Quran Comparison: Beating Wives
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Ali Eteraz Posted on Sun Feb 18, 2007 at 08:27:03 PM EST Tags:
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For the sake of our
Muhammad Asad Quran Distribution Project I was comparing the Saudi Noble Quran with the Muhammad Asad Quran on the issue of beating one's wife in verse 4:34.Here is how the Saudi Noble Quran translates 4:34:
Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has made one of them to excel the other, because they spend (to support them) from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient (to Allah and to their husbands), and guard in the husband's absence what Allah orders to guard ( e.g. their chastity, their husband's property). As to those women on whose part you see ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (next), refuse to share their beds, (and last) beat them (lightly, if it is useful); but if they return to obedience, seek not against the means (of annoyance). Surely, Allah is Ever Most High, Most Great.There are no footnotes. No commentary.Now compare how Muhammad Asad translates 4:34:
Men shall take full care of women with the bounties which God has bestowed more abundantly on the former than on the latter, and with what they may spend out of their possessions. And the righteous women are the truly devout ones, who guard the intimacy which God has [ordained to be] guarded. And as for those women whose ill-will you have reason to fear, admonish them [first]; then leave them alone in bed; then beat them; and if thereupon they pay you heed, do not seek to harm them. Behold, God is indeed most high, great!
Note, both* of the Qurans contain a prescription to "beat" women in the event of adultery.However, the reason the Asad Quran is more valuable than the Noble Quran is because it offers a comprehensive commentary at the bottom of the page which The Noble Quran does not, and in that commentary, beating is invalidated.
It is this commentary, running throughout the Asad Quran, which is the reason for our support of the Muhammad Asad Quran. It is probably a good idea to expose more Muslims to commentary on Quranic verses, instead of letting them figure out what a verse means on their own, since more knowledge is better than less.
By reading the commentary in the Asad Quran, the reasonable Muslim will become convinced that beating is not a good idea. Meanwhile, The Saudi Noble Quran, which has no commentary, leaves the average reader with the impression that beating is OK. Here is the commentary at the bottom of the page from the Asad Quran:
Fn.4 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 Hibban, on the authority of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abbas; and Bayhaqi, on the authority of Umm Kulthum). When the above Qur'an-verse authorizing the beating of a refractory wife was revealed, the Prophet is reported to have said: "I wanted one thing, but God has willed another thing - and what God has willed must be best" (see Manar V, 74). With all this, he stipulated in his sermon on the occasion of the Farewell Pilgrimage, shortly before his death, that beating should be 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.
The average Muslim believes in two sources of Islam, the Quran, and the Sunnah, the practice of Muhammad. Both are of equivalent weight in Islam because the Quran asks us to affirm the Sunnah. The Asad Quran, in the first sentence of its commentary, makes it very clear that beating a woman is "detested" by the Sunnah. Most Muslims are very unlikely to do anything that would offend the Prophet's sensibilities. The Asad Quran speaks up. The Noble Quran stays silent.
Finally, Asad's commentary quotes the Prophet's sermon where the Prophet states that beating should be allowed only when a woman has become guilty in an obvious manner. Jurists have historically taken this to mean that only an Islamic court of law can determine cases of adultery. Thus, Asad's Quran also points out the role of the state, while The Noble Quran makes no mention of this fact.
* There is a recent Quranic translation, by Laleh Bakhtiar, in which the Arabic verb translated as "beat" by Asad and others, is translated as "to go away." However, Ms. Bakhtiar's translation is not even out yet. Furthermore, being a "feminist" Quran, it is not likely that many conservative institutions, which is what we are targetting, would embrace it. Personally, I do find Bakhtiar's translation of the term compelling. Until this translation comes out and becomes more accepted, please, abide by the Prophet's Sunnah. Also, people should realize that a person who already thinks that beating a wife is against the Prophet Muhammad's Sunnah, is more likely to accept Bakhtiar's argument that the word does not mean beating at all.
