|
Site Admin |
|
Joined: 04 May 2009, 16:10 Posts: 4558 Location: USA
|
Jamaal `Ataaya, in his book حقيقة النسخ وطلاقة النص في القرآن, pages 208-220, discusses this claim at length and refutes it. He brings out a number of excellent points: - The objection of the scholars to Al-Asfahhani's brilliant deduction that 4:15-16 is about homosexuals only, the objection that nobody else said it is moot. `Ataaya says "if the opinions of the early exegetes is the final say then the door of analysis is closed and the Book of God is frozen. That the early Muslims did not discover that the earth is round does not mean that later Muslims could not find that out! And who said that the opinions of exegetes cannot be wrong?"
He then quotes Ar-Raazi, from his book مفاتيح الغيب, volume 5, pages 81-83, saying that Mujaahid, a prominent exegete of old, also expressed the conclusion that 4:15-16 was about homosexuals.
He then mentions that Ash-Sha`raawi, may God bless his soul, the foremost exegete of recent times, also concluded that 4:15 was about lesbians, evidenced by the relative pronoun اللاتي which can only refer to women. See his book تفسير الشعراوي, pages 2064-2065. He also said that 4:16 was about homosexual men only.
- The hadeeth of the Prophet (PBUH) that says "God has made for them a way out", narrated by `Ubaada ibn As-Saamit, has many problems:
- How can death by execution be a way out? A way out is good news. How can killing be good news?
- How can the hadeeth provide a way out for a situation that is not mentioned in the Quran, namely stoning married fornicators?
- How can expelling a young, unmarried woman for a year away from her family be wise or proper? Doesn't that subject her to more sin? If she sinned while she was living with her family and under their protection, can you imagine what would happen if she is separated from that and all alone?
`Ataaya notes that many scholars have said that the hadeeth was abrogated by 24:2. His conclusion, however, is that the hadeeth applies to lesbians. That is, women who engage in a lesbian act, were initially locked up at home until further notice. That notice was revealed to the prophet (PBUH) in the hadeeth, namely, they are to be flogged and imprisoned for a year if they were single. After that they can go out. As for married women who engage in lesbianism, those are to be flogged and stoned. His evidence is that the hadeeth only refers to women.
It is a clever argument. But it does not prove that 4:15 was abrogated, only that the way out from house arrest for lesbian sex offenders has been revealed. But the hadeeth, if authentic, leaves out the way out for the case of an unmarried woman having lesbian sex with a married woman. Doesn't that mean that the Prophet (PBUH) left us with an incomplete Sharia, God forbid?
He certainly did not. The hadeeth must therefore be inauthentic with those words in it.
- If 4:15 was about adultery, then how can locking up a married woman at her home be? How can her husband accept her? The purpose of the house arrest, `Ataaya believes, is rehabilitation. When she is separated from women for a long time, she may be rehabilitated and get married instead. That is Al-Asfahaani's opinion too.
I'd add here that if the word debauchery in 4:15 refers to adultery and not lesbianism, then how come the divorce verse
allows expelling a divorced wife from home before the term of her grace period (`Idda) if she commits a debauchery? If she's under house arrest for that debauchery, per 4:15, then she cannot be expelled.
- If 4:16 includes women, then there are two punishments for women. How come there is only one punishment for men?
- If 4:15-16 are about fornication, then God has not specified a punishment for homosexuality and left that out of His Holy Book in which He says He neglected nothing. Nay, God has specified a punishment for every one of the three illicit sexual acts: female homosexuality (4:15), male homosexuality (4:16) and fornication (24:2). Nothing was left out.
_________________ A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.
|
|