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Muslim transgenders may perform 'shalat' despite absence of rule
Muslim transgenders, like other Muslims, have the same right to worship, such as perform shalat prayer, even though there is no fiqh (Islamic regulation) to guide how they should do so
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uslim transgenders, like other Muslims, have the same right to worship, such as perform shalat prayer, even though there is no fiqh (Islamic regulation) to guide how they should do so.
'There is a void in the regulations,' sharia lecturer Nur Kholis of the Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic University (Unisnu), Jepara, Central Java, said in Yogyakarta over the weekend.
Nahdlatul Ulama is the country's largest Muslim organization.
Nur was addressing a discussion forum entitled Membedah Shalatnya Waria (Uncovering Transgender Prayers) held at the Waria Al Fatah pesantren (Al Fatah Transgender Islamic boarding school) in Kotagede, Yogyakarta, to commemorate the Ascension Day of Prophet Muhammad (Isra Mi'raj) on Saturday.
The discussion, which was attended by transgenders, local community figures and activists, also coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), which is commemorated annually on May 17.
'Transgenders could be women, so when performing prayers they wear mukena [women's prayer robe] to cover their bodies,' said Nur, who is also a supervisor of the pesantren.
He said that although there was no regulations on shalat for transgenders, the Islamic old school of thought classified transgenders as men behaving like women or vice versa.
'They are like that because something happened when they were four-month-old fetuses in their mother's wombs. Islam recognizes this,' Nur said.
Meanwhile, the director of Yogyakarta Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University's Center for Women's Studies, Alimatul Qibtiyah, said transgenders had been around for a very long time, even during the days of Prophet Muhammad.
'This shows that being a transgender is not part of social construction. Even during Prophet Muhammad's time, he was never said to have instructed any punishment against transgenders,' said Alimatul, who is also an activist of Asiyah, the women's wing of Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Muslim organization.
She said there was no need to judge whether prayers by transgenders were in accordance with fiqh and that the matter was best left to God to judge.
She suggested that it would be better if a regulation was made so that transgenders would have guidance in praying.
Separately, the owner of the Nurul Umahat pesantren in Kotagede, Abdul Muhaimin, said shalat was the peak of spiritualism before God and should not necessarily be measured by fiqh.
He said it was a person's spiritualism while praying and their social behavior that mattered.
'A transgender who prays and then spreads peace across the world is much better than a non-transgender who also prays but commits violence,' Muhaimin said.
He therefore suggested that transgenders choose the most comfortable way for them to pray, be it a woman's or a man's way.
The chairperson of Al Fatah pesantren, Shinta Ratri, said the pesantren had 40 transgender students.
Of them, she said, eight chose the man's way to pray while the remainder prayed like women.
Rulli, one of the students, said he prayed in the man's way, wearing a sarong, because he found it more comfortable.
'I have been told since childhood to wear a sarong when praying,' Rulli said.
