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What is the view of Islam about transgender/bigender people?

Are they considered Muslims?

anyone who pronounces the shahada a Muslim

My questions are:

  • Some rules in Islam (like wearing gold, hijab) are different between males and females. What should those people do?

  • What does Islam say about their marriage?

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  • this question is kind of vague, isn't anyone who pronounces the shahada a muslim? and aren't some people born as two genders (outward appearance isn't consistant with inner-organs)? please be more specific
    – NesreenA
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 10:34
  • @NesreenA, edited the post to more specific Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 11:02
  • what I meant is are you talking about people born that way, or people who have operations to become a different gender?
    – NesreenA
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 13:23
  • @NesreenA, ok I meant both Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 14:14
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    @Muslim I believe the question is too broad as these issues have very specific cases like are both the organs present or none?, did they became transgender by accident ? or do they have homosexual tendencies , all these need to specified for an answer. preferably ,Those who have this problem should ask this question. Hence voting to close
    – user940
    Commented Jul 2, 2013 at 3:14

5 Answers 5

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+100

My brother Muslim first of all, any human say Shahada, praying and do all of Islam pillars is considered as Muslim.

And about transgender people: There is no transgender people in Islam because Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala said:

[Quran 75:39] {فَجَعَلَ مِنْهُ الزَّوْجَيْنِ الذَّكَرَ وَالْأُنْثَى}

And made of him two mates, the male and the female.

Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala didn't said transgender so there is no transgender (another sex else male or female), and now the doctors can determine if transgender is a male or female by urination way, signs of puberty and lust tend.

So if the transgender is close to masculinity he will be in men kind in Islam rules and if the transgender is close to feminine she will be in women kind in Islam rules.

And about the marriage: Only if transgender have had a male and female sexual organs and his lust tend to men and women in the same time then he can't marry, if else then he can marry.

Source in English, Arabic or Urdu or Indonesian

And Allah knows best, Wa salla allah ala Mohammad.

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    How can you say that there's no transgender in Islam while there are chapters and books about fiqh about them and you even quoted something about them, even if you didn't quote any hadith about them?
    – Medi1Saif
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 10:12
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    Also, how can you say without contradicting yourself that there are no transgender people, and then say when they can or cannot marry?
    – G. Bach
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 11:28
  • And made of him two mates, the male and the female. does not say anything about Transgenders. Transgenders aren't some third gender, they are people who identify with the opposite sex that they were born with. If someone identifies as male, they would fall in the male mate category as per this verse and similarly a female would be female.
    – NSNoob
    Commented Jan 2, 2018 at 6:35
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The Islamic view on transgendered/bigendered folk may be covered among the ideas of Mukhannathun, although that is unclear. Mukhannath appears to literally refer to hermaphrodites, but http://wislam.org/Concepts/Mukhannath suggests that it applies to trangendered people as well (although maybe only MtF). If the mukhannthun rules do not apply, then Islam treats them as the physical gender they were born.

Anyone who speaks the shahadah in good faith is a Muslim. The Prophet PBUH said that every child is born Muslim, so it stands to reason that Allah swt would not reject someone transgendered from returning to their true faith.

Marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman; this is apparently defined by birth genitals.

As for what Islamic practices transgendered folk should follow, I cannot find any solid argument one way or the other.

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TL;DR: There's no one correct Islamic answer to this: it's incredibly nuanced and scholarly opinions are evolving.

Iran has relatively long history of accepting transgender people, but even its laws regarding transgender marriage are not clear. Pakistan has brought in new transgender rights laws, and scholars in countries like Egypt and Malaysia are calling for scholarly opinions on transgender people to be revised.

I expect most countries would formally follow laws based on what's on your identity documents (one's "legal gender"), which is affected by local laws (not necessarily at a national level).


There's two main camps:

Traditionally, the Islamic stance has been you are what your genitals at birth indicate, and that's that. All rulings apply as per your birth sex. (E.g. ...the person appears outwardly to be female, but in fact he is a male Islam Q&A.) The usual supporting evidence is:

  1. Satan says:

    ... I will command them so they will change the creation of Allah ...
    Qur'an 4:119

    However, this doesn't apply to e.g. circumcision or medically necessary procedures, so applying this requires care.

  2. Allah's Messenger cursed those men who are in the similitude (assume the manners) of women and those women who are in the similitude (assume the manners) of men.
    Sahih al-Bukhari 5885

    But is e.g. a male-to-female transgender person imitating a woman if they transition, or are they imitating a man if they don't transition?

  3. Two ahadith about mukhannath or "effeminate ones":

    A mukhannath (eunuch) used to enter upon the wives of Prophet. They (the people) counted him among those who were free of physical needs. One day the Prophet entered upon us when he was with one of his wives, and was describing the qualities of a woman, saying: When she comes forward, she comes forward with four (folds in her stomach), and when she goes backward, she goes backward with eight (folds in her stomach). The Prophet said: Do I not see that this (man) knows what here lies. Then they (the wives) observed veil from him.
    Sunan Abi Dawud 4107 [grade: sahih]

    This one suggests the Prophet was originally comfortable with the mukhannath around his wives, until he indicated attraction to females.

    Am effeminate man (mukhannath) who had dyed his hands and feet with henna was brought to the Prophet. He asked: What is the matter with this man? He was told: "Messenger of Allah! He imitates the look of women." So he issued an order regarding him and he was banished to an-Naqi'. The people said: Messenger of Allah! Should we not kill him? He said: I have been prohibited from killing people who pray. AbuUsamah said: Naqi' is a region near Medina and not a Baqi'.
    Sunan Abi Dawud 4928 [grade: sahih]

    This last hadith is the strongest against being transgender, indicating banishment.

Nowadays, while some scholars maintain traditional views, others are more nuanced.

Sheikh Majdi Ashour, academic advisor to the Grand Mufti of Egypt, stressed that it is not possible to take the opinion of religion on this thorny issue in general, as each case has its own conditions which cannot be generalized to other cases.
Transgender in Egypt: Islam’s stance on sex reassignment surgery, Egypt Independent, 2018

What seems to be swaying some modern scholars are:

  1. So-called mukhannath min kalqin reported by An-Nawawi, who identify as female and are sexually attracted exclusively to men:

    According to religious scholar, Imam An-Nawawi, there exist two types of Mukhannaths ... Mukhannath min Kalqin were born male by body but identified their gender as female, and they are not attracted to women. ... Since their identity is inert and not an impersonation, as long as they do not use their identity for immoral purposes, it is not a shame and they are accepted in Islam.
    Malaysian Federal Territories Mufti Datuk Zulkifli Mohamad al-Bakri, FT Mufti backs call to revisit edict against transgenders, 2018.

    (Wikipedia gives another example by Ibn 'Abd al-Barr: This is one of those who have no interest in women who were permitted to enter upon women.)

  2. Gender identity disorder (or gender dysphoria) is a recognized medical condition, and its treatment is regarded as medically necessary (on a case-by-case basis):

    Medical treatment ... are effective in alleviating gender dysphoria and are medically necessary for many people.
    WPATH Standards of Care V7 (pdf)

    Thus, medically transitioning is not through some personal whim, but through medical professionals.

  3. Failing to accept transgender identities may realistically lead to suicide or apostasy, considered among the worse sins in Islam, and possibly even sodomy.

  4. There's a growing body of evidence of a biological basis; see Causes of transsexuality on Wikipedia.

Consequently, Pakistan has passed new transgender rights laws (The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill (pdf)) that makes Western transgender rights laws look weak. This comes after news of a fatwa declaring "marriage with a transgender person is lawful".

The main Islamic country which funds transgender operations is Iran (see Transsexuality in Iran, Wikipedia). There's a news report of transgender people marrying in Iran in 2009, but it required a court ruling.

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  • You summarized my whole research here. This should be the correct answer. The answer marked above correct seems to be completely biased, dumb and wrong.
    – Ahmed
    Commented Apr 14, 2023 at 2:27
  • abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2019/07/03/… I was about to post this when I saw this post. Mukhannath existed long before. This problem started long before but in today's world unfortunately many self proclaimed scholars are providing biased answers because in a way it has a political aspect to it. Previous gen thinks they can never be wrong and did committed most of atrocities and now can't seem to be able to fathom consequences. Weak research and they don't think before they speak. Long story short this seems to be the correct answer
    – Ahmed
    Commented Apr 14, 2023 at 2:30
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I knew a person with both sex organs but deep down inside they felt like they were more towards being a female so that's how she dressed. Did Allah guide her to feel that way? I don't know--only He knows. Now I could be wrong on this whole thing after all only Allah knows best, but the way I take it is that if you do your best to try to obey Allah's wishes then you have a better chance to be forgiven. After all, Allah made them who there are and that's beautiful because He made them. If you have a sex operation you're changing Allah's creation and that's just not beautiful at all and wrong just like tattoos.

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    Can you cite some evidence, from the Quran or other Islamic teaching to back your answer?
    – Flimzy
    Commented Jul 2, 2013 at 3:47
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If a male person has female appearence an manners in speach and body language temperment and psychology is determined to be like a women from a psycologist an if the person self identifies as a women an is attracted to have a husband to be a wife. then this person has the right by Allah to have operation if they are able. or they can choose to live as a muslim women but do not have operation but keep it a private medical conce withrn that should only be shared with the shaikh an ulama for this person to stay aware of there duties to Allah an the correct ways to fullfill this. ranging from permisability of marriage..or not...the wajibness of hejab or not..all different. things that only a shaikh may be able to determine wat is most appropriate for a person like this for

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    Salam and welcome to Islam.SE WE expect answers here to be backed up by evidences from Islamic sources or Islamic scholars. Please go through guidelines on writing answers.
    – infatuated
    Commented Aug 17, 2014 at 13:03

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