By Dr. Adian Husaini

Some homosexuality and lesbianism legalization activists, seem to make Prophet Luth as a target of their hatred and slur. The Qur'an indeed describes the struggles of Prophet Luth which was so heavy in confronting the munkar committed by his people, to the extent that Prophet Luth was expelled from his village.

The Qur'an describes the struggle of Prophet Luth as follows: "And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, 'Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people'. But the answer of his people was only that they said, 'Evict them from your city! Indeed, these are indeed men who want to be clean and pure!' So We saved him and his family, except for his wife; she was of those who remained [with the evildoers]. And We rained upon them a rain [of stones]. Then see how was the end of the criminals." (QS Al-A'raf:80-84).

In Surah Hud verse 82 it was told: "So when Our command came, We made the highest part [of the city] its lowest and rained upon them stones of layered hard clay, [which were]."

The harms of the sexual behavior of Luth's people was highlighted by Rasulullah Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wassalam:

"Indeed, there is nothing I fear for my ummah more than the deed of the people of Luth." (HR at-Tirmidzi, al-Hakim, Ibn Majah).

In Tafsir Al-Azhar, Prof. Hamka explained, how very destructive the disease of Luth's people is, to the point that they are punished severely by Allah Subhanahu Wata'ala. Hamka even mentioned that this same-sex sexual conduct is of lower status as compared to animals.

Even animals, Hamka said, still knows which is the opposite sex. Hamka quoted a hadith of Rasulullah Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wassalam: "… and when there has been many incidents of men 'approaching' men, then Allah will revoke His hands, so that Allah don't even bother in which Valley they shall perish." (HR at-Tirmidzi, al-Hakim, and at-Tabhrani).

Hamka wrote in his Tafsir about homosexual couples who were caught red-handed: "The Sahabahs of Rasulullah Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wassalam, whose consideration was sought by Sayyidina Abu Bakar once he became a Khalifah, what is the punishment for the person who "approached" and the one "being approached" as there were people who were caught red-handed, all were obliged to decide that both men were to be sentenced to death." (See, Tafsir al-Azhar, Juzu' 8).

It could be imagined, how uneasy and angry the homo and lesbian people are, along with their supporters, against the figure of Prophet Luth who tried to stop the culture of 'free lust' on the liberal people at that time. A website http://www.savethe males.ca, on 16th October 2004, wrote a report about Irshad Manji with the title "Lesbian Muslim Reformer is a New World Orderly." It was written: "Muslim 'reformer' and lesbian activist Irshad Manji, 35, symbolizes the globalist push to extinguish true religion and enslave humanity."

About the activist, Irshad Manji, in supporting and promoting lesbianism, it could be seen in her website: www.irshadmanji.com. The liberals thus praised her as a "lesbian" who – they said – is diligent in conducting ijtihad. A liberal activist lauds Irshad Manji by writing the title of an article in the Jurnal Perempuan (The Women's Journal) (Lesbian special edition, 2008) entitled: "Irshad Manji, A Lesbian Muslimah Who is Diligent in Calling for Ijtihad." It was written in this journal: "Manji deserves to be an inspiration among Muslims especially the women in Indonesia."

An example of a threat against the figure of Prophet Luth A.S. was shown by a group of students of the IAIN Semarang, the Faculty of Shariah, who published the Journal JUSTISIA. In Edition 25, Yr. XI, 2004, a main report was penned down entitled "The Beauty Of Same-Sex Marriage". With boldness, the editor in chief wrote the introduction: "Only the primitives look at same-sex marriage as something that is abnormal and dangerous. For us, there is no strong reason for anyone with any pretext, to prohibit same-sex marriage. Because, God has already acknowledged that his project of creating the human has been successful, in fact even overdone."

Furthermore, the articles in the journal were published in a book entitled "The Beauty Of Same-Sex Marriage: The Democratization and Protection of the Rights of Homosexuals," (Semarang: Institute for Religious and Social Studies/eLSA, 2005).

The strategies toward the legalization of same-sex marriage (homosexuals and lesbians) are mentioned, namely: (1) organizing the homosexuals to be united and to struggle to retake their rights that had been seized by the State, (2) giving insight to the public that what happens to the homosexuals is something normal and fitrah (natural), so the public do not isolate them, in fact the public are to get involved in supporting every movement of the homosexuals in claiming their rights, (3) carrying out religious criticism and reinterpretation of religious tafsir (tafsir of the story of Luth and concept of marriage) which are partial to the homosexuals, (4) calling for change in the change of Marriage Act No. 1/1974 which defines that a marriage must be between men and women. (pg. 15).

Insulting the Prophet, Defaming the Qur'an

The proponents of this legalization of the homosexuality movement dare to create a new tafsir (interpretation) of the verses of the Qur'an, by making a heinous accusations against Prophet Luth.

A writer in this book, for example, stated that the prohibition of same-sex marriage is a form of ignorance of the current generation of Muslims because they only understand the doctrine of their religion in a given, taken for granted manner without any sort of rereading of the doctrine in a critical manner. The author then claimed to be critical and suspicious of the motives of Prophet Luth in prohibiting homosexuality, as told in the Qur'an (surah al-A'raf :80-84 and Hud :77-82). All those, he said, are not separated from the factor of Luth's self-interest, who failed to marry off his daughters to two men, who happened to be homosexuals.

It is written in this book as follows: "As the wish to marry off his daughters did not get accomplished, of course Luth was upset. Luth then considered the two men as abnormal. Luth's wife could understand the circumstances of the men and tried to waken Luth. But Luth instead regarded his wife as one who was against her husband and considered as supporting the two men who were assessed by Luth as abnormal. Why did Luth assess the two men, who happened to be homosexuals, as bad? As far as I know, the Qur'an do not give a clear answer. But Luth's resentment against the homosexuals, besides due to the factor of being frustrated for being unsuccessful in marrying off his two daughters, is also is also due to the wrong assumption of Luth against the homosexual people." (pg. 39).

The slur against the Prophet Luth and the Qur'an continued here: "Luth, who denounced the same-sex sexual orientation invited the people in his village to not have love relations with people of the same sex. But Luth's invitation was not responded by them. It was from this disappointment then that the story of a natural disaster was fabricated. Luth's wife, as per the story of the Qur'an, also became a victim. In the Qur'an, as well as the Bible, homosexuality is considered to be the main factor causing the destruction of Luth's people, but these need to be criticized… I assess that natural disaster as, yes, just a regular natural disaster, just as the earthquakes that occurred in some areas today. But due to the mindset of the society at that time used to be very traditional and mystical, thus the natural disaster had been linked with the people of Luth…. This is not rational and it reeks of exaggeration. How can it be? It was merely the factor of the presence of homosexuals, and then there was a natural disaster. While we see today, in Holland and Belgium for example, a lot of homosexuals are formally married… But how come there is no disaster." (pg. 41-42).

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Those students – at that time – were studying at a Higher Institution that bears the name of Islam, also the name of the "Wali Songo" (IAIN Wali Songo Semarang). Those Wali's (Saints) were the unyielding propagators and preachers of Islam in the Land of Java. The Wali Songo (the nine saints who brought Islam to Java) were not light-hearted in matters of religion. The Wali Songo were hard in their attitude against the perversion of aqeedah committed by Sheikh Siti Jenar.

In the tradition of Islamic knowledge, the issue of adab (etiquette) is strongly emphasized, not just the freedom of thought and speech. Each man must understand the etiquette of talking. There are soccer players in Europe who were convicted for talking racist. A child is also not free to talk to his parents by – for example – asking his father: "Dad, am I really your son? Please prove it scientifically!"

Adab also stresses the attitude of "knowing one's self". Not to simply speak and write as one pleases, without referring to the opinion of the ulama's who have authority in Tafsir al-Qur'an Sciences. In every field of knowledge, we acknowledge the existence of the authority. Not just any man is free to talk in matters of knowledge.

For example, the comedian Tukul and Prof. Mahfud MD are both human. However, the value of the words of both men are not the same when talking about the meaning of the Articles in the Constitution 1945. It is similar in the field of the economics. We admit that there are academic authorities made up of experts in economics, whose level of knowledge are already recognized by the international community of academicians in that field. In the field of physics, we would chuckle or laugh and get amused if there is any new student who has just learned the basic formulas of physics, and then yells out that Newton, Einstein, Stephan Hawking, Habibie, turn out to be all stupid!

It is a great destruction if this adab of knowledge is not applied in the field of Ulumuddin. If we admit that the Qur'an is the book of revelation revealed to Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wassalam, then logically we must admit that, the human who understands the Qur'an the most is Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wassalam. And then, the Prophet Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wassalam appointed a number of his Sahabahs whom he called highly expert in Tafsir al-Qur'an, such as Ibnu Abbas and Abdullah bin Mas'ud. Next, came the experts in Tafsir al-Qur'an from amongst the Tabi'in, Tabi'it Tabi'in, and so on.

As in the field of Economic Sciences, Physic Sciences and so on, the Tafsir Sciences is also a science that is already very mature in its development in the tradition of Islamic knowledge. The same goes with the Usul Fiqih Scienes, Fiqih Sciences, Nahwu Sciences, Saraf Sciences, Kalam Scienes. If one wants to learn Tafsir al-Qur'an, one should want to refer to the scholars or ulama's who understand the Tafsir al-Qur'an Sciences.

If examined with just a bit of carefulness, it seems that Irshad Manji is not a person who has the adequate authority in understanding the Qur'an. It can be seen in her book, "Faith without Fear: The Challenge for Muslims Today", that can be downloaded from her website. In this book, Irshad Manji, based her doubts against the Qur'an on the opinion of Christoph Luxenberg (a Christian priest from Lebanon who hides his real name). Manji said: "If the Quran is influenced by the Christian-Jewish culture – that is consistent with the claim that the Quran continues the earlier revelations – then the Aramaic language may have been translated by the humans into the Arabic language. Or, wrongly translated in the case of the houri, and nobody knows how many more words are translated in a less precise manner. What if all the verses are wrongly understood?" (pg. 96).

The opinion of Christoph Luxenberg states that, all these times, the Mulims have misunderstood the Qur'an, which is supposed to be understood in the Syriac language. About paradise, with the cynical tone Manji stated that there was human error which had entered in the Qur'an. According to new research, Manji wrote, what's gained by the martyrs for their sacrifices are raisins, and not virgins. "Now, how can the Qur'an be such inaccurate?" she wrote.

Luxenberg's opinion was picked up just like that by Irshad Manji, that the language of the Qur'an which must be understood in the Aramaic language, had been written in his book, "Die syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschluesselung der Koransprache". The opinion of Luxenberg is also very weak and there have been many academic articles that have responded to it. Dr. Syamsuddin Arif has peeled off this issue incisively in his book, "The Orientalists and Intellectual Diabolism (transl.)".

According to Syamsuddin, Professor Hans Daiber, for example, gave open seminars about that works of Luxeberg for one full semester in the Orientalistic Department of the University of Frankfurt, where he exposed a number of weaknesses of that book by methodology and philology. One of Luxenberg's weaknessesis that, for example, to support his analysis and argument, Luxenberg must refer to the Syriac or Aramaic language dictionary written in the 7th or 8th century AD (the period of Islam), and not using the 20th century Chaldean language dictionary written by Jacques E. Manna year 1900 edition!

So, an excessive reverence for Irshad Manji, ruins two things at once: the authority of Islamic knowledge and principles of Islamic akhlaq (morals). We believe, there are still a lot of ulama's, intellectuals and people among the Islamic Ummah who are conscious and love their religion. We love our country, so much so that we hope, this largest Muslim country does not become the rubbish bin of thoughts!

Wallaahu a'lam bil-sawab.

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*/Depok, 8 Mei 2012.

The Author is a Chairman Of Islamic Education Courses Program — Post-Graduate Program University Ibn Khaldun, Bogor

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