Wife Beating in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

Professor Jonathan Brown says that Quran commentaries from the 9th century include a narration about the occasion of revelation of Q 4:34, with a chain considered too weak for the canonical hadith collections. In the various versions of this story, a man complains to Muhammad about his son-in-law beating his wife, the man's daughter. Muhammad grants him permission for reprisal, whereupon the verse is immediately sent down. It ends with Muhammad saying, "I wanted one thing and God wanted another. And God wants what is best."<ref>Jonathan A. C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', London: Oneworld Publications, 2014, p. 275</ref> See the section on Azbab an-Nazuul in the article [[Wife Beating in the Qur'an]] for quotes from the sira literature of this narration, which seems intended to exonerate Muhammad. A hadith collected by Abu Dawud (see below) in which 'Umar influenced Muhammad to permit wife beating, may suggest an alternative background to the verse.

Unlike the traditional occasion of revelation for Q. 4:34 which appeared in commentaries from the 9th century CE (discussed above), there is some hadith evidence that the wife beating verse may have been a result of pressure from 'Umar, or at least there is an intention in the hadith to exonerate Muhammad who is portrayed as reluctantly agreeing to permit wife beating. 'Umar, who would became the second rightly guided Caliph, is also recorded slapping Muhammad's wife Hafsa and striking his own wife, and on yet another occasion telling a man to beat his wife after she tried to stop him having intercourse with (raping) a slave girl. Hadiths suggest a general pattern of 'Umar's violence towards and interest in controlling women. The revelation of the Verse of Hijab ({{Quran|33|53}} is even more explicitly linked to pressure from 'Umar (see the article [[Hijab]]).