Homosexuality

Well, India has become the latest in the list of ‘enlightened’ countries which are allowing homosexuality in the name of equality. And we have so many ‘intellectuals’ among us who advocate accepting this, as it is ‘hereditary’, ‘natural’ and what not.

The immediate provocation for this blog was actually an article that appeared in a leading newspaper which quoted someone named 'Saleem Kidwai, author of Same Sex Love in India, a Muslim'. In that article, he says, “I can quote numerous examples of Muslims, including saints and poets, who were venerated even though they supported homosexuality or were gay themselves. Mir Taqi Mir is one example. Look at Sarmat Shaheed aka ‘Hare Bhare Shah’ whose grave is at Delhi’s Jama Masjid. Thousands of Muslims go there to pay respects though Shah’s homosexuality is well-known.”

Stop this BS.

Don’t use examples of people doing something to prove a point that has been clearly pointed out as an abomination in the Qur’an. Do I use the Qur’an – which I believe is the word of Allah – or these two examples of individuals that this person points out? I am not aware of Hare Bhare Shah, but I am clear on one thing – either this person is not a homosexual or he is not a shaheed / holy man. We have all seen how incidents are corrupted and people deified over time, especially in our part of the world.

Since Saleem Kidwai has quoted two examples - neither of which really stick - let me quote only two verses from the Qur’an here.

Walootan ith qala liqawmihi ata/toona alfahishata ma sabaqakum biha min ahadin mina alAAalameena. Innakum lata/toona alrrijala shahwatan min dooni alnnisa-i bal antum qawmun musrifoona.

We also (sent) Lut: He said to his people: “Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you?” “For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women : ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.” (Qur’an 7:80-81; Translation by Yusuf Ali)

Just two verses in Chapter 7 (Al-A’raf), clearly stating that homosexuality is transgression beyond bounds.

And what happened to the people of Lut who transgressed?

Waamtarna AAalayhim mataran faonthur kayfa kana AAaqibatu almujrimeena

And we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime! (Qur’an 7:84; Translation by Yusuf Ali)

For anyone who needs more proof, I would suggest reading Chapter 26 (Ash-Shu’araa), Verses 161-174, which relate the entire episode of Lut and what happened to the people who chose homosexuality over legal married life.

And as for myself, I shall repeat a prayer said by Lut himself.

rabbi onsurnee AAala alqawmi almufsideena

"O my Lord! help Thou me against people who do mischief!" (Qur’an 29:30; Translation by Yusuf Ali – part of verse)

That is Islam’s stance on homosexuality. What about the other major religions?

Let’s look at Christianity? Only 2 verses again.

Do you not know that the unrighteous and wrong doers will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived, (misled); neither the immoral and impure, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexuality, Nor cheats - swindlers and thieves; nor greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foulmouthed revilers and slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

And most predominantly Christian countries count homosexuality as natural!

Judaism? I personally found this to be strongest in its denouncement of homosexuality. And I shall content myself by sticking to two verses once again.

And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:13)

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination. (Leviticus 18:22)

And this is where I find what I mentioned earlier as the strongest denouncement.

The Oxford English dictionary defines abomination as a cause of disgust or hatred. In other words, one can read the above verse as lying with a male as with a woman is a cause of disgust or hatred in the eyes of God!

Now consider the position of this verse. It is interspersed between two other verses – one referring to child sacrifice (Leviticus 18:21 - And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to set them apart to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD) and the other pertaining to bestiality (Leviticus 18:23 - And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion).

The Jewish word for abomination is ‘Toaiva’. Let us consider some other acts in the Jewish religion that are also considered ‘Toai’va’.

Eating non-kosher foods is also called a Toaiva-abomination, so is incest (specific mentions in Leviticus for the interested), child sacrifice to their gods, using a seer or magician to contact the dead or predict the future.

If there was a clearer proof of the abhorrence of such act, I am yet to see it!

Hey, but I am referring to all the three monotheistic religions. And we’re in India, where all these three religions are in a minority. C’mon folks, haven’t we seen Kama Sutra, Khajuraho etc.

Right, and then some people have seen the ancient Hindu religious and moral texts, like the Manu Smriti for instance, which says-

A kanya [unmarried woman] who pollutes (another) kanya must be fined two hundred (panas), pay the double of her (nuptial) fee, and receive ten (lashes with a) rod. But a stree [married woman] who pollutes a kanya shall instantly have (her head) shaved or two fingers cut off, and be made to ride (through the town) on a donkey. (Manusmriti 8:370-371)

Giving pain to a Brahmana (by a blow), smelling at things which ought not to be smelt at, or at spirituous liquor, cheating, and an unnatural offence with a man, are declared to cause the loss of caste (Gatibhramsa) (Manusmriti 11:68)

I have again restricted myself to two verses here, but again, it is interesting to see the punishment for a homosexual coming immediately after that of someone committing bestiality. See the parallel with Judaism? Those interested could check out Manusmriti 11:174-175.

And as for Saleem Kidwai and others of his ilk, I would only say-

Summun bukmun AAumyun fahum la yarjiAAoona

Deaf, dumb, and blind, they will not return (to the path). Qur’an 2:18; Translation by Yusuf Ali)

Thank You, Mr. Yadav

I had decided that I would post a blog every Sunday, but I missed last week, for a very simple reason – the phone was dead!

Typically what happens when it rains, the phone went dead last Sunday. I asked my father and wife to register the complaint, and as usually happens, realised on Wednesday that the complaint was still not registered.

So, like all net-savvy netizens, I decided to register my complaint online. And realized that while my internet connection works beautifully, the same cannot be said of the MTNL website.

The fault complaint booking page asks you to register your telephone number and your CA number to proceed to register your complaint. But the funny thing is that it does not accept more than 8 digits! So you can’t move ahead and register.

So I did the next best thing. I clicked on ‘Contact Us’ and sent an e-mail stating both – my complaint as well as the problem on the complaint page.

Promptly, I received a response. It said –

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

navimumbai.helpdesk@mtnl.net.in

So there we were - back to square one. And three days had passed.

I again requested my father and my wife - separately this time - to go to MTNL and register a complaint, hoping that one of them might do it; which my wife did - on Friday.

And she was told that there are a lot of complaints so it might take 4-5 days to attend.

I braced myself - considering that yesterday was the 4th Saturday.

And then came the surprise!

This morning (Sunday) at about noon, Mr. Yadav from MTNL rang our doorbell. He had come to repair the line. Upon asking, he mentioned that due to the number of complaints, he and his colleagues decided to attend to some complaints that they thought would possibly be small issues on the weekend so that they can sort the big problems quickly between Monday and Tuesday. Within 10 minutes, he had identified the problem (loose connection due to heavy winds last week) and corrected it.

His fees - Nothing. No chai-paani (bribe) or anything of that sort.

Thank You, Mr. Yadav!

Now if only they set about improving their website’s complaint page...

Sunil, you are so right about disciplined and evolved citizenship at its best

Sunil, you are so right about disciplined and evolved citizenship at its best.

The chaos that Mumbaikars created at the Bandra-Worli Sea Link had to be seen to be believed. Hour-long queues to get on to the Sea Link, stopping to take photographs, taking U-turns at will, unmindful of the problems they were creating for others.

All because it was free!

And since the day the toll has been levied, we have no more than 15,000 cars using the Sea Link daily.

I remember the last ‘free’ day (Sunday). I had to go to Four Seasons for dinner. After idling for a while at Worli Chawls, I parked my car at the side of the road and started walking. (Four Seasons is slightly less than a kilometre from there). While walking, I noticed the BEST buses waiting in the jam, which I knew pass by Four Seasons.

When I reached the hotel, I just turned and looked back. Forget about passing, the buses were still nowhere to be seen. They had not even reached the Worli Naka signal!

The funnier (?) part is – when I left the hotel at about 11:30 p.m., the traffic jam was still there! And I again noted a couple of BEST buses, which did not overtake me even when I reached my car!

How much more crazy can we get?

Talking of crazy, let me leave you with possibly the most lingering image of the opening day.



Sunil, you are so right about disciplined and evolved citizenship at its best!

Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny

Sitting by the banks of the river Indrayani last fortnight, watching the first drops of rain of the season and soaking in the smell of water touching the parched earth – possibly one of the best fragrances known to man!

Within a fortnight, this river, which had turned completely dry, is full of fish, frogs are singing their songs of love all through the night, crabs overrunning the place, making my daughter go berserk with excitement...

Isn’t it marvellous? I mean, can you imagine how many miracles I am witnessing? The rain, the life emerging from barren land, the dew that spread a sheet of shimmering silver over the land this morning...

This riverbed was so dry that my children played badminton on it. Where did these fish come from? And the rain...

All this keeps confirming the other miracle that came into existence more than 1,400 years ago, and continues to this date – The Qur’an.

Consider these verses:

Wamin ayatihi yureekumu albarqa khawfan watamaAAan wayunazzilu mina alssama-i maan fayuhyee bihi al-arda baAAda mawtiha inna fee thalika laayatin liqawmin yaAAqiloona

And among His Signs, He shows you the lightning, by way both of fear and of hope, and He sends down rain from the sky and with it gives life to the earth after it is dead: verily in that are Signs for those who are wise. (Qur’an 30:24; Translation by Yusuf Ali)

Waarsalna alrriyaha lawaqiha faanzalna mina alssama-i maan faasqaynakumoohu wama antum lahu bikhazineena

And We send the fecundating winds, then cause the rain to descend from the sky, therewith providing you with water (in abundance), though ye are not the guardians of its stores. (Qur’an 15:22; Translation by Yusuf Ali)

The Arabic word used here is lawâqih, which is the plural of laqih, which means to impregnate or fecundate. In this context, impregnate means that the wind pushes the clouds together increasing the condensation that causes lightning and thus rain. (Ref: Dr. Zakir Naik)

Now that’s a fact not known to humans 1,425 years ago!

In fact, this is completely at variance with the prevailing notion in those times.

“In the seventh century BC, Thales of Miletus held the theory whereby the waters of the oceans, under the effects of winds were thrust towards the interiors of the continents; so the water fell upon the earth and penetrated into the soil. Plato shared these views and thought that the return of the waters to the oceans was via a great abyss, the ‘Tartarus’. This theory had many supporters until the Eighteenth century, one of whom was Descartes. Aristotle imagined that the water vapour from the soil condensed in cool mountain caverns and formed underground lakes that fed springs. He was followed by Seneca (1st Century AD) and many others... (The Bible, The Qur’an and Science-Dr. Maurice Bucaille)

A similar description is found in another verse:

Allahu allathee yursilu alrriyaha fatutheeru sahaban fayabsutuhu fee alssama-i kayfa yashao wayajAAaluhu kisafan fatara alwadqa yakhruju min khilalihi fa-itha asaba bihi man yashao min AAibadihi itha hum yastabshiroona

It is Allah Who sends the Winds, and they raise the Clouds: then does He spread them in the sky as He wills, and break them into fragments, until thou seest rain-drops issue from the midst thereof: then when He has made them reach such of his servants as He wills behold, they do rejoice! (Qur’an 30:48; Translation by Yusuf Ali)

A complete description of the water cycle, which confirms to latest research on hydrology.

And another one which refers to the entire description of the water cycle, and refers to the electric charge of lightning in a simple way.

Alam tara anna Allaha yuzjee sahaban thumma yu-allifu baynahu thumma yajAAaluhu rukaman fatara alwadqa yakhruju min khilalihi wayunazzilu mina alssama-i min jibalin feeha min baradin fayuseebu bihi man yashao wayasrifuhu AAan man yashao yakadu sana barqihi yathhabu bial-absari

Seest thou not that Allah makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a heap? - then wilt thou see rain issue forth from their midst. And He sends down from the sky mountain masses (of clouds) wherein is hail: He strikes therewith whom He pleases and He turns it away from whom He pleases, the vivid flash of His lightning well-nigh blinds the sight. (Qur’an 24:43; Translation by Yusuf Ali)

There are many more such references which confirm to the miracle that is the Qur’an being the word of my Lord. One can go on and on – about the water cycle, about geology, about astronomy, about the animal kingdom, and - most interestingly - about human embryology...

Aah, human embryology! Now that’s something that was discovered only in our lifetime! And now we’re talking about things that are invisible to the naked eye - and there were no microscopes in the 6th century AD.

So, let me end this post with one of my favourite verses:

Fabi-ayyi ala-i rabbikuma tukaththiban

Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny? Sura Rehman (Qur’an 55:13; Translation by Yusuf Ali)

(References and Acknowledgements: Al Qur’an; The Qur’aan and Modern Science-Compatible or Incompatible by Dr. Zakir Naik; The Qur’an-Knowledge and Science by A. Abdallah; The Bible, The Qur’an and Science by Dr. Maurice Bucaille)