Gay rights, one of the most controversial topics of this age!
On one hand we have the liberals who consider homosexuality to be perfectly fine and have gained great advances in recent decades in getting this acceptance from societies across the world, with the legalization of homosexual practices between consenting adults and even homosexual civil unions and marriages. On the other hand stand the religious conservatives, most notably the Islamic and the Christian leaders who oppose it tooth and nail.
(1.) When it comes to Islam, it is clear about the unacceptable immoral status of homosexuality. It considers homosexual activities (not desires) as a major sin and also a legal offense, that is, an unlawful act that deserves punishment by the authorities here in the world.
(2.a.) In the world of theistic religions, wrongful deeds can be of two types:
(i.) Illegal or unlawful.
(ii.) Sinful.
(b.) These are two different things because an act can be sinful yet lawful/legal at the same time. Such acts which are sinful but lawful are to be punished by God, not by any government/concerned worldly authorities, i.e.; it’s not an offense which is to be penalized or punished in this world. But an illegal/unlawful act is to be punished by the authorized personnel here in the world. For example, according to the Hanafi school of legal thought in Sunni Islam, not doing the five daily mandatory prayers is sinful but not illegal, i.e.; it’s punishable by God but not by the government. But murder is both sinful and unlawful according to the same school. So sinfulness and unlawfulness are separate things in the world of theistic religions.
(c.) In Islam, homosexual acts are considered to be primarily a sin and become a penal offense indirectly due to the following rationale:
(d.) Sex outside of marriage is a criminal offense in Islam, thus, fornication (pre marital sexual intercourse) and adultery (extra marital sexual intercourse) are punishable by law. And Islam recognizes marriage only between a man and a woman, hence marriage between same sex people is not legally recognized in Islam. Thus, any homosexual activity automatically becomes either fornication or adultery and thus the punishments that are applicable to these offenses become applicable to homosexual acts too. Thus in Islam, homosexuality is a direct sin and an indirect crime.
(e.) I’m not gonna discuss the various legal nuances pertaining to the different punishments for fornication, adultery, and homosexuality. I’m not even discussing whether the punishments are logically justified in this age and time. I’m not dealing with the following POV here: In this ultra modern world, sex between consenting people, whether homosexual or heterosexual, should be beyond the purview of law and should be considered a matter of personal choice and liberty. It should not be punishable in any form.
(f.) To mention it fleetingly though, the rationale that holds in cases like these is:
If an independent analysis of a scripture/religion (Quran and Islam in this case) yields the conclusion that it is from God then whatever God calls out to be sinful is sinful, there can be no reservations against that as God’s knowledge and wisdom is infinite while our’s is very finite! I’ll not go beyond this much on this matter now. What I’m interested in right now is this:
(g.) Islam considers homosexuality to be sinful and many scholars of Islam justify this on the grounds that homosexuality is unnatural/abnormal or a mental-sexual disorder.
(h.) My contention on the other hand is:
Islam doesn’t consider homosexual acts to be a disorder of any kind. And this is an advanced feature of Islamic law that is miraculous since modern science realized it only in 1973!
(3.) Now let’s unpack this.
(a.) Simple logic demands that a disorder should be given treatment(s) to cure it, rather than being punished, that is, a disorder should be treated, not punished.
(b.) Yet, to act upon one’s impulses driven by a disorder can be a crime, for example, pedophilic acts driven by the paraphilic (a type of psychiatric) disorder of pedophilia[1][2].
(c.) To act upon a disorder like pedophilia is deemed to be a punishable offense or a crime because a pedophile acting upon his pedophilic impulse(s) violates and harms a child. To protect the child from such serious abuse, the law deems acting upon this disorder a crime.
(d.) So, simply harboring a disorder is not a crime, but acting upon a disorder could be a crime if it violates the wellbeing of others.
(e.) But, acting upon a disorder cannot be a sin, because sin is not a legal concept, it is a theological-metaphysical concept. Let me elaborate on this.
(f.) Sin is to disobey God.
(g.) God would not command us to not act upon our disorders! As a person is helpless at the hands of the strong impulses caused by his disorders.
(h.) God would rather call us to get our disorders treated.
(i.) If one doesn’t get oneself treated, then this would be a violation of God’s command and hence a sin.
(j.) So the sin here would be indirect, sin of not getting one’s disorders treated.
(k.) The sin is not in acting upon a disorder driven impulse that is beyond one’s control.
(l.) Thus, it cannot be a sin to act upon one’s pedophilic impulses driven by one’s pedophilia. Although it can be a crime to do so as it involves the violation of a child’s wellbeing.
(m.) Hence it’s illogical to consider that God would label it to be sinful to act upon a disorder. Rather, it is more logical to consider acting upon a disorder to be a crime due to associated extraneous factors, as explained above for the case of pedophilia.
(n.) Thus, given that Islam calls homosexual acts to be sinful, it implies that Islam doesn’t consider it to be some sort of a disorder.
(o.) Had Islam considered homosexual acts to be some sort of a disorder, it would have rather prescribed treatment(s) for it at best, or at the least remained silent about it and left it to the relevant experts to decide, just as it is silent on many issues like pedophilia, marital rape, etc.
(p.) Therefore, Islam doesn’t consider homosexual acts to be something unnatural or any sort of psychiatric-sexual disorder. It’s as natural and normal as heterosexuality. And as natural as fornication and adultery, as of course it’s not a disorder or unnatural for a married man to sleep with his neighbor’s wife, for example! And just as left handedness, although rare, is as natural and normal as right handedness.
(q.) Islam considers it to be a sin although it’s natural just like it considers adultery to be sinful although it’s natural and not a psychological-sexual disorder.
(r.) And people are required to restrain themselves from (such) sins as part of the test that they are undergoing in this world under a Divine scheme.
(s.) The tag of sin is not due to any inherent abnormality/unnaturality/element of disorder, but due to the wisdom and will of God as it is God’s prerogative to deem something prohibited/sinful based on his infinite wisdom. We may or may not be able to grasp the reason or wisdom behind such prohibitions.
(t.) So, to summarize:
The fact that the Quran nowhere calls it a disorder and doesn’t prescribe any treatment for it, rather calls it a sin, implies that Islam doesn’t consider it to be a disorder (as a disorder acted upon cannot be a sin although it could be a crime if it violates the wellbeing of others)!
(u.) And this is an amazingly advanced feature of the Islamic law. Let’s see how!
(4.a.) In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), its official list of mental disorders.[3][4][5]
(b.) Up until then, homosexuality was considered a paraphilic disorder by the doctors! But not by Islam. Hence, when it was delisted as a mental disorder, Islam was vindicated. What modern science realized in 1973, Islam had recognized fourteen centuries ago! Thus Islam stood at an advanced stage in this regard. And coming from Muhammad, a non-expert on these issues, it is miraculous!
[1] Pedophilic Disorder – Psychiatric Disorders – Merck Manuals Professional Edition
[3] Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality – PMC
[5] The decision to remove homosexuality from the DSM: twenty years later