Surah Al-A'raaf: Verse 81 - إنكم لتأتون الرجال شهوة من... - English

"For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." (81)

In the second verse (81), this immodesty has been stated more explicitly - ` Surely, you come to men lustfully instead of women.' Here, the hint given is that, for the natural satisfaction of human desire, Allah 'Ta` ala has appointed marrying women as a lawful method. Now, to by-pass it and opt for an unnatural method is bland ugliness of the human self and certainly the proof of a dirty mind.

Therefore, the Sahabah, the Tabi` in and Mujtahid Imams have declared this crime and sin to be far more grave than other acts of shame. Imam Abu Hanifah (رح) has said: The punishment given to the person who commits this act should match the punishment which came upon the people of Lut (علیہ السلام) by the command of Allah Ta` ala - that rocks rained from the skies and the floor of the earth flipped upside down. Therefore, this person should be pushed down from a high mountain and rocks should be thrown from above on top of him. According to a narration of Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ in the Musnad of Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah, the Holy Prophet ﷺ said about the people who commit this evil act: فاقتلوا الفاعل والمفعول بہ that is, the doer of this evil deed and his passive partner (al-mafulu bihi: with whom it was done) should both be killed. (Ibn Kathir)

At the end of the verse (81), it was said: بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُّسْرِ‌فُونَ (No, you are a people who cross the limits). In other words, their real disease was that they would go beyond the limits set by Allah for everything - in their case, it would be the very limit of humanity they would be hopping over. The same thing happened about sexual desire when they crossed the limits appointed by Allah only to reach for a taste of the counter-natural.

(81)