The Mahdi Times The Mahdi Times, Issue #22, September 2014 | Page 19

heterosexual male who is not
attracted to men? D.E.”
Answer:
In the name of Allah, the
Abundantly Merciful, the
Intensely Merciful.

Praise be to Allah.
There is a way to determine the
sex of a human which is the
physical state and whether the
person has genitals that are
fully developed. If the genitals
are masculine, the person is a
male and it is not permissible
for him to have a sex-change
operation. If the genitals are
feminine, the person is a female
and it is not permissible for her
to have a sex-change operation.
However, if the genitals are not
fully developed or if the person
has a combination of them or
other similar congenital
abnormalities, he can choose
the sex and have a surgical
procedure that declares him
male or female. This is the
answer concerning the
jurisprudential aspect.
As for the human having a
feeling that he is carrying a
female within him while he is a
male or vice versa, it is an issue
we can understand from

knowing that sex determination
came at a late stage of evolution
on planet Earth. Life did not
begin with sexual reproduction.
The beginning was with asexual
reproduction and sexual
reproduction came later. It has
several orientations; one of
them is the animal that is a
hermaphrodite, i.e., having both
masculine and feminine
reproductive organs. Another
orientation includes a type of
fish, which at some stages in its
life is male with fully developed
reproductive organs. He
fertilizes, and then in a different
stage transforms into a female
with fully developed
reproductive organs and she
lays eggs. Another orientation is
our case, where there is a male
and a female who are separate
and whose sexes are
determined for their entire
lives. In this case, the foetus has
the potential to be a male or a
female.