Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
It is not permissible to have sex with a hermaphrodite. It is no more than sodomy which all religions prohibited.
As regards the question you posed, the prominent Muslim scholar, Dr. Muhammad Abu Laylah, the late Professor of the Islamic Studies & Comparative Religions at Al-Azhar Univ., states:
It is not permissible to have sex with a hermaphrodite. It is no more than sodomy which all religions prohibited. Such persons should seek medical treatment to save themselves. This is no more than perversion and a direct challenge to the natural inclination inculcated by Allah in the human selves.
For more elaboration of the issue, Sheikh Jadul-Haq `Ali Jadul-Haq, the late Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, adds:
Islam urges Muslims to seek medication. When a trustworthy Muslim doctor decides that a certain operation is important for a patient, it becomes obligatory for the person concerned to carry out that operation.
Among the religious rulings pertaining to the hermaphrodite is the one stating that it is not permissible for a hermaphrodite to mix with women. This is because the gender has not been determined yet. The same thing explains the reason why it is not permissible for a hermaphrodite to mix with men. In case a hermaphrodite is in one place with women, he should be placed in front of them while when with men, he is to sit behind them.
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Therefore, it is clear juristically that, given his/her yet undetermined gender, hermaphrodites cannot mix with either men or women until after medication, carried out by a Muslim and competent doctor, which will determine his/her sex.
The prohibition of mixing with males or females aims at evading any corruption that may occur in that case.
For more, see these fatwas:
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.