Incubation of the beast
Parallels between incest, cannibalism, and homosexuality
Asim Ahmad
Human beings are the most complex of all creation. We combine the vilest and noblest of traits, which consequently means that our species also produces the best and the worst of all creation. We know that to be true because of our belief that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was the best of all creation. As for the worst, its hard to say but the Fir’auns and Abu Jahls of this world would certainly be somewhere at the top of the list.
But how does that work? How are the best and worst of traits reconciled in one species?
Because the human nature is an amalgamation of three distinct components. Imam Maskiway explains, “The lowest of them is the bestial; the middle is the predatorial; the highest of them is the intellect faculty. A human becomes complete by the noblest of these three, by which I mean the intellect faculty. It is by this that he joins the ranks of the angels and becomes distinct from creatures.” [1]
Of these three, the first one, the bestial nature, is the one that is preoccupied with the demands of the stomach and the private part. Imam Ghazali says, “Fornication, homosexuality, stealing… are acts which derive from this inborn trait.” [2] It is what he calls the sifat bahimiyya (the bestial trait).
When one is overtaken by the bestial nature, he gets intoxicated by these vile bestial acts.
Did you say intoxication?
Yes, the word used in the Quran for addiction to homosexuality, for example, is sakra, which literally translates into intoxication. The allusion being made in the Quran is that when someone is completely overpowered by the bestial nature and is engrossed in homosexual activity, they lose their sense of right and wrong and their vision of reality becomes distorted.
Just like the alcoholic who has one too many.
Allah uses the word intoxication to sum up the bestial nature taking possession over the human soul. He says, “By your life, [O Muhammad], indeed they were, in their intoxication, wandering blindly [15:72].”
This ayat is in reference to the nation of the Prophet Lut (peace be upon him). And, I am sure, you know what they were up to.
Anyhow, depending on circumstances and conditions, any one of these components can be incubated into a state that overpowers the other components thus taking complete possession over the individual. Here is an example:
Flight 571 and cannibalism
On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan chartered flight 571 departed from Montevideo, Uruguay carrying a rugby team, an entourage of family and fans, and five crew members on a flight to Santiago, Chile. While flying over the Andes mountains, the pilot misjudged the altitude, maybe thinking the destination near, and dropped the plane for descent. The plane struck a mountain clipping off the wings and the entire tail-cone section. By miracle, the fuselage remained perfectly intact. It slid down the side of the mountain and rested at the bottom of a snowbank.
Known as the Miracle of the Andes, only twelve of the 45 passengers died from the crash.
Exposed to freezing temperatures, foot after foot of snowfall and then a terrifying avalanche that buried the last portion of the fuselage a few days into the crash, fourteen more of the survivors succumbed.
Some of the rescue missions flew overhead, but the white fuselage camouflaged against the snow and the survivors were never seen. After ten days, all search efforts were called off and the world abandoned the survivors.
They were on their own.
Left to their fate, the 16 survivors depleted all the food scavenged from the corpse of the plane. They started eating the leather seats and cushion fills and whatever else they could find that was edible. When that was all gone, they had to make a hard choice. Either they starved to death or consumed the corpses of friends and family.
With a heavy conscious, they cut off strips of frozen flesh with glass shards and distributed them among the survivors. They fed on the bodies for 72 days until two of the survivors finally decided to make an expeditionary trip. It was a matter of do or die, and they were willing to take their chances. So, they traversed up mountains and down steep glaciers for over 44 miles. Eventually, they reached the edge of civilization and were rescued. The rest is history.
The world was shocked. How did 16 men stave off death for 72 days in the harshest climate and remotest territory. The story grabbed the media by storm and many books and movies in subsequent years were based on this extraordinary story of survival.
The relatives of the dead were receptive to the heart-wrenching confessions of the survivors and forgave them, because deep inside they knew that they would have done the same thing in that horrific situation.
This is a true true story about the incubation of the bestial nature that led to cannibalism.
Most of these survivors were confounded about the ruling of their Roman Catholic faith on this one-off matter.
They found out soon enough. After their rescue, they were slammed by the Catholic church for consuming human flesh until the survivors pulled a slick one by comparing their cannibalism to the communion [i.e. a Christian sacrament in which union is achieved with God by consuming consecrated bread and wine, the bread and wine representing the body and blood of Christ]. The church was delighted and the survivors were hastily forgiven.
Islam, on the other hand, has already made arrangements for such dire circumstances. Allah says [in a translation], “He has forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah. But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limits], there is no sin upon him” [2:173].
In essence, the ayat is saying that if one is forced into a battle for survival, he may consume a carcass, the flesh of swine, that which has been dedicated to other than Allah and drink blood. The only condition is that the beast is vested by a debilitating circumstance [i.e. whoever is forced by necessity] that threatens self-existence while the heart abhors it [i.e. neither desiring it] and only takes as much as needed to survive [nor transgressing its limits].
Leashing the bestial nature
The bestial nature must be kept on a leash because it can provoke vile behavior if incubated under the right conditions. No one was more aware of this than the Prophet (peace be upon him)who warned against it on many occasions.
Purpose of the prophetic mission
The prophetic mission was all about building the element of human nature that develops angelic attributes like servitude and humility. The unleashing of the bestial nature thwarts that mission. This is why the Prophet (peace be upon him) warned time and time again against incubation and promotion of the bestial nature.
One such example is incest.
It is taboo but something we must come to terms with since the bestial nature is one aspect of who we are, and so the danger is ever present.
Sleeping under one blanket
Siblings of age sleeping under one blanket is an incubative condition that can wake up the inner beast. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “And separate them [siblings] in their beds [when they are ten years of age]” (Abu Dawud).
Allama Manawi explains, “Out of fear of the dangers of lust” (Mirqat al-Mafateeh).
This hadith opens our eyes to many realities:
1. The Shari‘a recognizes the aptitude of the bestial nature overtaking our normative moral sensibilities.
2. Separation of beds indicates that the specter of sexual anomalies such as incest are more likely while siblings lie together.
But the most important thing to note here is that the Shari‘a in no way denies the potential for incest to happen provided it is incubated under the right conditions.
To be clear: this hadith does not limit the type of conditions that facilitate such acts; it only suggests that incest is possible and can happen if the conditions are right.
Example of Incest
Take the true life example of Grace and Adam (names are changed). They are in love, want to get married and build a family together. Sounds good up to this point. But the dynamic of their relationship is putrid.
They are biological siblings.
Feeling squeamish? Don’t blame you. The topic of incest is upsetting to our good conscious and we have only as much tolerance for it as we do for cannibalism. Though, incest is comparatively more common since conditions for its incubation are more commonplace than cannibalism. We rarely ever go hungry to the point of starvation, but do enjoy plenty of isolated time with siblings.
Homosexuality in our nature
The same evaluation can be made of homosexuality. Islam confirms the aptitude for homosexual activity as it does for cannibalism and incest, and that under the right conditions it too could be incubated into action.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said in a hadith of Muslim, “A man should not gaze at the covered area of another man, nor a woman toward another woman, and no man should be with another man under one cloth and likewise a woman with another woman.”
One gender gazing at the covered area of the opposite gender would obviously excite the sexual desire, but what about the same gender gazing at each other. Would it too arouse the other, or rather, could it?
The preemptive ruling in the above hadith implies that the aptitude in our nature raises that possibility. Otherwise, it would be a moot topic.
Dangers of the permissive society
A permissive society is the greatest incubator of the bestial nature because it normalizes aberrant behavior through desensitization. Take the very example of homosexuality sixty years ago in the United States when gay behavior was condemned. As the Atlantic writes,
Gay people were once policed as criminal subversives, depicted in the popular culture as deviants, and pathologized by the medical establishment as mentally ill. Now most of America views homosexuality as benign. Only 30 years ago, 57 percent of Americans believed consensual gay sex should be illegal. Today, same-sex marriage has been achieved nationally, gays can serve openly in the military, and most gay people live in states that protect them from discrimination.
One may ask that if the permissive society incubates the bestial nature then why is it that homosexuality is so widely embraced while other offshoots like incest and cannibalism are still abhorred. There is no one answer to this question, but we do know that parasocial relationships have a way with changing hearts.
Parasocial relationships are the attachments we develop with characters and roles in movies, shows, sitcoms etc. They are also the moguls, writers, athletes, and icons whom we revere because of their wealth, fame and success.
As more and more writers (like Oscar Wilde), performers, actors, moguls, athletes, and icons, ‘came out of the closet’ at one point in time, American society successively gained more exposure to homosexuality and the process of desensitization not only allowed our bestial nature to unleash itself from our control, but our attachment to the celebrities and icons facilitated indifference toward their perversion.
If tomorrow, a famous actor is caught in the act of barbecuing human flesh, we would be repulsed. But what if a famous basketball player is secretly recorded doing the same?
And then Bill Gates.
And then the dean of Harvard.
And then another.
And another.
Society would eventually endorse it. I know your mouth is open in disgust and you are like, “Hell no, I wouldn’t!”
But that is precisely what everyone would have said about homosexuality 60 years ago. If you had asked the survivors of flight 571 before the plane crash if they would ever consume human flesh under any condition, what do you think they would say?
The human dichotomy
This is a human dichotomy. You and I may swear that we would never, ever resort to cannibalism, incest, or homosexuality but this is nothing more than an admission of self-ignorance. When conditions are ripe, the base instinct takes full possession over the soul and our human sensibilities simply disappear.
The bestial nature resides within our deepest recesses. It is an ultimate opportunist that only surfaces when incubated under perfect conditions. There are too many examples to go around in society for us to deny this reality.
Lesson
Lesson? Recognize the danger of this permissive society that is slowly incubating our bestial nature and turning us into the worst of creation. It is desensitizing us and melting down the natural component of haya [3] that intuitively recognizes and discerns gross from decent and right from wrong.
Desensitization and its effects
One of our teachers who taught his whole life in the insular world of a traditional madrasa in India was invited for a seminar to Canada. In his talk, he confessed his shock with seeing women out on the street.
I am sure most of the crowd found that amusing. If he had any idea what went on here, he would have booked the next plane out. This was all new to him because his sensitivity level to such prohibitions was high, while the crowd around him were mostly born and raised in the west. These things didn’t even cross their minds.
Vampire bite
But that is the vampire bite of desensitization. It purges evil from evil until evil itself seems benign. We all have bitten by that vampire. We don’t feel a thing seeing all the wrong happening around us. Rapes. Murders. Mayhem. Adultery. Fornication. There is no shock, disgust, even sadness and du‘a for humankind. Just plain indifference.
“Desensitization purges evil from evil until evil itself seems benign.”
And that is what makes desensitization the most dangerous. If one is incubated in such a society, it is easy to fall victim to the bestial nature, but even easier to shrug your shoulder and be fine with it.
But there is a major difference: with cannibalism, incubation of conditions does not poison the heart. With a permissive society, it does.
The poisoned heart quickly falls into disbelief. If a person sees nothing wrong with homosexuality, they are openly defying Allah and His beloved Prophet (peace be upon him). Mind you, now a growing number of such ‘Muslims’ are reinterpreting these ayahs according to their own perverted agenda.
That is the power of desensitization and parasocial relationships.
So if it’s in our nature, it’s okay?
Islam does not recognize the argument that ‘since it is a part of our nature it is okay.’ In fact, the hadith already acknowledges that—but if only to disprove it.
While the liberal argues that if homosexuality is inborn, we should embrace it, our deen says that having it means controlling it.
That is the test from Allah. He says, “The one who created death and life, so that He may test you as to which of you is better in his deeds. And He is Almighty and the Most-forgiving.” (67:2).
As humans, we clearly have a natural propensity toward both good and evil. Sometimes, we feel the urge to commit adultery, fornication and to steal and lie, but at other times to be honest and good and righteous. The urge to commit adultery or rape does not give us the go ahead to commit adultery or rape. The same goes for homosexuality.
It means we need to domesticate the demon within for the sake of Allah and earn our reward for it in the Hereafter. Because once that beast is out of control, there may be no stopping it. And that is the crisis of the modern times.
May Allah protect us all.
[1] Tahdheeb al-Akhlaq wa Tatheer al-A‘raq, 1/56
[2] Ihya ‘Uloom al-Deen, 4/16
[3] Haya is the intuitive nature to know what is right and wrong; what is gross and repulsive and what is and is not normal.
