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 How common was domestic violence in the Muslim community? There were doubtless families where it never happened. When Habiba bint Zayd disobeyed her husband, Saad ibn Al-Rabi, and he slapped her face, her father and brother complained to Muhammad.<ref>[http://www.altafsir.com/AsbabAlnuzol.asp?SoraName=4&Ayah=34&search=yes&img=A/ Al-Wahidi, ''Asbab Al-Nuzul''. Translated by Guezzou, M. (2011). ''Context of Revelation'', Q4:34. Amman, Jordan: Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.]</ref> The spouses were cousins, and the objecting brother was Saad’s stepfather,<ref>See the genealogies in Guillaume/Ishaq 402 and Bewley/Saad 8:243, 245. Saad and his stepfather/brother-in-law/cousin Kharija were both killed at Uhud in March 625 and buried in a common grave. This was the same Kharija ibn Zayd whose daughter was married to Abu Bakr; after Kharija’s death, Abu Bakr frankly admitted that he beat her ({{Muslim|9|3506}}).</ref> so even within one family, there was no consensus over what was culturally normal. Muhammad advised, “Retaliation! And there is no other judgment to be held.”<ref>[http://www.altafsir.com/AsbabAlnuzol.asp?SoraName=4&Ayah=34&search=yes&img=A/ Guezzou/Wahidi Q4:34.]</ref> He then announced to the community, “Do not beat Allah’s handmaidens,”<ref>{{Abudawud|11|2141}}.</ref> and “they stopped beating them.”<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:144.</ref> The word “stopped” indicates that there were other families where it had been normal to beat wives (and daughters and sisters, since a “handmaiden” was not necessarily a “wife”). The respite did not last long. Umar, who was “rough and ready … toting a stick or whip, which he was never afraid to use on a person,”<ref>{{Tabari|14|pp. 120, 139}}.</ref> told Muhammad, “Women have become emboldened towards their husbands.” So Muhammad “gave permission to beat them”<ref>{{Abudawud|11|2141}}; Bewley/Saad 8:144.</ref> with the new revelation: “If you suspect rebellion from your wives, reason with them, then desert them in their beds, then beat them.”<ref>{{Quran|4|34}}.</ref> Muhammad explained his change in policy to the family of Habiba bint Zayd thus: “We wanted one thing, but Allah wanted another, and whatever Allah wants is good.”<ref>[http://www.altafsir.com/AsbabAlnuzol.asp?SoraName=4&Ayah=34&search=yes&img=A/ Guezzou/Wahidi Q4:34.]</ref> Muhammad was the community leader and he could have controlled a few men whose behaviour was socially unacceptable. If he felt the need to overlook domestic beating, he must have realised that it was practised by too high a proportion of the warriors on whose loyalty he depended.
-After the new revelation, “in the night seventy women came to the family of Muhammad, all of whom complained about their husbands.”<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:144.</ref> If they came by night, they could not have felt safe to complain in the open. “So Allah’s Apostle said: ‘Many women have gone round Muhammad's family complaining against their husbands. They are not the best among you.’”<ref>{{Abudawud|11|2141}}.</ref> Elsewhere he warned that women who complained about their husbands were likely to go to Hell.<ref>E.g., {{Bukhari|7|62|125}} “I saw the (Hell) Fire, and I have never before, seen such a horrible sight as that, and I saw that the majority of its dwellers were women … because … they are not thankful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favours done to them. Even if you do good to one of them all your life, when she senses some harshness from you, she will say, ‘I have never seen any good from you.’” See also {{Bukhari|1|6|301}} and {{Bukhari|2|18|161}}.</ref> When Tamima bint Wahb came to Aisha for help because she was covered with bruises from her husband’s beatings, Aisha observed: “Her face is greener than her veil. Believing women suffer more than any others!” Muhammad took no interest in Tamima’s bruises; he only attended to determining why her marriage had apparently never been consummated.<ref>{{Bukhari|7|72|715}}; Bewley/Saad 8:295.</ref> He also had no recorded reaction to Aisha’s complaint that pagans treated their wives better than Muslims did.
+After the new revelation, “in the night 70 women came to the family of Muhammad, all of whom complained about their husbands.”<ref>Bewley/Saad 8:144.</ref> If they came by night, they could not have felt safe to complain in the open. “So Allah’s Apostle said: ‘Many women have gone round Muhammad's family complaining against their husbands. They are not the best among you.’”<ref>{{Abudawud|11|2141}}.</ref> Elsewhere he warned that women who complained about their husbands were likely to go to Hell.<ref>E.g., {{Bukhari|7|62|125}} “I saw the (Hell) Fire, and I have never before, seen such a horrible sight as that, and I saw that the majority of its dwellers were women … because … they are not thankful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favours done to them. Even if you do good to one of them all your life, when she senses some harshness from you, she will say, ‘I have never seen any good from you.’” See also {{Bukhari|1|6|301}} and {{Bukhari|2|18|161}}.</ref> When Tamima bint Wahb came to Aisha for help because she was covered with bruises from her husband’s beatings, Aisha observed: “Her face is greener than her veil. Believing women suffer more than any others!” Muhammad took no interest in Tamima’s bruises; he only attended to determining why her marriage had apparently never been consummated.<ref>{{Bukhari|7|72|715}}; Bewley/Saad 8:295.</ref> He also had no recorded reaction to Aisha’s complaint that pagans treated their wives better than Muslims did.
-In fact, there is no evidence that Muhammad believed that it was ''intrinsically'' wrong for a man to strike a woman, child or subordinate. In his Farewell Sermon he only cautioned that wife-beating must be for some reason, in which case “Allah permits you to shut them in separate rooms and to beat them, but not severely … Treat women well, for they are domestic animals with you and do not possess anything for themselves.”<ref>{{Tabari|9|p. 113}}.</ref> Nor did he enlarge on what he meant by “not severely”, but he apparently permitted something more than a sharp slap, for he advised: “Hang your whip where the members of the household can see it, for that will discipline them.”<ref>Al-Tabarani 10:248. A similar ''hadith'' is recorded in Al-Zamkhshari, ''The Revealer'' vol. 1, p. 525: “Hang up your whip where your wife can see it.”</ref> He confirmed a man’s right to do as he liked in the privacy of his home: “A man will not be asked why he has beaten his wife.”<ref>{{Abudawud|11|2142}}.</ref> Muhammad said that his two favourite friends were Abu Bakr and Umar,<ref>{{Bukhari|5|57|14}}.</ref> and “he was always saying, ‘I, Abu Bakr and Umar were there’ or ‘did something’ or ‘went somewhere’.”<ref>{{Bukhari|5|57|26}}.</ref> He appointed Abu Bakr as his successor,<ref>{{Bukhari|9|89|324}}.</ref> and nobody was surprised when Umar succeeded Abu Bakr.<ref>[http://answering-islam.org/Books/Muir/Caliphate/chap11.htm/ Muir, W. (1924). ''The Caliphate: its Rise, Decline, and Fall from Original Sources'', 2nd Ed., pp. 77, 78, 82. Edinburgh: John Grant.]</ref> Umar was so violent that even the dying Abu Bakr advised him, “Temper severity with mildness.”<ref>[http://answering-islam.org/Books/Muir/Caliphate/chap11.htm/ Muir (1924), p. 78.]</ref> Yet it does not seem to have crossed Muhammad’s mind that his friends’ violence rendered them unfit for leadership.
+In fact, there is no evidence that Muhammad believed that it was ''intrinsically'' wrong for a man to strike a woman, child or subordinate. In his [[Farewell Sermon]] he only cautioned that wife-beating must be for some reason, in which case “Allah permits you to shut them in separate rooms and to beat them, but not severely … Treat women well, for they are domestic animals with you and do not possess anything for themselves.”<ref>{{Tabari|9|p. 113}}.</ref> Nor did he enlarge on what he meant by “not severely”, but he apparently permitted something more than a sharp slap, for he advised: “Hang your whip where the members of the household can see it, for that will discipline them.”<ref>Al-Tabarani 10:248. A similar ''hadith'' is recorded in Al-Zamkhshari, ''The Revealer'' vol. 1, p. 525: “Hang up your whip where your wife can see it.”</ref> He confirmed a man’s right to do as he liked in the privacy of his home: “A man will not be asked why he has beaten his wife.”<ref>{{Abudawud|11|2142}}.</ref> Muhammad said that his two favourite friends were Abu Bakr and Umar,<ref>{{Bukhari|5|57|14}}.</ref> and “he was always saying, ‘I, Abu Bakr and Umar were there’ or ‘did something’ or ‘went somewhere’.”<ref>{{Bukhari|5|57|26}}.</ref> He appointed Abu Bakr as his successor,<ref>{{Bukhari|9|89|324}}.</ref> and nobody was surprised when Umar succeeded Abu Bakr.<ref>[http://answering-islam.org/Books/Muir/Caliphate/chap11.htm/ Muir, W. (1924). ''The Caliphate: its Rise, Decline, and Fall from Original Sources'', 2nd Ed., pp. 77, 78, 82. Edinburgh: John Grant.]</ref> Umar was so violent that even the dying Abu Bakr advised him, “Temper severity with mildness.”<ref>[http://answering-islam.org/Books/Muir/Caliphate/chap11.htm/ Muir (1924), p. 78.]</ref> Yet it does not seem to have crossed Muhammad’s mind that his friends’ violence rendered them unfit for leadership.
 Later generations of Muslims have too often inferred from all this that, although Muhammad discouraged wife-beating, this was one of those impossible ideals to which no ordinary Muslim could reasonably aspire. A 2013 study by Dr Lateefa Latif is said to have found that nearly half of Saudi women were being beaten by their husbands, fathers, brothers and even their sons, who used their hands, sticks, head-covers and sharp objects.<ref>[http://www.emirates247.com/crime/region/nearly-half-saudi-women-are-beaten-at-home-2013-02-26-1.496510/ “Nearly half Saudi women are beaten at home”] in ''Emirates 24/7'', 26 February 2013.</ref> Leaders of six Swedish mosques in 2012 advised beaten wives not to report their husbands to the police.<ref>[http://www.thelocal.se/40866/20120516/ Mosques’ advice: ‘don’t report abusive husbands’]. ''The Local'', 16 May 2012.</ref>