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Can it be right to beat ones wife? Does Qur’an or Holy Prophet’s Sunnah allow this? Did the holy Prophet (Pbuh) ever beat his wives? Can anyone quote any instance of this? Is there any verse in the Qur’an permitting wife beating? Yes, generally one verse 4:34 according to some, permits wife beating. The translation of the verse is as under:
“Men are maintainers of women, with what Allah has made some of them to excel others and with what they spend out of their wealth. So the good women are obedient (to Allah), guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded. And (as to) those on whose part you fear ill-will admonish them, and leave them alone in the beds and chastise them. So if they obey you, seek not a way against them.”
This is the only verse in the Qur’an which some hold against women. All other verses exhort men to fulfill their duties towards women and remind them of women’s rights. In fact entire discourse on women in Qur’an is right based and for men duty based. This above verse occurs in chapter 4, which is on women. There is no chapter on men in Qur’an. Qur’an emphasizes equality of men and women (2:228). About 2:228 Maulana Azad says in his Tarjuman al-Qur’an that this is revolutionary declaration of sexual equality 1300 years ago.
In the light of all this how can one think that Qur’an will allow women to be beaten? Now let us come to the word ‘chastise them’ which in Arabic is wadribuhunna. Now the word daraba in Arabic has several meanings. In Lane’s dictionary one will find at least two full pages of meaning of this word daraba of which only one meaning is to chastise. Among other meanings is, according to Imam Raghib Asfahani, a distinguished scholar of Qur’anic terms, for he camel to go near she camel.
Thus if this meaning is taken then it would mean when he persuaded go near her and not to chastise her. And this interpretation is much more congenial to the entire discourse on women in the Qur’an. Qur’an again and again exhorts men to be mindful of women’s rights. Then how can it permit men to chastise them? And even when this meaning of chastisement is taken into consideration, Tabari a highly respected exegete of the Qur’an refers to one hadith in which the Prophet only permitted very light strike with tooth brush or kerchief, and no more.
According to this hadith only symbolic light strike, so as not to injure, is allowed. But in the first place this meaning goes against the spirit of the Qur’an. All modern commentators have rejected this meaning. A Turkish scholar who has worked on the translation of the Qur’an for more than two decades maintains that daraba here means to strike out i.e. if a woman rebels against her husband then he should, in the last measure, remove her and divorce her as they cannot carry on together.
Another women scholar from Iran Laleh Bakhtiar who has translated the Qur’an from feminist point of view and has spent 40 years on this work also disagrees with translation of daraba as chastisement. She says, “After 40 years studying and translating books related to the Qur’an, I realized that something was missing: an objective universal and inclusive translation of the Qur’an from its classical Arabic into contemporary English. Most of the 17 English translations I had seen included some interpretation of the verse making a direct comparison between the English and Arabic extremely difficult. Plus, many of the English translations continue to use Arabic words and names such as Allah for God, which can be confusing or even off-putting to new readers.”
Two things she says about the method she followed is quite striking: she has looked at all different uses of the word in the text in context before determining the appropriate meaning in English. She used computer to create database of 40,000 nouns and verbs of the Qur’an 50,000 particles of speech. This method is most appropriate as then alone one can understand the significance of a word, both as verb and noun. The methodology of understanding the Qur’an which I have discovered is also collating all the verses of the Qur’an on one subject and then inferring most appropriate meaning.
Also, one should always remember no ‘alim (scholar) can avoid being influenced by his/her circumstances, both cultural and political, for understanding the scriptural text. There is no surprise, if the commentators of early Islam understood chastisement by the word daraba in their own cultural and political milieu.
Also, Prophet’s Sunnah plays an important role in evolving shari’ah laws. No one, even the most conservative ‘alim or jurist, has ever referred to the holy Prophet ever chastising any of his wife even when they made unreasonable demands on him. The Qur’an itself refers to an incident in which the Prophet’s wives made demand for more worldly goods which the Prophet could not afford. Let alone chastising them, he did not even utter harsh words against them.
He simply withdrew into a room and did not speak to his wives for a month and then, as per the Allah’s instruction, explained to his wives that either they should opt for this worldly goods and separate from him or live with him and expect their reward from Allah. This incident has been referred to in the Qur’anic verses 33:28-29 and also in 66:1-3 and we find in Sahih Bukhari reference to this incident that Holy Prophet temporarily separated from his wives for a month and then reconciled to them.
This incident from Holy Prophet’s life also clearly illustrates the real meaning of the verse 4:34 referred to above. That when wives rebel or try to become difficult, persuade them, then isolate them in bed and then reconcile with them and do not try to harass them or find way against them. Also the word daraba has been used in the Qur’an in number of ways and in different forms. For example in the verse 24:31 the word daraba has been used in gerund form for covering breasts with head coverings (aurhani). Here daraba does not mean beating or chastising.
Also, the occasion of revelation of the verse 4:34 as described by Tabari and Kasshaf, both highly respected commentators is that one woman approached Holy Prophet complaining that “my husband chastised me without any fault. What should I do?” The Holy Prophet thought for a moment and advised her to go and retaliate. This caused jubilation among women in Madinah. But men were worried and rushed to the Prophet and said how will they control their families if their women retaliated against them? Then this verse was revealed saying men are maintainers of their families and if women rebel, persuade them, then isolate them in bed and then strike them away, if they are not persuaded, or according to Imam Raghib Asfahani, go near them after conciliation.
This verse often quoted by men for license to beat their wives but this meaning is not at all in keeping with the Qur’anic spirit. After revelation of the verse 4:34 women came to the Prophet and inquired if they have inferior status to that of men. The Prophet (Pbuh) replied I will wait for Allah’s revelation. And then he received concerned revelation in verse 33:35, which reiterates that men and women are equal in every respect and that they will be equally rewarded for their spiritual merits.
Thus the verse 33:35 settles the matter conclusively. This is the last verse in respect of men and women. Also, while referring to relation between husband and wife (though the Qur’an does not use the word husband and wife, as the word husband denoted authority but only zawj and zawja i.e. one of the couple again denoting equality between the two) Qur’an says Allah has created love and compassion between them. It also says in the same verse that Allah has created your mate so that you find peace of mind in them.
If Allah has created love and compassion and source of peace in women how can it ever permit beating of wives? Thus one has to take all verses on the subject and read them together to find the real intention of the Qur’an. Chastisement was inferred by the medieval scholars under the influence of their patriarchal cultural milieu. One can discover new meanings as Qur’anic words are pregnant with many meanings, each meaning to be discovered in different circumstances but in keeping with the Qur’anic principles and values.
(Asghar Ali Engineer , Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai:- 400 055. E-mail: csss@mtnl.net.in)
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