Dear Readers! Polytheism was the greatest misguidance in ancient human history to enslave man in its grip. At one time, this misguidance increased so much that it became an ally to society and the state. Worshiping the one and only God was equivalent to making fun of oneself by being cut off from the community. The polytheists occupied every state in the world and imposed their religion on the people by force. If an individual or a group abandoned polytheism and adopted the path of monotheism under the guidance of the prophets, he would be sentenced to death.
However, may there be millions and billions of blessings and peace on our beloved Prophet Muhammad and his companions; their immense sacrifices saved us from the misguidance of polytheism and its tyranny. And ended the era of oppression in the name of religion and imposition of one’s self-made religion on others till the Day of judgment.
A new evil
However, another evil has spread globally in modern times, just as polytheism was common in ancient times. This evil is the evil of sexual misconduct. It is now accepted in almost all civilized world that adultery is not evil and chastity is not a moral value or virtue. Obviously, it is not acknowledged in a day. Behind this are the educational and social thoughts of the past several centuries and the societal style born in the industrial age. However, before the Information Age, death of chastity was a feature of Western civilization. But due to the global village and information age, this evil has now been spreading worldwide. As a result of the influence of Western civilization, other vital cultures of the world, namely Chinese, Hindi, and Muslim societies, are also increasingly incorporating adultery as a part of social life. It appears that it is only a matter of half a century from now that adultery will become as common in the rest of the world as in the Western world; while the concept of chastity will become as foreign as monotheism in ancient times.
There are many dimensions in this deluge of sexual delinquency. One of the new trends that have recently gained social and legal acceptance in the West is homosexuality. Homosexuality has been socially and legally accepted, initially in Europe and afterward in North America. Even today, it is opposed by many quarters, but this criticism and opposition have not been fully effective.
Postmodernism
Human society never accepts any evil eagerly. For this, the atmosphere must be favorable intellectually. The main reason for the social and legal acceptance of homosexuality is the ideas of postmodernism under which human emotions and desires have taken precedence over rational concepts, and the value of human values has been deemed extra. Obviously, the door to all sorts of deviations opens in society when morals like ethical values and rationality lose weight. The same thing has happened in case of homosexuality.
It is now accepted in the modern world that individuals can do whatever they want in their personal lives by mutual consent. Therefore, no legal impediment can be imposed after that. This argument has been made to pacify society, that it is not a deviation for many people. But due to their genetic and psychological structure, it is a very natural way for them.
The failure of the opponents’ argument
Homosexuality was not accepted effortlessly in the West. There was strong resistance from traditional and religious circles. But their argument failed in the end. According to religious reasoning, it has always been considered a significant crime in holy books and religious law. As the story of the people of Lot is mentioned in the beginning of the Bible and it is considered a great sin in Jewish and Christian religious traditions, it was accepted as a sin. But due to religious extremism, religious beliefs and standards have long been defeated in the West. So when homosexuality was opposed on religious grounds, there was no special hearing.
The real obstacle in Western society was natural reasoning. Human nature does not accept homosexuality and considers it a deviation in all circumstances. Then the objective basis of sexual intercourse i.e., the way for a man and a woman to satisfy their emotions through marriage, is so clear that people themselves stay away from such deviations under normal circumstances. But it is a fact that in societies where men and women are given all kinds of sexual freedom, this deviation inevitably occurs. This is because human sexual desire is infinitely powerful; whereas Allah Almighty has created this world not based on the perfection of pleasure but on the principle of introduction of pleasure. Religion, therefore, has used the law of marriage and many other means to restrict this human desire and train them not to let it triumph on them.
But deviations arise in societies where sexual desire is freed from any restriction. With the desire to fulfill pleasure, man blindly tries to open every closed door. Homosexuality is such a closed door, and opening it becomes a challenge for many people. The same happened in the West. There, people also opened this closed-door to fulfill their desires.
However, to fight against nature, they had to justify it morally and rationally. The reasoning was that homosexuality is a natural phenomenon for many people because of its genetic and psychological structure. It is not a disease or a deviation of any kind. Moreover, society was made to believe that if it was considered evil at the social level, it would have a terrible effect on their psyche. The biggest and strongest argument made was that homosexuality is natural for some people due to genetic reasons. If this is their nature, removing them from it is the worst injustice. It was further stated that homosexuals are better people, law-abiding, and peaceful citizens. All of this was repeated so frequently that Western society finally recognized at the level of law and values that homosexuality is normal behavior. So in 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) removed it from the mental illness list. Since then, individual states in all Western countries, South America, Canada, and the United States, have been legally accepting same-sex marriage.
Our stance against homosexuality
Like fornication, homosexuality was no stranger to Eastern and Islamic societies. Only it did not have rational and moral justification. However, literature favoring homosexuality is available on the Internet, so it is also gaining momentum in our region. The solution to this problem is not to speak hatefully against it but it is crucial to present the case of religion before the people at the level of reasoning.
The first request in this regard is to argue in favor of homosexuality on genetic and psychological grounds that it is a natural instinct for some people, is a misunderstanding in every respect. The fact is that no human gene has yet been discovered that determines a person’s sexual orientation.
Is it a genetic problem?
In this case, West is still searching for a gay gene, and this issue is still under debate and exploration. When something is still under investigation, and opposing viewpoints emerge now and then, how can it be right to declare something natural? Furthermore, it is a well-known scientific fact that sexual orientation is not determined by genes alone. In addition to it, a person’s initial training and conditions, social effects, and hormones working in the body also have a significant impact. Therefore, it is not right to blame genes alone.
Additionally, human nature smoothly adopts one’s basic psychological tendencies, including sexual orientation, because of training. An elementary and typical example is that ordinary people do not feel sexual attraction in their Mahrams (with whom marriage is not allowed) instead of distant women. It is not a matter of nature but the effect of the training and the environment on the sexual orientation that an ordinary man removes his mother, sister, or daughter from it. Though, in their genes, there is the allure for a woman. This suggests that training and environmental influences also dominate genes. So unless a person is psychologically ready to engage in homosexuality for whatever reason, his genes cannot force him to become homosexual or make it his nature. If he is psychologically prepared for it, then no matter what the genes say, the man would do it.
So natural instinct is just an excuse. It’s as if pro-evolutionist newspapers and magazines publish something here and there every week. Such things can give a person confidence regarding his viewpoint. Still, it cannot be presented as an absolute fact in the world of knowledge.
The animal existence of man
Those who argue in favor of homosexuality based on genetics and instinct forget about the creation of human beings by Allah Almighty. Allah Almighty has also bestowed human beings a body along with genes. Different genes in men and women give their bodies a unique physical structure. Men’s and women’s genes and their animal bodies explicitly show that they are made for each other. Obviously, modesty forbids to explain this fact openly. Still, a human can understand and identify that a man’s body is not made for a man, and a woman’s body is not made for a woman. The opposite sex is created for each other. They feel naturally attracted to each other all the time. When they meet each other in the marriage bond, the foundation of offspring starts naturally. After that, the whole human body of a woman becomes a factory for the creation and rearing of children. She would nurture it within her womb and gives birth to it. Her body arranges its food from the inside and nurtures this little bud. This is nature. This is an exact natural phenomenon. I don’t know who those people are who are trying to find nature and genes somewhere else. Human genes, body parts of men and women, and human nature all are pointing like daylight that the straight path is here. People who leave this straight path of the nature and go elsewhere are the victims of deviation. When the Creator of the nature wanted to inform the people directly about His intention in this regard, he uttered the words through his glorious Prophet Lot (AS). His people were obsessed with this evil deed. Therefore, he acquitted himself of their ignorant act as follows:
“Must you go lustfully to men instead of women? Indeed, you are a people who are deeply ignorant.” (Al-Quan 27:55)
This verse removes another misunderstanding in this regard. The misconception is that in the sight of Allah, the actual crime of the people of Lot was not homosexuality but coercion against this evil act. This argument is based on the fact that when the angels came to Lot in the form of young boys, they came to force them out of Lot’s house. But this verse clarifies by the words of Lot that their real crime was to have sex with men instead of their women. The same thing is stated in another verse.
Do you, of all people, approach males, and leave your wives whom your Lord has created for you? You are a people who transgress all bounds. They said, “If you do not desist, Lot, you will surely be banished.” He said, “I am one of those who abhors your ways. My Lord, save me and my family from their evil doings.” (Al Quran 25:165-169)
The angelic incident took place for the sake of complete proof. In the matter of the Messengers, it is the law of Allah that even after the completion of the argument, Allah only sends punishment on a nation when the nation attacks the Prophet. This is equivalent to a direct attack on Allah Almighty, and as a result, that nation is immediately annihilated. This is what happened to Lot’s people when they invaded Lot’s house in the lust of angels who looked like boys, and in response came torment.
RELIGIOUS ARGUMENT “cutting off the path”:
Religion stands very clearly in the matter of homosexuality. It is a big crime in God’s sight and a war against nature. The Qur’an interprets it as referring to the people of Lot, “cutting off the path” (means cutting off the path of nature) (Al-Quran 29:29). It is crucial to understand the functioning of human society to understand how homosexuality cuts the course of nature?
Human society is a collectivist society. This collectivity comes from relationships. Relations are of two kinds. The first is a temporary relationship that spans a large circle and covers more or less the whole of society. This relationship is based on needs, interests, tastes, ideas, and emotions. The relationship between the shopkeeper and the customer is a necessity. The relationship between boss and employee is of interest. Friendship buds up of taste and temperament. In political and religious parties, people form a relationship based on ideology. Love for a human being is a product of emotions and feelings.
Human society is made up of these temporary relationships. But the biggest downside of these relationships is that needs, interests, tastes, ideas, and emotions can change any time. As a result, the relationship ends, or one becomes attached to someone else. Apart from need and interest, people even forget their tastes, ideologies, and emotional attachments in a way that they never recall.
“There were people who were dearer than life
Now names of most have been forgotten”
The problem with man is that he is a psychological being. He needs a permanent relationship for its formation, training, and completion. Allah Almighty has made sexual relations between men and women to resolve this problem. The first virtue of this relationship is that it gives rise to human beings. No other relationship in the world can bring human beings into existence. Obviously, the survival of the human race is the biggest and most fundamental problem of humanity. Sex between a man and a woman first meets this basic human need.
Another advantage of this relationship is that it creates relationships that are permanent in nature. In any case, the child’s mother and father remain the same till death. This is the status of sister, brother, and all other relatives who have a permanent relationship. These are the relationships that come to the aid of a man in all circumstances, whether it is the feebleness of childhood, weakness of old age, the hardship of disease, or the need of the needy.
These close relationships sacrifice their time, hard work, and money, giving strength to the infirmity of human childhood. Then these close relationships support a person mentally, psychologically, financially, and physically in every situation. They even carry the infirmity of old age with their arms, take it on their shoulders after death, and farewell him for the last journey.
Homosexuality actually uproots the fundamental human relationships that result from sexual relations between a man and a woman. A gay couple can never have children. Only spouses can do this. Five or seven years later, even if the couple’s heart is repulsed from each other, they still live together for the sake of their children and take on all the responsibilities of raising them; while homosexuality is not a relationship, it is a temporary relationship. The day the heart is repelled, the taste changes, the emotion cools down, the feeling ends, and that relationship ends. What happened next? Finding a new partner. But the passion for sex will not last long; it will cool down. What will be the basis of the search after that? This is a question that no proponent of homosexuality has.
Tyranny with humans
Homosexuality collapses the family structure. The family is formed due to sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. Allah Almighty has placed so much power in sexual relations that He compels human beings to give birth to children due to this and then bear the burden of offspring. But unfortunately, the West’s notion of sexual freedom has weakened the family. A man-woman relationship that is based solely on sexual attraction is fragile. It breaks down time and again. If there is a child in such a situation, it becomes most difficult for the child.
The fate of the children is that; the mother is somewhere, and the father is somewhere else. Thus the child is deprived of the touch and training of a mother or father or sometimes both. Homosexual couples use this maltreatment differently. They adopt children to fulfill their desire to have children. But the question is, who will make him aware of his mother’s subtle touch. If the couple is a woman, who will make them realize the father’s guardianship? What will happen to the foster children if their hearts are filled with each other? As a result, all of these children suffer from severe psychological problems.
Good or bad, this system is running somehow in the West since the state has taken over the economic responsibility of the children and the elderly. It is easy for them to do this today because of economic prosperity. But when the economic recession comes, there will be no shelter for people except the family. Only the family cares for vulnerable children, frail elderly, and deprived distressed relatives for thousands of years in all situations and environments. So it is evident that homosexuality can erode both the human race and the family. This is what the Qur’an describes as “cutting off the path,” that is, cutting the path of nature.
Pakistan and homosexuality
Homosexual tendencies are as common in Pakistan as it is around the world. In our opinion, it is a psychological problem most often caused by problems with children’s early learning, the wrong environment, and sometimes parental carelessness and cruelty. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, the current situation is quite vulnerable in a way parents are neglecting their children’s moral education. Violence against kids is common, so it has a bright potential to spread homosexuality like other psychological deviations. Furthermore, Pakistan is also attacked by the Western and Indian media and the Internet for sexual misconduct. And now, beyond that, the easy access to homosexual propaganda via the Internet is a big problem. Due to this, the affected person begins considering homosexuality as his own nature rather than seeing it as a psychological problem.
Now it is known that this problem has been spreading rapidly among young Pakistani boys and girls. In this case, parents must take this issue seriously. Pay special attention to the moral education of children. Avoid violence and neglect. Keep in mind that a child’s sexual orientation manifests itself in childhood and adolescence. They do not distinguish between men and women. If there is any deviation, make it clear that love and sex are always with the opposite sex. That is nature.
If such deviation occurs, the problem should be resolved with empathy instead of hatred and anger. Excluding the pleasure-seeking vulgar adults, this is a psychological problem for teenagers. Religious guidance should always be kept in mind in this matter. The Qur’an has fully clarified the intention, temperament, and will of Allah (the Lord of Glory) in this matter regarding the people of Lot. So children should be educated in this regard. It is the most substantial responsibility of the parents.
However, the gist of this whole conversation is that homosexuality is definitely an unnatural relationship. If this relationship flourishes, it will cut off the roots of society. Therefore, it is crucial that we spread the proper awareness and teach religion in the right context.