Navigating the LGBTQ Question

After praising Allah subhanho wa Taala and testifying to his oneness, his unique oneness, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the King of kings the mighty and majestic, and after testifying to the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,

and at the best of speeches, the book of Allah, the great Glorious Quran and the best of guidance, the example found in the Sunnah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

And after reminding myself and even with a Taqwa of Allah to be conscious of Allah and consistent with him, and loving and willing, always in forever to be submissive and trusting of him subhanho wa taala. And after welcome my brothers and sisters to the house of Allah azza wa jal

unless a person were to live in a cave,

and the cave does not have Wi Fi,

a person will easily especially in this month of June now be subjected directly and indirectly to what is known as the LGBT question.

Rather challenged by it, because it is packaged in so many different ways. It's a challenge to even recognize a person may may see a flag everywhere and see how could I be against after a while may not happen at first glance, how could I be as you know, as I am told to be in my religion, this is the perception against something that's as colorful as the rainbow, right? Am I against diversity and difference? Right? Am I against love? Am I against the equality? Am I against minorities? Right? It just how do I handle this?

And because it is so consistent, the messaging, the challenging, it gradually makes room for itself in many people's worldviews. And it slowly becomes irrelevant.

That also 100 times but in the Quran, you will find the story of Lodi the salam, it will never match. Who reads the Quran once a week anyway with reflection cover to cover, right? And so a person sometimes may wonder like, is this a standoff with my faith? How do I deal with this? I believe in Islam, and I believe ALLAH is fair, and I believe ALLAH is just, and I believe that his guidance is timeless. So how does it answer this question?

And that is my greatest stake in this conversation and why I bring it to the member, the faith of the faithful. But before I even help a person in sha Allah navigate the LGBT question in this afternoon's reminder, let me establish what I'm not saying.

I am definitely not saying that we as the Muslims are trying to impose our laws and our system in a land where we are a a scattered 1% of it. I live in real life. I understand how the world works. Yes, we believe Allah's guidance is superior. But we believe that man made laws, social agreements are better than lawlessness better than the laws of the jungle. And some people fanatics try to posit it this way. There goes the Muslims again, right.

And I'm also of course not saying

that I expect non Muslims even to understand our position at a glance, no. This is why the Prophet Luth alayhi salam and all of the prophets of Allah, regardless of what direction their societies may have swerved, they always began with Allah first and his oneness first. And through that Keystone, all guidance, showers down, the rays of light come for the world. For whoever does not have that piece in place. I understand that I am bound to be misunderstood by those people. It's expected nothing, you know, realistic about thinking someone who measures with a different reference point will have the same conclusion as you.

And I'm also not saying that people that otherwise outside of the masjid have an anemic lifestyle or even going to be denied access to our centers. Rather, we believe our masajid are the lighthouses of Allah where people that struggle with whatever they struggle with can begin to put their hands on where the cure is.

And of course, because some people try to weaponize these discussions, and silence those who speak of morality that Allah revealed by saying you're preaching hate, we are obviously also

We're not talking about hate speech, or bullying or witch hunts, or even invading people's privacy. The Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam when someone came to him and said, so and so who works for me, was committing fornication. He said, Why didn't you conceal him? Why didn't you just give him that privacy, not out of approval. But because when this stuff gets normalized, when word gets out about it, it makes it so much harder for a person to put it in their past. And so

we are not against respecting people's privacy. And we don't care what people do behind closed doors. And we are enjoined with showing and extending kindness to all people that are kind and respectable with us and fair to our colleagues and fair with our classmates, and we should collaborate with people on a human level, outside of this discussion. A human being has his dignity. And the last thing very quickly, I'm not saying I'm not even saying that someone that has this attraction inside them, they happen to find, forgive me, I have to be a little bit straightforward here, same sex attraction inside of them, that this is condemned double in Islam because it's not.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to us, Allah has pardoned for my ummah, it's passing thoughts Maha death that we have, and fusuma what its soul suggests to it mallam, Tamil de la Colombie, so long as he doesn't act on it, that's a different category. So long as it doesn't act on it, or speak of it, speak of it, meaning advocate for it, push for it. And so acting on this desire

or imitating a gender, that you're not that Allah did not create you as such, or advocating that this is correct for someone else to do. This is what we're saying. Islamically speaking is unacceptable. We will not accept that we will not embrace that we will not celebrate that. And that is what we should do as muslims with a responsibility to Allah and also responsibility to his creation. But first and foremost out of our responsibility to Allah, we are not only going to accept his message, but we are also going to defend his message. We're not going to distort it to appease anyone.

Allah azza wa jal says we're calling her Coleman Rabhi. Confirm and share if you mean woman, SHALIACH four, say to them, oh Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the truth is what comes from our Lord. It's what comes from your God who created you and knows you best. Whoever wishes to believe can believe whoever wishes to reject can reject.

And he said Subhana, who was added another verse FRR item and into further ILAHA, who Hawa entered a coup alayhi wa Akela? Have you seen the one that has accepted the desire? The desire is one thing but accepted the desire as their God as their commander as what dictates rights and wrongs, and they justify in light of their passing desires, permanent principles and standards that they and others should be living by? You see, that person who treats desires like God fit into the corner and they you Akela? Are you going to be someone that advocates for them? Meaning do you know where that would land you with Allah subhanho wa taala. To give into this, because Allah when he forbids something,

he forbids it for our own good. And so there are unthinkable innumerable harms, for people to accept a lifestyle. For example, have extramarital relations, relationships outside of marriage, it makes no difference whether it's with the opposite gender or the same gender, all of this we are Muslims. We submit to Allah's guidance, Allah's moral framework, and we don't accept that.

And by the way, don't let anyone ever drag you into the whole nature versus nurture discussion. Like it's their nature, it is inborn. We say even if it's work, our dean called us to the balance streets path. Yes, desires are not a problem, right? They're not sinful. They're not condemned rubble. Allah did not create you without desires. Allah did not create you as an angel made out of light and you never, you know, have negative impulses, right? No, no, no, you're not expected to be an angel. But at the same time, he wants you to be a candidate for his light, to receive his life and to live by it and to reflect it. So you can have those desires fine, but you are to reflect the light of God as

best as you can in your life.

If something is in your nature, you refine your nature in light of the light of Allah subhanho wa taala. You know, a person can say it's human nature to use the bathroom but we all understand that this needs to be done in a specific way behind closed doors.

A person can very easily and correctly by the way, even Islamically argue that some people have a harder test with anger than others. But no one should ever say it's your fault for upsetting him. He's an angry person. That's his nature. No one would ever accept that.

You have to refine your your, your nature, develop self restraint, seek it out from Allah subhanho wa taala.

And unless you do this, unless you take this stand, even if it's uncomfortable in society, know that you are actually doing a disservice to humanity, you have a responsibility to humanity in this age of confusion to stand your ground, you see, you're not doing anyone any favors. By giving into this experiment over the past few decades or half a century, this gender fluidity experiment, this, you know, you're not helping anyone. You know, the people that give into the lie, they are lied to systematically, they are converted to the transgender community. So many times, they are told this feeling which could be gone tomorrow, by the way, little kids have a feeling of oh, that means that

you're a you're a boy trapped in a girl's body, you're a girl trapped in a boy's body, they don't arrive at this conclusion by themselves, they are converted to this by systems and structures set in place in society and are currently trending. They are an experiment and an extremely unfortunate, extremely dangerous experiment.

People that go down that route to actually embrace this and transition, many of them regret at a point where you can't help it. Certain changes are permanent, certain surgical and hormonal changes, they go through, they can't reverse. By the way, the transitioning meaning going to an opposite gender, but surgically speaking and otherwise, and then coming back, this is trending now more and more people are regretting the decision and trying to walk it back as best as they can. And one of the reasons for this is because when they swallowed this hook, line, and sinker, and they transitioned over, they realized, oh, wait, this wasn't actually doing me any favor.

They struggle with mental health six to 10 times in life, suicide rates, six to 10 times more than others. So you're not helping them by telling them celebrate this, take pride in this, enjoy this. It's a disservice that we do to them to give into this.

And so now you know what we're not saying.

And you know what we need to say part of our responsibility to Allah and His creation. And a final reminder that is very relevant and very important about where our sentiments should be to those that are genuinely struggling and wish they didn't have to with the attraction that is not in and of itself reprehensible. After the break Akula Holyhead that was stopped for Allah Halima Lee welcome.

Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Milena V about that Chateau La Ilaha. Illallah are the holder Che Guevara, who are shadow and Mohammed and Abu who want to be you who are sort of

my brothers and sisters? uncomfortable or not? We have to say that there are members certainly in the Muslim community, just like outside of the Muslim community who suffer from same sex attraction.

Or have been for one reason or another tempted or confused, they've become dysphoric about this whole issue of gender and as gender and like your biological makeup does it always match up? Or is like biology one thing but your gender is something society tells you the mess has certainly reached us.

Alhamdulillah, our our deen and our sacred texts and the teachings of Allah and His Messenger, protect our community, relatively speaking from being overrun. The way systems that have no substance or faiths that people don't actually believe in, may not be able to withstand, but still they do get between the cracks. They do reach members of the Muslim community. So much so if you don't believe me about my personal anecdotes that I deal with on the pastoral level as a community leader here, look up some online communities. You know, there is a brother that is often cited in this discussion named Jorge Jensen, who has a podcast called Beyond the rainbow

and these are Muslims all around the world that suffer from this attraction and this is they are at war with it. They are struggling to have a typical a normal life and normal relationships.

And they said this is our reality. We recognize it and we refuse to distort Allah's religion to justify it.

And we're going to work through it. And there's a very famous article online, entitled The straight struggle about this issue, the struggle to conform to Allah straight path in light of this.

These people by the way, Islam is actually the only thing they have going for them. Society is pushing them in the different direction. And the Muslim has made themselves trying to protect their own faith, maybe pushing them away as well. Like society is telling them so what just embrace it Love is love. And they're saying No, Allah speaks the truth. Allah said love has boundaries. Allah said, Woman You will cause your Hanif See, he felt like a homophone those who shield themselves against the appetites of their souls. Those are the ones that get to succeed.

The Muslim community will go to the Muslim community, a Muslim community can brush them off many times and just say something superficial, like, homosexuality is haram. But I'm not here to push for it. I'm not here to spread it. I'm telling you. And I just have a desire that desire is not the sin in our deen. It's not supposed to be a sin. Why are you treating me this way? And then you go into society society says yes, you're absolutely right. You should be treated equal, embrace yourself equality even for people that have that desire and live up to it. And they say No, Allah said the truth. Allah said equality of human beings. He didn't say equality of every last human behavior,

right? And so there's like stuck in this war you may not think so I know some of them personally and other Imams and pastors and otherwise, they're these people fast Mondays and Thursdays a lot of times to try to get control of their desires. They get up an hour before veg and prickly emulated to try to work around this. There are of them are those stuck in these relationships, and they perform Hajj and Umrah year in and year out, hoping and asking Allah to save them.

So these people in reality could actually be heroes, Heroes of tougher what is taqwa tacos, to restrain yourself from what you want to stay pleasing to Allah, even if it's not pleasing to yourself, it is a true challenge.

And so if you know anyone struggling with this, and if anyone here is me in our communities that is struggling with this, know that we feel for you and on a huge level we admire the fight that you're putting up and know that Allah loves to see this Jihad from you in this culture, war and this confusion all around you.

And so ultimately, my time is up the guidance of Allah azza wa jal is clear on this issue, and it is very liberating. And it is our job to share it respectfully, but with pride, but also with compassion, and try to find that balance to help bring people to light of Allah azza wa jal, and even if it's a little bit uncomfortable at times, the same way that the prophets of Allah did, whether it be Luca alayhi, salam, or otherwise