It should be clear that homosexuality goes against the pure human nature created by Allah, by making men content with men and women with women, destroying families, adversely affecting the birth rate, causing the spread of killer diseases, harming the innocent when children are raped, and generally spreading corruption on earth, should be uprooted and stamped out.
thinking of the wisdom behind prohibiting homosexuality and lesbianism, the following can be said:
First, such acts lead to the spread of passivity among the young generation and destroy their morality, since they cannot practice such perversion except after taking some drugs to create for themselves a virtual atmosphere where they feel fake joy. Sufficient unto any person to feel that his manhood is lost.
Second, it destroys the lives of women whose husbands leave them in pursuit of this perversion and they, in turn, try to find a way to satisfy their sexual needs. In such case, the whole society will be no more than chaos.
third, it is a fierce attack on progeny and pregnancy, which increases the human race.
Fourth, the dangerous diseases that are caused by it are unavoidable and fatal. Topping these illnesses is HIV/AIDS.
It is because of all these things that Almighty Allah prohibited homosexuality.
Moreover, it is incorrect to think that a man may be born as a homosexual. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said: “Every child is born on fitrah (i.e., pure human nature or Islam) and then his parents make him a Jew, or a Christian or a non-believer” (Bukhari).
Some homosexuals’ claim that their (deviant) inclination is something they were born with in their ‘genetics’ and nature – just as some people were born with an inclination to the other sex, they were born with an inclination to their own. But the Qur’an denies this when it tells us that the people ofLot were the first to start this shamelessness.
“So you commit lewdness such as no people in creation ever committed before you? For you practice your lusts on men in preference to women: you are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.” (Al-A`raf: 80-81)
Were their statement a ‘natural’ one, some earlier people would have been born with it, some human individuals at least. If it were a natural thing, why would Allah have condemned such thing?
As for saying that condemning homosexuality in Islam is based on Arabic culture not religion is groundless In both the Qur’an and the Bible, we are told that the first people who started this habit on a national scale were the people of Lot in the old city of Sodom which used to occupy the area where the Dead Sea now exists. (See Genesis 19). Let us concentrate on what the Glorious Qur’an says about these people:
In surat ash-Sh`ara’, we read: ‘The people of Lot rejected the messengers. Their brother Lot said to them: ‘Will you not fear God? I am to you a messenger worthy of all trust. so fear God and obey me. No reward do I ask of you for it. My reward is only from the Lord the of worlds. Of all the creatures of the world will you approach males, and leave those whom God has created for you as mates? Nay. You are people transgressing all limits.’ They said: ‘If you desist not O Lot, you will surely be cast out!’. He said: ‘I do detest your doings. O my Lord! Deliver me and my family from such things as they do.’ So we delivered him and his family, all except an old woman who lingered behind. The rest we destroyed utterly. We rained down on them a shower; and evil was the shower on those who were admonished.’ (Ash-Sh`ara’: 160-173)
Let us see now how the Bible depicts this incident. In Genesis 18, Abraham intercedes for Sodom and the Lord accepts his intercession. Then God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah as in Genesis 19.
From these texts we notice that both scriptures (the Qur’an and the Bible) mention that Lot , the Prophet and Messenger of God, advised his people to stop this habit and to return to the natural relationship with their wives. Instead they threatened to expel him and those who followed his advice.
As for the final point regarding “intending” to be homosexual and not “practicing” it, this claim is illogic and unreasonable. The hadith cited in the question is not properly used here, for it means that if one intends to sin, but out of fear of Allah and His punishment, he repents, stops sinning, and cuts off all relations with the wrongdoing, Allah will accepts his repentance and rewards him for being back to the straight path. But, to insist on reviving and nourishing a sexual inclination to the same sex, without combating and trying one’s utmost to get rid of it doesn’t cope with the hadith cited, but it goes in line with insistence on nourishing an evil desire within one’s self, and one day this evil desire may drive such a person to do a grave sin.