Transsexual
Fatwa No: 82158

Question

I want to know the Islamic view of the “transsexual”. And how Islam look on khunsa.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

An effeminate man is one who displays characteristics regarded as typical of a woman (wearing female clothes and talking or walking like women).

This kind of man is cursed by the Prophet Muhammad . Ibn ‘Abbas said: “The Prophet cursed the effeminate men (who imitate women) and the women who imitate men.” Another narration of the same Hadeeth reads: “Allah has cursed men who imitate women and women who imitate men.” [Al-Bukhari]

Abu Hurayrah also narrated that the Prophet Muhammad said: “Allah has cursed the woman who wears the clothing of men and the man who wears the women’s dress.” [Abu Daawood]
As for the bisexual, it is of two types:

One type has both a female and a male sex organ and the other has neither male nor female sex organs, but only a hole from which urine comes out.

The first type can be categorized by the following characteristics:

1 - Urine: If the person urinates from the male sexual organ only, he is considered as a male; if the person urinates from the female sexual organ, then such a person is a female.

But if the person urinates from both organs, his state is defined like this: If the urine stops from both organs at the same time, the person is given the sex of the organ from which he/she started urinating. If the urine started to come out from both organs at the same time, the person is given the sex of the organ from which the urine continues to come out while it has stopped from the other organ. But if both organs match as far as urine is considered, so the person is considered as an epicene person (not male nor female) until the age of puberty is reached.

2 - When the person reaches the age of puberty, if the sperm comes out from the male organ several times, he is considered a male. But if the person has several menstruation periods, she is considered a female.

3 - Sexual desire or attraction: This condition is considered only if the above characteristics are absent to resolve this matter. If the person feels sexual desire towards the female, he is a male and the reverse is true. If the person feels desire for both sexes, that person is considered an epicene person (having characteristics of both sexes).

4 - Beard-growing, breast swelling or the coming out of milk from the breast are all signs that could help define the person's sex.

As for the second kind of bisexuals, it could be defined through the above conditions. But some scholars believe that the inclination as well as the menstruation should not be considered in categorizing such persons.

Islam applies its rulings on each one of these persons according to the sex that was finally given to them. If the person is considered a male, male rulings are applied on him and if the person is considered a female, female rulings are applied on her.

But if the person is epicene, then the Sharee’ah rulings apply, but very cautiously. Details of these matters are found in Fiqh books.

Allah knows best.

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