A mammoth of an effort, very brave, and very laudable.

If you really want to read about the depth with which the issue of sexual orientation & gender identity has been faced with, this book goes very deep. There has been so much tribulation in terms of how the debate gets smothered & diverted by prejudices, the use of weak single-transmission hadiths even by religious authorities, the misinterpretation of Qur'anic verses, & of course, the ever-stubborn oppressiveness of patriarchy that coerces & violently imposes strict gender roles for everyone. The Prophet never punished anyone for their gender and sexual identity during his time and no punishment is stated in the Qur'an either. Punishments and prejudice that have persisted till today have been the construction of humans and later scholars and jurists.

The book exposes how the image of consensus over the ruling for homosexuality in Islam is an illusion -- there is in fact a lot of contention, and alternative readings are possible, but do not get institutional power on their side to get the level of dissemination that gives them the voice of legitimacy and authority, regardless of the qualifications and legitimacy of the scholars. It also goes into detail the way different schools of law deal with homosexuality, which I found difficult to get through (lol) but still interesting. Also interesting was how Kugle pointed out the instances where transgender & gay individuals were acknowledged by the Prophet and the space they have occupied in Muslim society for a long time. Gay and intersex custodians even watched over the Prophet's tomb (they were later chased out by Ibn al-Wahhab in modern times..)

And of course one can't deal with this question without going into discussion over the verses of Lot. In the Christian tradition I know that it is easier to get a more liberating reading of the Lot narrative from the bible, but this book also provides ample evidence of how the Lot narrative in the Qur'an is in fact largely about something other than the sex-act of sodomy, which Muslims are obsessed with when discussing homosexuality. What was punished by God was in fact male rape of men as an act of power and domination against guests, on top of a host of charges including highway robbery, grave inhospitality, and denying Lot's prophethood.

I think what is particularly important are his discussions on how Muslim jurists and religious authorities have grappled with the ambiguities of gender and sexual orientation in modern times. The examples he gives in the book of Imams like Daayie Abdullah who have managed to write up marriage contracts for same-sex couples with minimal changes from contracts drawn for het couples, is encouraging. ( )

Recommended by Muhammad A.