Wife Beating in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

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 Similarly, the versions of the farewell sermon found in {{Al Tirmidhi||5|44|3087}}, translated as 'and beat them with a beating that is not painful', and {{Al Tirmidhi||2|10|1163}}, translated as 'and beat them with a beating that is not harmful, consist of the same Arabic words as quoted above and found in other versions of the sermon.
-The ''[[tafsir]]'', or exegesis, of al-Tabari (d. 923, roughly 200 years after [[Muhammad's Death|Muhammad's death]]) for verse {{Quran|4|34}} appears to be the earliest record of the idea that wife beating should be done with a miswak/siwaak (a small stick-like item used as a toothbrush).<ref>[http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=1&tSoraNo=4&tAyahNo=34&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1 al-tafsir.com] Tabari's tafsir for 4:34</ref> These do not appear in the main ''sahih'' hadith collections, but have been of abiding interest nonetheless.
+The ''[[tafsir]]'', or exegesis, of al-Tabari (d. 923, roughly 200 years after [[Muhammad's Death|Muhammad's death]]) for verse {{Quran|4|34}} appears to be the earliest record of the idea that wife beating should be done with a ''miswak''/''siwaak'' (a small stick-like item used as a toothbrush).<ref>[http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=1&tSoraNo=4&tAyahNo=34&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1 al-tafsir.com] Tabari's tafsir for 4:34</ref> These do not appear in the main ''sahih'' hadith collections, but have been of abiding interest nonetheless.
 {{Quote|1=[https://tafsir.app/tabari/4/34 al-Tabari 4:34]|2=I said to Ibn ‘Abbaas, what is a non-severe beating? He said, Hitting with a siwaak and the like.}}
-In Arabic, the phrase 'non-severe beating' is ''darban ghayra mubarrihin''. This is the same phrasing and set of words found in the Abu Dawud hadith and in the various versions of Muhammad's farewell sermon. In his tafsir, al-Tabari also quotes Qatada clarifying that the phrase means ''ghayr sha'in'' (that is, 'without being disgraceful/outrageous/obscene/indecent').<ref>[https://tafsir.app/tabari/4/34 al-Tabari 4:34]</ref> This is in sharp contrast with the translation/interpretation employed in Islamic evangelical discourse, which construes ''darban ghayra mubarrihin'' as a more absolute prohibition, in some instances translating it as 'a light tap that leaves no mark' - a translation that, as a heavily metaphorical interpretation, has no linguistic merit.
+In Arabic, the phrase 'non-severe beating' is ''darban ghayra mubarrihin''. This is the same phrasing and set of words found in the ''Abu Dawud'' hadith and in the various versions of Muhammad's farewell sermon. In his tafsir, al-Tabari also quotes Qatada clarifying that the phrase means ''ghayr sha'in'' (that is, 'without being disgraceful/outrageous/obscene/indecent').<ref>[https://tafsir.app/tabari/4/34 al-Tabari 4:34]</ref> This is in sharp contrast with the translation/interpretation employed in Islamic evangelical discourse, which construes ''darban ghayra mubarrihin'' as a more absolute prohibition, in some instances translating it as 'a light tap that leaves no mark' - a translation that, as a heavily metaphorical interpretation, has no linguistic merit.
-Putting the hadiths together, it seems that Muhammad condemned those who beat their wives as severely as their slaves. At one time it seems that he forbade beating, before changing his mind. It seems that by the time of his farewell sermon he emphasized that beatings should not be severe.
+Putting together, the hadiths suggest that Muhammad condemned those who beat their wives as severely as they beat their slaves. It is also evident that, at least for some time, Muhammad forbade wife-beating altogether. It is also evident that Muhammad then reverted from this position to permitting wife-beating, albeit this time around while encouraging his male companions not to beat their wives as severely as they beat their slaves. This final position is also found reiterated in the various versions of his final sermon reported found in the hadith literature.
-If Tabari's hadiths are to be believed, Muhammad at some point stated further that the beating should only be with a miswak or the like. It is, however, rather far fetched that verse 4:34 can be interpreted in this way. The idea that a husband should attempt to regain obedience from his wife by tapping her with a toothbrush after failure to achieve the desired result by admonishing her and banishing her from his bed is surely too nonsensical to have been the intended meaning of the verse when Muhammad first uttered it.
+Tabari, a source Islamic scholars view as being considerably less reliable than the sahih hadiths, also reports that Ibn Abbas - an individual famous for having resisted the Rashidun Caliph's attempts at [[Textual History of the Qur'an|standardizing the Quran]] - narrated that Muhammad at some point instructed that Men should only beat their wives with the twig-like device known as a ''miswaak''. Many doubt the reliability of this report, which appears to contradict the overall message of the hadith literature, but it is equally possible that Muhammad at some point actually endorsed this view, only to finally adopt the position indicated in the farewell sermon.
-Furthermore, even if Muhammad and verse 4:34 had instructed husbands to use an entirely painless beating on their wives (clearly that is not the case, as well as being an oxymoron), it would still be a humiliation and contribute to the general attitude in Islamic sources that wives must obey their husbands, who can discipline them, and controlling attitudes generally towards [[Women in Islam|women in Islam]].
+Critics have also noted what they describe as the sheer absurdity of the qualification found in the report and suggest that it could hardly be that God would leave out such an important qualification from the verse which, read in isolation, simply instructs men to beat their wives. To do so, critics suggest, would be a serious lack of judgement on God's part. Critics have also ridiculed the absurdity of the practice itself - what is the purpose, they ask, of tapping one's wife with a twig? And why would ''this'' prove effective if admonition of one's wife and abandoning her in bed had proven ineffective - surely tapping someone with a twig cannot be more compelling than either of these measures? Such a practice, critics conclude, is, at worst, a humiliating and patronizing symbolic gesture (having no place in polite society), or, at best, a fiction generated in the minds of later Muslims (that is, 7th, 8th, or 9th century Muslims attributing this idea, retroactively, back to Ibn Abbas) who were having a hard time reconciling the conflicting imperatives of an early Islamic tradition which at once taught Muslims to be kind to one another - and to beat their wives.
 ==Early and Modern Muslim Scholars on Wife-Beating==