Voices of Islam (259 page)

136
Voices of Change

What do we mean by sexuality? Deep in the core of the human personality lies our sense of sexuality, which is far more subtle and pervasive than just sexual acts. By sexuality, we mean a kind of self-awareness that is not just an urge (like lust) but also a passion that grants us emotional fulfillment, sparks in us expansive joy and urges us toward existential coming-to-completeness through encountering another person in a way that unites body, soul, and spirit. Sexual acts bring us as close as possible to ‘‘tasting’’ another person, not just in bodily sensations but also in terms of comprehending the other person’s sense of self. Just like tasting food, one comes to sense another’s presence by taking her or him into one’s own body, dissolving the barrier between self and other through harmonious movement, intense intimacy, and ecstatic rapture. This is why sexual acts are so powerful, and why sexuality is such an intimate part of each individual’s personality and an integral com- ponent in each person’s appreciation of beauty or apprehension of emotional intensity.

Sexuality is made up of many components, making its manifestation in any individual unique. These components include strength of sex drive, frequency of sexual contact, a continuum of style from aggressively passion- ate to delicately tender, and variation in intensity of response. Of course, an integral component of sexuality is sexual orientation, that is whether one is attracted to a partner of the same gender or the opposite gender (or perhaps to both and possibly to neither). Is this concept found in scripture or in Islam? What we term ‘‘sexuality’’ was discussed by classical Islamic theolo- gians and jurists in ways detailed later in this chapter; however, they did not reflect systematically on what we call ‘‘sexual orientation.’’ Before we turn to their opinions, upon which the classical Islamic tradition is based, we need to develop a sufficiently subtle model, based on the Qur’an, for understand- ing personality and how sexual orientation is related to it.

NATURE AND PERSONALITY

Sexual orientation is one of the ‘‘color’’ differences that make people distinct from each other. Yet those who oppose homosexuality call it ‘‘un-natural’’ or against human nature. In contrast, homosexuals attest that it is an expression of their innate personality and sense of self that is so deep as to be beyond the rational capacity to alter. This attestation is supported by clinical research of professional psychiatric associations, which have removed homosexuality from the category of ‘‘personality disorder’’ and disavowed techniques previously claimed to be able to ‘‘correct’’ sexual orientation. Clearly, the argument is over what constitutes human nature. From an Islamic perspective, we can ask how does God create human beings? What roles do sexuality and orientation play in the personality? Do human beings ‘‘choose’’ their sexual orientation? Is it alterable by choice or habit?

Sexual Diversity in Islam
137

Are we morally accountable for sexual orientation if is part of the subrational elements of personality? The questions raised are profound and the answers are not obvious.

Modern psychiatry increasingly holds sexual orientation to be an inherent part of an individual’s personality, elements of which may be genetic, influ- enced by hormonal balances in the womb, and shaped by early childhood experiences, the cumulative effects of which unfold during adolescence and early adulthood. Most psychiatrists in the West (and increasingly among professionals in Muslim communities) hold that the attitude toward one’s sexual orientation is largely cultural and that behavior based upon one’s sexual orientation is subject to rational control and clinical modifi

but the underlying sexual orientation is not. In premodern times, philoso- phers also observed that sexual orientation was largely determined outside the choice of the individual; lacking knowledge of genes, hormones, and psychiatric research, they usually speculated that determination was by astrological infl ces.
7
The personal accounts of lesbian and gay Muslims testify to the early and deep feeling of being different, followed by long and difficult struggles to understand that this difference was due to homosexual orientation and to fi ways of explaining this to family and friends while striving for emotional satisfaction within the limits of one’s sexual possibil- ities. In contrast, Muslim communities are undecided as to whether to accept modern psychiatric research. One gay Muslim who grew up in Syria, Muhammad Omar Nahas, visited several psychiatrists to seek a ‘‘cure’’ for his homosexuality, and found some of them advocating therapy to change his sexual orientation while others held that only behavior could be changed not one’s internal disposition.
8

As professionals in Muslim communities slowly adopt clinical approaches based on research and modern medicine, they will advocate a nonjudgmental approach. At the same time, Neo-Traditionalist Muslims caricature homo- sexuality as a crime, a disease, or an addiction and have a wide audience. Many Muslims are willing to accept modern medical knowledge and techniques in an
ad hoc
manner, to solve particular problems, but shy away from developing a coherent theory of the human personality, based either upon medical practices and scientific discoveries or upon their own religious scripture. However, Muslim theologians, especially the Sufi among them, developed a theory of personality that most contemporary Muslims who oppose homosexuality ignore. We must continue to build upon their insights, to integrate into them new complexities revealed by contemporary psychiatry, so that our notions of morality are firmly grounded in the reality of human personality.

Personality is made up of many levels, and in my understanding of the Qur’an I find reference to at least four: outer appearance, inward disposition, genetic pattern, and inner conscience. The outer form in which we appear is
sura,
as the Qur’an says, ‘‘O human being, what has deceived you from your

138
Voices of Change

Generous Lord who created you well-shaped and balanced you and set you into whatever form [
sura
] God desired’’ (Qur’an 82:6–8). Many other verses describe the stages in which God creates each person’s form or
sura,
in the mother’s womb as a physical growth and later after breathing into it of the spirit, as a new being with consciousness, and continuing to develop and grow through birth, infancy, childhood, and adolescence.
Sura
unfolds into fullness as we reach adulthood and act autonomously as moral agents and are held accountable for our actions. However, our personality consists of far more than our outward appearance and rational actions.

From experiences in infancy and childhood, each person develops an inward disposition, a set of traits, potentials, or characteristics that are more or less innate, which the Qur’an calls
shakila.
This disposition determines how we react to experiences, as profoundly as shaping our potential to have faith. ‘‘We reveal of the Qur’an that which is healing and compassion for the believers yet which gives the oppressors nothing but loss. When we bless people they turn away and act proudly, but when harm brushes them, they despair. So say, ‘All act according to their own disposition [
shakila
], yet your Lord knows best who is on the most guided path’’’ (Qur’an 17:82–83). Disposition is made up of factors beyond our conscious decision and often beyond our awareness: childhood experiences, infant memories, emotional, and intellectual capabilities. In short, it is our psyche through which the ego manifests itself.

Through contemporary science, we are discovering that genetic patterns in our biological material not only determine our outward form but also greatly affects psychic disposition. Genetic inheritance is a third level of our personality. The Qur’an refers to this material substrate of organic life by pronouncing ‘‘We created the human being from a quintessence of clay’’ (Qur’an 23:12). In Arabic, this is called
tabi‘a
(one’s ‘‘physical stamp’’ that determines one’s temperamental nature), a term adopted not from the Qur’an but from Greek science. From this genetic stamp embedded deep in our organic tissue, the Qur’an depicts the development from zygote to fetus to infant, referring to this intimate relationship between genetic material, biological organism, and moral agency: ‘‘Then we made the human being a spermazoid fi embedded, then we created from the spermazoid a clot of mucus and created from the mucus a lump of fl then created from the flesh bones, then clothed the bones with muscle, then we transformed it into another creation—so blessed be God, the best of creators!’’ (Qur’an 13:14). As a Muslim, I uphold that the choices we make based upon genetic potential and constrained within environmental limitations generate our moral worth. I certainly do not argue that genetics determines everything about us in a way that excuses moral failings, any more than I would agree with a deterministic theology that imagines that God wills the corrupt and unjust oppressors into hell by
fiat
(a position toward which much of classical Islamic theology veers dangerously close). However, moral worth must not

Sexual Diversity in Islam
139

be prejudged, and each person must be given a reasonable chance to assess her or his potential for growth and ground for sincerity, based upon a realistic, reasonable and compassionate assessment of one’s own position and personality: ‘‘God does not make persons responsible for what is beyond their capacity’’ (Qur’an 2:233; 6:152; 7:42; 23:62). For everyone has the capacity to apprehend God, as the Qur’an optimistically affirms.

This is the fourth layer of personality, one’s inner conscience nestled subtly within one’s outer appearance and accessible only through one’s inward disposition. This is the part of our personality in which our true humanity lies. It is our original nature or
fitra,
the deep core of our being that touches on the spirit and stays aware of the presence of God. Our outer form may grow and decay while our inward disposition may become refi or lapse into rawness, but our inner conscience remains fresh if our awareness is not distracted from it. ‘‘Set your face to the moral challenge [
din
] in a pure way, according to the original nature of God upon which [God] based humanity, for there is no changing the creation of God’’ (Qur’an 30:30). We were created to be aware of God’s presence (through all of God’s qualities, majestic, and awe-inspiring qualities as well as beautiful and love-invoking qualities), and nobody is excluded from this original nature that is never lost. This
fi ra
provides us with our conscience; it is the seat of intention and sincerity by which actions will be judged for their moral worth, as the Prophet is reported to have taught: ‘‘Surely actions are by intentions and each will get that for which they intend.’’
9

Sexual acts, too, should be judged by the intention with which they are performed, an intention formed within the heart of sincerity and fully colored by the filter of inward disposition before being expressed through the physi- cality of apparent action. Sexual orientation is latent within each individual, emerging in complex interactions between the genetic
tabi‘a
and early childhood
shakila.
Current research is pushing slowly but steadily toward the conclusion that sexual orientation is largely inherent, psychiatrists investi- gating early childhood experience and biochemists discovering hormonal influence during fetal development and genetic inheritance even before birth. The truth probably lies between the two, but in any case sexual orientation is firmly in place before rational thought or adolescent maturity. Judging sexual acts without a theory of sexuality will lead to injustice and will betray the most fundamental Islamic teaching that actions are assessed by the intention behind them.

SEXUAL DESIRE IN THE QUR’AN

Classical Islamic theologians and jurists interpreted the Qur’an without a theory of sexual orientation. Although the Prophet’s life provided a model of sexuality and positive morality, they mainly discussed sexuality in negative

140
Voices of Change

terms, as the power of lust (
quwwa shahwaniyya
). For example, Fakhr al-Din Razi (d. 1209
CE
) claims that the power of lust leads to unrestrained and immoral acts, including sex but not unique to it.
10
The key term in their discussion is
shahwa,
meaning lust or sensual desire. However, the Qur’an uses this term in nuanced ways, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively, to mean desire as appetite, the pleasurable delight of consuming. The Qur’an uses
shahwa
as a verb in conjunction with food as well as sex, pleasures as that promised to souls in heaven, the absence of which torments souls in hell.
11
On a more worldly level, the Qur’an warns of
shahwa
as desire for all domestic delights that give the soul satisfaction and the body ease, which if unbridled can become lustful: ‘‘Made beautiful to people is the love of desires, for women and children and treasures hoarded of gold and silver and well-bred horses and livestock and crops—that is a transient worldly life given them by their lord, but with God is the best return’’ (Qur’an 3:14). Clearly,
shahwa
as lust is harmful, for it distracts one from God’s presence, incites greed, and leads to committing immoral deeds. ‘‘Desires’’ appear in the plural, to show the variety of directions in which lust can move: toward food, sex, pride in family (the mention of children), wealth (gold and silver, livestock and crops), status and power (horses).

These objects of desire are not bad nor is the pleasurable enjoyment of them, so they are not prohibited in themselves. Rather, the psychic state of the desire,
shahwa,
makes such enjoyment lustful. Bodily pleasures can be saturated with egoistic pleasures, and the Qur’an juxtaposes the term
shahwa
with another
bagha,
meaning ardent desire or covetousness.
12
Bagha
is less about bodily pleasure or concupiscence and more about getting egoistic satisfaction, getting one’s way.
13
Yet the Qur’an asserts that seeking and desiring is not bad in itself but depends upon its intent and sincerity. If one seeks and desires while acknowledging the bounty of God (
fadl
) and giving thanks for getting one’s way (
shukr
) without damaging others (
darar
) or transgressing their rights (
huquq
), then braving the dangerous waves of desire may not be reprehensible: ‘‘It is God who made subservient the sea, that you may eat from it fresh flesh and extract from it ornaments to wear, thus you see the ships cleaving through it, that you might seek your desires from God’s bounty and that you may give thanks’’ (Qur’an 16:14). What God demands from believers is mindfulness, sincerity, and thanks for every benefi whether it is corporeal delight or egoistic desire.
14
Sex is included with food, wealth, and power as among our desires, which might be good or bad depending on the intent, intensity, and ethical comportment of the desiring, more than on the specific object or experience desired. The Qur’an warns everyone about sexual lust, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. Even heterosexual sex with one’s legal spouse can be lustful, as implied by the above-quoted verse, if it leads to greed, selfishness, or abuse.