The Scholarly Consensus on Homosexuality

Homosexuality is unlawful. There is no difference of opinion between Islām’s scholars regarding this; it is a point of unanimous agreement. The following citations transmit the scholars’ consensus on this issue:

Ibn Ḥazm said:

فعل قوم لوط من الكبائر الفواحش المحرمة كلحم الخنزير… وسائر المعاصي من أحله أو أحل شيئا مما ذكرنا فقد كفر

“Homosexual sodomy is a major sin and a heinous crime of perversion. It is like eating pork… and other acts of transgression. Whosoever believes that it is lawful, he disbelieved.”[1]

Ibn Hubayrah said:

اتفقوا على أن اللواط حرام وأنه من الفواحش

“The scholars unanimously agree that homosexual sodomy is unlawful and that it is from the heinous crimes.”[2]

In al-Mawsūʿat al-Fiqhīyah, the following passage comes:

اتفق الفقهاء على أن اللواط محرم لأنه من أغلظ الفواحش

“The jurists unanimously agree that homosexual sodomy is unlawful and from the most heinous crimes.”[3]

As well, Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī,[4] Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī,[5] Taqī al-Dīn al-Ḥisnī,[6] Khayr al-Dīn al-ʿImrānī,[7] Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar,[8] and Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī[9] all related this consensus. Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Ājurrī (AH 360) compiled a work on homosexuality under the title Dhamm al-Liwāṭ. In his work, he presents primary scriptural evidence, consensus, and the statements of the earliest legal authorities on that it is unlawful.

In total, we have presented ten citations establishing that homosexuality is unlawful according to scholarly consensus. Many more are located within the scholars’ reference works; thus, the fact that it is unlawful as per scholarly consensus is unequivocally established. It is thus correct that the ummah has reached a unanimous opinion on homosexuality. From the first generation of scholars and all those who came after, they considered it to be unlawful. There is no difference of opinion on this.

Divergence from this stance is impermissible. Be it the American Muslim community or any other people. From now until the Day of Judgement, they are bound by the tradition and precedents of scholarly consensus that are found in the corpus of Islām’s scriptural evidence.

Allāh knows best.

[1] al-Muḥallā, 11:765.

[2] Ikhtilāf al-Aʾimmah al-ʿUlamāʾ, 2:255.

[3] al-Mawsūʿat al-Fiqhīyah al-Kuwaytīyah, 37:347.

[4] al-Zawājir ʿan Iqtirāf al-Kabāʾir, 3:78.

[5] al-Mughnī, 10:155; Also see his nephew’s work al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, 1:150.

[6] Kifāyat al-Akhyār, 495.

[7] al-Bayān, 12:364.

[8] al-Itḥāf, 4:252.

[9] al-Sunan al-Kubrā, 8:231.