bes@tybalt.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi) (01/29/91)
I received a few requests for this article. So I am posting it again. -Behnam ----------------------------------------------------------------- In article <14502@wpi.wpi.edu>, ken@images1.Waterloo.NCR.COM (Ken Braithwaite) writes: >In the Qu'ran it says: > In wives in whom you fear disobdience... admonish them, and > beat them, and send them to beds apart. >(This may be Surah 81?) >To me this is sexist. Can anyone explain this as anything but >sexist? >-- Ken Braithwaite This is part of verse 34 in chapter 4. Unlike the rest of verse iv:34 for which there are a good many conflicting translations and interpretations, there seems to be a general concurrence on the meaning of this part of the verse. The reason is that there are ahadith (quotations attributed to the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him) which explain what this verse means. The consensus, Yusuf Ali informs us in his note on this verse, is such that "all the authorities are unanimous in deprecating any sort of cruelty, even of the nagging kind..." Another translator of the Quran, Muhammad Asad, quotes the ahadith attributed to the Prophet on the issue of wife-beating and also particularly about this verse. About wife-beating Asad writes: It is evident from many authentic Traditions that the Prophet himself intensely detested the idea of beating one's wife, and said on more than one occasion, "Could any of you beat his wife as he would beat a slave, and then lie with her in the evening?" (Bukhari, and Muslim). According to another tradition, he forbade the beating of _any_ woman with the words, "Never beat God's handmaidens" (Abu Da'ud, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ibn Hibban, and Hakim, on the authority of Iyas ibn Abd Allah ibn Abbas; and Bayhaqi, on the authority of Umm Kulthum). Then further quotes the ahadith describing the nature of the (painless!) "beating" mentioned in verse iv:34 : With all this, he [Muhammad] stipulated in his sermon on the occasion of the Farewell Pilgrimage, shortly before his death, that beating should resorted to only if the wife "HAS BECOME GUILTY, IN AN OBVIOUS MANNER, OF IMMORAL CONDUCT", and that it should be done "in such a way as NOT TO CAUSE PAIN (ghayr mubarrih)"; authentic Traditions to this effect are found in Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Da'ud, Nasa'i and Ibn Majah. On the basis of these Traditions, all the authorities stress that this "beating", if resorted to at all, should be more or less symbolic- "with a toothbrush, or some such thing" (Tabari, quoting the views of scholars of the earliest times), or even "With a folded handkerchief" (Razi); and some of the greatest Muslim scholars (e.g. Ash-Shafi'i) are of the opinion that it is just barely permissible, and should preferably be avoided: and they justify this opinion by the Prophet's personal feelings with regard to this problem. For readers who aren't familiar with Islam, the Islamic punishments for immoral conduct [e.g. adultery, fornication, etc. ] are the same for both sexes. Regards, Behnam Sadeghi P.S. for the sake of completeness it should be said that there actually is another translation of this verse. That's by Ahmed Ali who translates "wadhribu" into "have sexual intercourse with them" instead of "beat them." He goes into a discussion to explain why he believes that's the correct translation. But this translation can be accepted only if one is willing to dismiss as spurious the hadith concerning the verse.