprudence is when it comes to homosexuality, but purely for the sake of those who debate the ruling upon the people of Lut (as), the Quran and ahadith are very clear and mince no words at all with their condemnation.
“And his people came to him, (as if) rushed on towards him, and already they did evil deeds. He said: O my people! These are my daughters, they are purer for you, so guard against (the punishment of) Allah and do not disgrace me with regard to my guests; is there not among you one right minded man?” [11:78]
What Lut (as) offered to his people was his own daughters in healthy marriages so that they may refrain from the abomination that they were insisting upon, earning the inescapable wrath of the worst punishment in history. It was narrated that Ibn Abbas (ra) said: “The Prophet (PBUH) said: ‘… cursed is the one who does the action of the people of Lot’.” It was narrated that Jabir: “The Prophet said: ‘There is nothing I fear for my followers more than the deed of the people of Lot.’”
With the unanimous consensus of the scholars of Islam, it can be concluded without an iota of doubt that homosexuality is frowned upon in Islam and only leads to the destruction of human values. This is a fact that is agreed upon not just by religious people but by every single mainstream medical journal that informs us that the STDs and medical problems that arise from same-sex unions are much higher than those from the opposite gender. So, biologically, scientifically, historically, medically, traditionally, and even from the most basic innate feelings of man, the fitrah, it can be derived that same-sex relationships are neither normal nor healthy. An introduction of a gender ideology as a doctrine is an attack on the structure of our families that threatens to throw the whole world and its dynamics off balance.
Counseling
Despite having a clarity of what obedience and our own natural instincts expect of us, it is undeniable that the world we live in today is a hypersexualized one, with billboards, television, internet portals, advertisements, games, curriculums, narratives, conversations, products and literature all inviting literally towards just one thing: the objectification of women and the fulfilling of desires at the highest expense possible. It is no surprise then that brand tags like ‘Just Do It!’,‘Gives You Wings’ and‘You Only Live Once’ have become the hedonistic ideologies that we swear our lives upon. Therefore, in such a world it can only be natural to have a confused youth full of doubts about personality and gender stemming from the behaviours and content that they have been brainwashed with. So, the question arises: what does a person who has such feelings do? Does he have no place in Islam? It is important to be very clear of statistics and facts first: There are only two genders in the world; those born male, welcome their masculinity and those born female welcome their femininity. The exceptions, less than even 1% of the world’s population, are those born with both the reproductive organs and they are a reality that is accepted and offered the necessary support too. These are the only kind of people allowed surgeries and therapies as solutions to the trial decreed upon them by nature itself. Those aside, any other feelings of gender conflict is only a behavioural construct and not a natural phenomenon and it certainly does not grant a male person the permission to be present in spaces especially restricted for females. The very thought of finding men in trial rooms and restrooms only because he feels like a woman in a man’s body is nothing short of a nightmare to imagine. Such feelings of being ‘trapped’ in a different body need to be addressed and taken to informed religious scholars who will offer compassionate support in the light of science and religion. Allah says in the Qur’an, ‘And Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can bear.’ This is a trial, like all the unique trials that become the fate of every human being, the overcoming of which ensure the promise of a great final reward. That being said, access to authentic scholars that conform to the popular Muslim opinion along with seriously considering the options of marriage can be of great help to those seeking to overpower heightened desires. The individuals involved in this trail of faith can surely rise above it and conquer tendencies like true faith demands, for having a mere desire is not enough reason to act upon it. Can all desires be acted upon just because we willed them? Can all Muslim men have extramarital affairs simply because they desire women? Can all women abandon their children to join the workforce simply because they desire it? Can Muslims turn out to become alcoholics and junkies just because they desire it? Desires exist on earth only as a test to reassure us that man was equipped with enough and more to rise above mere animal instincts. It is a declaration of pride of the Creator Himself to display that though man sins, he eventually returns to his true calling of obedience and that his station in the heavens is far greater, closer and more beloved to his Creator than even the angels who never even dream of sinning . For simply to feel an urge is not a sin; the sin lies in acting upon mere whims only because the nafs demanded it. Homosexuality, despite being a major abomination, is not accountable for if not acted upon, just like a person who loves wine is not an alcoholic unless he has consumed some. But can sins, though they warrant punishment, take a person out of the fold of Islam? No. Then what takes a person out of Islam? Defending, justifying and supporting an act declared unlawful by Allah and His Prophet (PBUH) is what takes a person to the thresholds of kufr or disbelief. How can a man possibly believe in the Oneness of God, in His perfect attributes and then accuse Him of having made a fault in His creation? Are we daring to suggest that the Creator who did not go wrong even in the creation of a tiny, infinitesimal fly couldn’t create just two genders right? Are we daring to suggest that the Hands that fashioned even the symmetries of tigers, leaves, petals, tree trunks, insects, the many layers of skin, the never-entangling circulatory and nervous systems, somehow went shaky when it came to creating gender and the emotions that dictate it? It is foolish sacrilege at best and outrageous disbelief and audacity at worst.
Action
The city of Hamtramck, Michigan, banned LGBTQ+ flags from all publicly owned flagpoles, sparking debate about the Muslim reactions to rising LGBTQ awareness. This is what conscientious, aware, broadminded, farsighted Muslims do to protect themselves and their societies and this should be the stance of Muslims across the world. Do not confuse the security of your children and your right to raise them in a religious environment as a violation against the laws of your country. The world would have you believe that you are homophobic and what not just because you adhere to a certain lifestyle of purity and abhor decadence of moral values, but it is important to keep in mind that we answer only to One higher power, who has enjoined upon us this beautiful way of life and advised us to remain within the boundaries and limits of sanity, decency and righteousness. No law in its right mind has called the Muslims right to stay away from alcohol as ‘alcohol-phobia’, or refusal to take interest money as ‘usury-phobia’. State-sponsored ideological indoctrination of toddlers, preteens and teens alike is a crime and an invasion into our lives and our rights to protect our religion. What a homosexual person does behind closed doors is of no concern to anybody. But to barge down my door, hold my child by the collar and thrust an ideology that she disagrees with down her throat is a violation of my rights which I will not allow. My haya does not allow it nor will I be coerced into having conversations of sex and sexuality with my toddlers and expose them to a topic well before their minds and bodies are ready to accept them. I will choose the time and age to speak to my children about consent, body awareness and attractions and I will not be forced by men and women of errant, disruptive ideas. At a time when mothers are being taught about their rights to feminism, please be reminded that your children’s tarbiyah or upbringing is your undeniable right and sacred duty. Be warned and do not let the content on your screens, in your literature; the woke people in your friend circles, the liberal teachers that teach your children and the schools that you trust for your children’s education take it away from you. There have already been many cases around the world of rape and fraud because biological men were found in places reserved for biological women only because they ‘felt’ like women in their bodies but later changed their minds once inside such private places.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once said: “A believer is not bitten from the same hole twice”.
Or as Dr. Yasir Qadhi says: “Our politics is not our ideology and our ideology is neither left nor right. Our ideology is centered in our unshakeable faith, grounded in our immutable creed, and firmly rooted in the timeless words of God and the teachings of His final Messenger (PBUH). We are a “Middle Nation” and, as the Quran says (2:143), our role is to be moral exemplars for mankind.”
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Zainab Aliyah is a Staff Writer at The Cognate.
