Did the Prophet (pbuh) Accept Feminine Men in Society?

By: Dr. Yasi Qadhi (June 10, 2021)

This image above comes from a booklet was being distributed for free to the Muslim students at Dr. Yasir Al-Qadhi's son's University, as shared on his twitter feed on 6/10/2021. His perspective is copied below.

The title of the booklet is 'I'm Muslim and My Gender Doesn't Fit Me'. The basic premise of the book is that gender identity and sexual orientation are choices that each individual makes. The author(s) claim that the Prophet ﷺ accepted trans/gay people and that a Companion known as Hīt and who was trans ('mukhanath') used to be welcome in his ﷺ house (see images). The work, from what I am told, is being distributed across many campuses free of charge.

There is simply too much to unpack in this one Facebook post. A few bullet points will have to suffice for now.

As a base default, the Quran is explicit that mankind has been Divinely created FROM two genders ('O Mankind! We created you from a male and a female...' [Ḥujurāt:13]) and IN two genders, ('...and from the two of them, He spread forth multitudes of men, and of women' [Nisā':1]). There are simply too many verses in the Quran that allude to the two genders; and there is no reference whatsoever in the Quran to anything other than this.
There are Islamic legal and social rulings based on the two genders, and these run from the beginning chapters of purification all the way to ending chapters of inheritance. Our Islamic Shari'ah is inherently gender based, and one finds different rulings in many areas of fiqh. To claim that gender is an imaginary construct is untenable in light of Scripture, Shari'ah, biology, common sense and the cumulative history of mankind.
There are some people who are born with both male and female genitalia, and have atypical sex chromosomes, and thus are given specific rulings in the books of fiqh under the topic of 'khunthā' (the actual percentage is around 0.018 %, from which technically the real khunthā mushkil will be a much smaller amount); however, these are specific concessions and ruling for those born with both private organs. As the legal maxim states, "Extraordinary issues do not take on legal rulings" - meaning that something that is extremely rare will not become a default, and remain rare. We deal with rare issues on a case-by-case basis, and don't make a generic rule for all of mankind because of it.
The issue of khunthā mushkil is related to those who are born with both private organs of similar physical characteristics. This is actually a small subset of the medical category known as 'intersex'. Actually, most people who are intersex (perhaps around 1 % of mankind) can live relatively normal lives and don't even know they are intersex until a medical exam shows them to be; once again, 'khuntha mushkil' is a very small sub-category of intersex.

The term 'trans', however, is much broader, and it is a mistake of the highest magnitude to equate the discussion in the books of fiqh on khunthā as being equivalent to the modern 'trans' category.

The Shari'ah clearly has the broad outlines of responsibilities of each gender: some of these aspects are obligatory (wājib), others are encouraged, and yet others are permissible and can be negotiated on a case by case basis. Still, overall it is undeniable that each gender has a primary role for which Allah created that gender for; hence the role of the husband is complementary to that of the wife; and the role of the mother overlaps with yet is distinct from the role of the father. Once again, not every aspect of every role is obligatory, but as a base default, we affirm that the Shariah does indeed have gender-based norms. And hence each gender is encouraged to conform to its roles, even as some aspects are negotiable from person to time to place [this is a much larger topic obviously!].
Feelings that are inherent and innate in a person are not sinful if not acted upon. If a man wishes to act like a woman in dress or speech, or vice versa, these feelings in and of themselves will not be punished, and no one should be made to feel that they are any less of a believer for feelings. We all have our desires and wants, and it is in conforming our desires with the Shariah of Allah that piety is established. However, going out of one's way to act on such feelings, and force an appearance or mannerism that is contrary to one's birth gender is prohibited by the explicit texts of ḥadīth, and the unanimous consensus of the jurists.
Gender reassignment surgery is a modern medical development. I am not aware of any fiqh council of any of the schools of Islamic law that has approved of it.
To claim that the Prophet ﷺ accepted trans and gay people and that they were welcome in his house [meaning that he approved of their lifestyle] is a complete and utter fabrication. Hīt is an individual who is mentioned in some hadith literature as being an eunuch or a man who had no desire. Whether he was castrated as a child (which is ḥarām but a common occurrence at the time), or was what we now call 'asexual', (i.e., naturally not having any desires), that is a separate category from the term 'trans', and has nothing to do with cross-dressing or same-sex inclinations. As well, when it was proven that he acted immorally, he was expelled from Madinah.
This post is not about preaching hatred of any individual. We treat all people as humans and give them the respect and dignity they deserve. And we welcome all those struggling with temptations and desires to our masjids and communities and give them any spiritual help they desire, and accommodate them as reasonably as we are able to. This post is about preaching Islamic notions of morality and gender, and about reclaiming the Prophetic image of taqwa and modesty. Those who espouse liberalism and believe in the freedom of all should extend those same liberal values of freedom to those who don't agree with their versions of morality. If you have the political right to act in a certain manner, allow us the same political rights to preach our versions of morality. Preach whatever you want, and your Creator will be your judge, but when you taint the message of our Prophet ﷺ and distort the Shariah to suit your notions of liberalism, then we cannot remain quiet, and we will strongly denounce your attempts to hijack the Quran and Sunnah.

وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ لَتُبَيِّنُنَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ وَلَا تَكْتُمُونَهُ...