Paradise Under Your Feet — Page 184
184 and gender roles. The Holy Qur ’ an does not shy away from these social issues and neither should you. The Holy Qur ’ an refers to homosexuality in some verses, the most famous being in relation to the story of Prophet Lot (as). Homosexuality in his time had become particularly prevalent and ultimately Allah passed His judgment and punished that nation since they were thumbing their nose at the whole purpose of creation and engaging in unnatural acts. Thus, it is not for us human beings to punish, only admonish. We leave that to Allah and pray for our own protection. Children in these ages will realize that society around them is blatant in supporting the notion that homosexuality is completely normal and it is the way some people are. They may be told to be tolerant. Many of our children will face demagoguery and may be labeled as intolerant since they may have a moral objection to homosexual behavior. In other words, our children, who may uphold traditional values, get manipulated emotionally and get taken in. So, in the face of this, many of our children may be forced by peer pressure to give up Islamic principles on this topic, in the hope to avoid being labeled as ‘ anti-gay ’ or a hater, a so-called ‘ homophobic ’. In responding to these situations, it is important to teach our children the real meaning of the word ‘ tolerance ’. Tolerance, in the classical meaning of the term, does not mean to accept another point of view, but rather, as the very word says, tolerate the other point of view without necessarily accepting it, let alone celebrating it. The word tolerance has been completely twisted to mean acceptance. So all human beings, whatever their moral condition is from our perspective, are to be dealt with in a spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. Hate of other humans is alien to us. As the saying goes, we can disagree without being disagreeable. Tolerance is also a two- way street; it is expected people should tolerate Islamic principles on