Is it permitted for a person to change his sex from a woman to a man or vice versa? Please give evidence from the Qur’aan and Sunnaah.
Praise be to
Allaah.
It is not
permissible for a person to change sex from male to female or vice versa.
The Muslim has to be content with what Allaah has decreed, for He has
placed him in a suitable position. He does not know – perhaps if he
was female that would not be good for him, or if she was male that would
be bad for her. Similarly, there are some people for whom nothing but
poverty is good, and if Allaah made such a person rich it would be harmful
for him; and there are others for whom nothing but richness is appropriate,
and if they became poor that would be harmful to them.
Some women
wished that they could be men who would fight in the way of Allaah.
This was just wishful thinking, but Allaah revealed the prohibition
of that wishful thinking in the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):
“And wish
not for the things in which Allaah has made some of you to excel others.
For men there is reward for what they have earned, (and likewise) for
women there is reward for what they have earned”
[al-Nisaa’
4:32]
If mere wishful thinking is forbidden, then how about
taking action based on that? If the Muslim is forbidden to change the
creation of Allaah in minor cases, so how about changing sex altogether?
Shaykh ‘Abd al-Kareem al-Khudayr
Changing one’s sex is a kind of tampering
with the creation of Allaah and following the way of the Shaytaan who
vowed that he would misguide the sons of Adam in this way and in others,
as Allaah tells us that he said:
“and indeed I will order them to change
the nature created by Allaah”
[al-Nisaa’ 4:119 – interpretation of
the meaning]
We
ask Allaah to keep us safe and sound.
