1- What is Islam's penalty for a first degree murder? Is it the death penalty? Some people say-that the death penalty is something against our conscience. 2- I have difficulty explaining Islam's position on homosexuality.

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Man is by nature a part of a society. He has to live with other individuals in that society. This living together results in a give-and-take relationship. He then has some relation with them in all fields of life. So, he does not have absolute freedom to do whatever he desires as this goes against the freedom of others, resulting in endless disagreements and disputes that could lead to the extinction of the society.

For this reason, rules have to be established to limit this freedom and organize the relations among individuals to enable all members of society to live in peace and harmony, and indeed prepare the society for peace and its continued existence.

The tolerant Islamic Sharee’ah was revealed by Allah to His Prophet Muhammad and the latter taught it to people. Indeed, this Sharee’ah is complete. The Sharee’ah covers all fields of life and all possible relations between people; i.e., between the person and his Lord, between the person and other people, between the person and the group, or between the group and other groups. Islam is a religion that governs all aspects of life.

The Islamic Sharee’ah is valid for all times and all places. It never fails to address the people's needs or their new affairs.
The Islamic rulings are from Allah to govern man's conduct until the Day of Judgement. Its punishment or rewards are to be applied in this worldly life and in the Hereafter.

The Sharee’ah promotes the well-being of human society and wards off destructive tendencies of its members. Allah teaches us that the objective of the Sharee’ah is to bring only well-being (good) to humanity living under its rule. The retributive punishments (Hudood) are to discipline, purify and for treatment, and not for revenge or quenching anger. These are gifts from Allah to His Slaves. These Hudood also are for deterring others from falling in such bad deeds. They prevent the spread of evil and perversion on earth.

For this reason, the punishment of whoever intentionally takes the life of a person, is to have his own life taken when not forgiven by the closest relatives of the person he killed. This punishment will inhibit others from committing such act and will satisfy the relatives of the killed person. If the murderer is not killed according to the Sharee’ah, the relatives of the murdered might avenge their death and more killings will undoubtedly follow, giving way to much destruction that could be avoided by applying the Sharee’ah. Allah has made clear that the wisdom behind killing the killer who premeditated his act is to enable the society to live in harmony. Allah Says (what means): {And there is for you in legal retribution [saving of] life, O you [people] of understanding, that you may become righteous.} [Quran 2: 179]

Perhaps, whoever thinks of killing and knows that he will be killed will undoubtedly think twice before committing such an abominable act and might not carry it out.

Failure in applying the rulings of Allah contributes to a great number of killings and other crimes in many societies, because they do not inflict on the criminal the punishment he deserves. Instead, they only jail him for civil reasons and pity him, and leave the victim who has lost his life without pitying him, his life or children who have lost their support in this life. They did not have pity on the society, which has become a dangerous place to live in. Everyone is in fear of his life because of these ruthless killers who do not think about the consequences of their acts or concern for their own lives as they are mindless and foolish.

As for your second question about homosexuality, please refer to Fataawa 82048, 89290, 92704, and 81617.

For more benefit that Islam is valid at all times and places, please refer to Fataawa 391360, 91689, 52745, and 9263.

Allah knows best.