Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

My question to you is about gays, I have a gay frined who is so kind hearted, so knowledgeable about islam and fears Allah. Is it right to have gay muslim friend? I have other friends who dont like this person as he is a gay, not sure if it allowed!

How can a gay person change his desires thats natural? How can this person control his vein, that attracts him to same sex?  

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Being gay is Natural

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 7 Surah Aaraf verses 80-82:

And We sent Lot as a Messenger. And he said to his people, “Have you become so shameless that you commit such indecent acts as no one committed before you in the world? You gratify your lust with men instead of women. Indeed you are a people who are transgressors of all limits!” But the only answer his people gave was, “turn out these people from your habitations for they pose to be very pious.”

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 11 Surah Hud verses 82-83:

Accordingly, when the time of the execution of Our Judgement came (for the people of Lot), We turned the habitation upside down and rained on it stones of baked clay, each of which had been specifically marked by your Lord. And such a scourge is not far from the tyrannous people!

Homosexuality is absolutely forbidden in Islam. It is an abomination and a grave sin in the eyes of Allah, and if a person is convicted of the crime of homosexuality in a Shariah Court in an established Islamic State, the prescribed punishment for this heinous act would be death!

Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 3575 Narrated by Abdullah ibn Abbas

Allah`s Messenger (saws) said, "If you find anyone doing as (Prophet) Lot's people did, kill the one who does it and the one to whom it is done."

This deed of homosexuality is deemed absolutely un-natural and against humanity and society in Islam. This deed is an evil and immoral deviation of man, and is not even found in the lower forms of animate life! Allah destroyed the whole habitation of Prophet Lot, and turned the whole city upside-down, and rained on them a rain of brim-stones for their sin of homosexuality. It was not that every individual in Sodom and Gomorrah who were destroyed committed sodomy; but even those who accepted it, propagated it, looked upto it as a norm and fashion, and allowed it without raising a voice against this abomination, were all destroyed by Allah Subhanah!

And Allah warns in the Holy Quran: ‘And such a scourge is not far from the tyrannous people!’ Thus if in the world today, this act of sodomy is propagated and accepted as normal and as fashionable, and society as a whole does not take steps to abolish this abomination, the scourge that came upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah is not far!

We seek refuge in Allah from His Wrath and His Anger and His Punishment!

Your Question: Is it right to have gay muslim friend? I have other friends who dont like this person as he is a gay, not sure if it allowed!
Just as a medical doctor does not hate the patient who has the disease, Islam guides that the believers must not hate or despise the person who sins; but rather, just as the doctor hates the disease of the person and strives to cure it, the believers must hate the sin of the person and strive to guide the person to fear Allah and abstain from his abomination and transgression of the Laws of Allah Subhanah.

Thus if your intention to befriend a person is so that you might be able to guide him and assist him in moving away from his deviation, there is absolutely no harm in befriending and helping such a person. But if your intention is to accept his heinous deeds and acts of homosexuality, and befriend him for the sake of befriending him; then indeed there is a possibility that he might influence his evil on you and perchance be able to take you away from the Straight Path of Allah Subhanah. If one fears even the slightest of possibilities of the evil rubbing off on him, it would be prudent to abstain from befriending such a person who dares to openly transgress the laws of the Lord Most Majestic without remorse.

Your Question: How can a gay person change his desires thats natural?

No one knows man and his nature more than the One Who Created man, and gave him his nature….and He Declares that this attraction of male-to-male or female-to-female is an unnatural and a shameless deviation of man himself! If homosexuality was a natural phenomenon (as claimed by some ignorant-modern-educated people), then it would have been unjust of Allah Subhanah to destroy a people because of their natural attraction towards their same sex!

Homosexuality as a natural phenomena is nothing but an absolutely false and baseless theory, and Islam absolutely and categorically denounces this false theory, just as Islam denounces the theory that man originated from apes!

Allah Subhanah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and everything that exists in between Declares that homosexuality is an evil, unnatural, abomination of a sin; but the modern-educated-but-absolutely ignorant society we live in today tries to propagate their absolutely false theory that homosexuality is a natural phenomena! Who are we to believe? Our All-Knowing, All-Wise Creator and His Judgment based on His Perfect and Absolute Knowledge and Wisdom, or this ungodly society we live in???

Your Question: How can this person control his vein, that attracts him to same sex? 

The only way one can save himself from the abomination of homosexuality or any other sin is to fear Allah and remember that One Inevitable Day every individual will be brought forth alone in the Majestic Presence of their Supreme Creator to give a full accounting of their deeds. If one strives to develop this fear and constantly strives to remember the reality of the Day of Accounting, he will be able to control his illegal desires and save himself from sin.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 79 Surah Naziat verses 34-41:

34 Therefore when there comes the Great Overwhelming (Event, The Day of Judgment!)

35 The Day when Man shall remember (all) that he strove for

36 And Hell-Fire shall be placed in full view for (all) to see

37 Then for such as had transgressed all bounds

38 And had preferred the life of this world

39 The Abode will be Hell-Fire;

40 And for such as had entertained the fear of standing before their Lord's (Tribunal), and had restrained (their) soul from lower desires

41 Their abode will be the Garden.

If one trusts, obeys, and follows the guidance and commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws), one can be assured of never ever being misled; but if one believes, obeys and follows any other guidance, other than that of Allah and His Messenger (saws), one can be assured of being led astray.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan