What was the punishment for practicing homosexuality (men) in the time of the Prophet (pbuh)?

Question

Has there any reports of punishments handed out with the agreement of the prophet(pbuh) that have been recorded in a sahih hadith? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

There aren't any well known instances of homosexuality which occurred during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. However there are ahadith which inform of its punishment and there are also general verses and ahadith from which the punishment can be derived by legal reasoning. The following is its punishment according to the various schools of thought:

• Execution: This is based on the hadith which is considered sahih according to some scholars:

  من وجدتموه يعمل عمل قوم لوط فاقتلوا الفاعل والمفعول به

  If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.

  ^{— Abu Dawud}

  And it is also based on reasoning as sodomy is worse than zina (fornication), since sex in fornication could have been rendered lawful by marriage, whereas sodomy can never be lawful. Also because this sin received the severest penalty from Allah and hence it should have the severest legal punishment.

  The method of execution could be:

  • Beheading with a sword: This is the standard mode of killing in capital punishments. Some of the Shafi'is hold this view.

  • Stoning to death: It is based on analogy with the punishment that was given to the nation of Prophet Lut:

    وأمطرنا عليهم حجارة من سجيل

    and We rained upon them stones of hard clay

    ^{— Quran 15:74}

    And it is also corroborated by the hadith:

    في الذي يعمل عمل قوم لوط قال ارجموا الأعلى والأسفل ارجموهما جميعا

    Concerning those who do the action of the people of Lut: “Stone the upper and the lower, stone them both.”

    ^{— Ibn Majah}

    This is held by the Malikis and some of the salaf.

  • Dropping from a height and then being crushed by a rock: This was held by some of the salaf and was derived by analogy from the divine punishment given to the nation of Lut:

    فجعلنا عاليها سافلها وأمطرنا عليهم حجارة من سجيل

    And We made the highest part [of the city] its lowest and rained upon them stones of hard clay.

    ^{— Quran 15:74}

    As it is known that the angel lifted the city into the sky, flipped it around and then threw it back down.

  • Burning: According to various traditions this was adopted by some of the sahaba and tabieen. And is held by some of the Hanbalis. Immolation is considered a more dreadful form of execution which suits the severity of this crime.

• The Hadd of Zina: Which is whipping 100 times (and exile\imprisonment for one year) for an unmarried (virgin) and Stoning to Death for a married (non-virgin) person. This is done based on considering sodomy to be a type of fornication or similar to it. This is the view of the majority of the jurists including the dominant opinion of the Shafi'is and Hanbalis and of Abu Yusuf and Muhammad from the Hanafis etc.

  الزانية والزاني فاجلدوا كل واحد منهما مائة جلدة

  The [unmarried] woman or [unmarried] man found guilty of illegal sexual intercourse - lash each one of them with a hundred lashes

  ^{— Quran 24:2}

  أن رجلا، من أسلم أتى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فحدثه أنه قد زنى، فشهد على نفسه أربع شهادات، فأمر به رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فرجم، وكان قد أحصن

  A man from the tribe of Bani Aslam came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and Informed him that he had committed illegal sexual intercourse and bore witness four times against himself. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) ordered him to be stoned to death as he was a married person.

  ^{— Bukhari}

• Ta'zir: An appropriate punishment at the discretion of the judge, such as whipping and then imprisonment until he repents. If he repeats the crime then he can be executed. This is held by Abu Hanifa from the Hanafis,by the Zahiris, and by some other tabieen. This assumes that there is no Hadd, in which case there is consensus that a Ta'zir will be enforced to create deterrence:

  من رأى منكم منكرا فليغيره بيده

  Whoever among you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand

  ^{— Muslim}

  أجمع العلماء على أن التعزير مشروع في كل معصية لا حد فيها ولا كفارة والمعاصي فرعان: ترك واجب وفعل محرم

  The scholars have a consensus that Ta'zir is prescribed for every sin for which there is no Hadd or Kaffarah. And sins include: leaving an obligation or doing a haram act

  ^{— Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa}

Note that the above discussion is about the act of sodomy (anal intercourse between two men). Further it is about one who considers homosexuality to be wrong. If a person were to openly consider homosexuality to be lawful then it is unanimous that he would be executed as an apostate unless he repents.

Ref: Mawsoo’ah al-Fiqhiyyah 44/23-25