Spencer makes a glaring error in his attempt to portray Islam as a faith where beating one's wife is given sanction. It's fairly obvious where the error (or crappy scholarship) lies- he relies only on translations of the Qur'an, not commentaries - big difference. See, Spencer will quote whatever he can get his hands on. In this case he relies on his usual assortment of web translations of the Qur'an and he also uses a Geocities web site that has the Muhammad Asad translation of the Qur'an. Yup, that's our Islam scholar, Mr. Robert Spencer, using the best primary scholarship available... Geocities.
Anyway, Spencer notes down about ten translations of verse 34 from Surah an-Nisa (Chapter 4). Most of them say something like "and beat them" possibly meaning a Muslim man can unload on his wife anytime she ticks him off. When most of us think "beat" we think "beat up." Like, I got beat up by the school bully today. We think of a fat lip, a black eye, or a broken bone.
What is the traditional Islamic scholarly explanation of this verse? Meaning, this is the scholarly interpretation of this verse for the past thousand or so years by Muslim scholars, not the views of Zuhdi Jasser or some other dork reformer. Well, we go to Shaikh Gibril Haddad:
"1. Does the Arabic word 'daraba' necessarily mean "violent or intense or repeated striking?"
No.
Jurists routinely use the expression "daraba al-ma' `ala wajhihi" - lit. strike water upon the face, for someone accomplishing the first rukn of wudu' (washing the face).
Also in Arabic daraba al-ard "to strike the earth" - as in verse 4:94 {When you strike the earth in the cause of Allah} - means to travel, i.e. walking with a staff"
Uhm, yea. So - whatever Pakistani men are doing in Pakistan is probably not what Muslim jurists have said this verse means, which means they are clearly sinning if they are hurting their wives in any way. Also, most Muslims I know don't "beat" their faces with water when they're doing wudu - that would be pretty weird.
Also, just to clarify, you can't tap/beat your wife on her face. Haddad again:"Al-Razi (3:222) mentions that as a rule (a) it must be a light beating and (b) the face must be avoided. He added that certain of the Shafi`i jurists said "a coiled scarf (mindil malfuf) (NB: NOT "a folded handkerchief" as mistranslated by Asad) or his hand may be used but not a whip nor a stick."
We now have clarified what "beat" means in this verse. A husband can tap/beat her with a coiled scarf or a miswak (small stick) and the face must be avoided.
So when can a husband do this? Only if she's committing adultery or in a situation where she could commit adultery, like, say, sitting in a closed room with a guy who ain't her brother. Haddad again:
"Nushuz [disobedience] in the verse, as shown, is an euphemism for adultery because her primary marital duty is spelled out in the hadith as "not allowing whom you hate to enter your bed nor your house." Al-Maziri also said that another interpretation of the words in that hadith said it referred to a woman sitting in seclusion with a stranger inside her husband's house. (Al-Nawawi, Sharh Sahih Muslim.)
Spencer mentions Shaikh Syed Mahmud Allusi's work Ruhul Ma'ani. Let us say that the Shaikh is correct in everything he said, that a husband can "beat" his wife for the following: “if she refuses to beautify herself for him,” if she refuses sex when he asks for it, if she refuses to pray or perform ritual ablutions, and “if she goes out of the house without a valid excuse.” Well, what's a husband to do then - he can tap her on her arm or body. That's it. What does this horrible bodily beating signify? That the wife needs to adhere to her responsibilities because she's seriously out of line. That's it.So, let's say my wife hasn't shaved her legs in three months, she refuses sex, she's not praying, and she goes out with her friends to go spend my money at the mall whenever she wants without telling me - what can a Muslim husband do?
Beat her!
Nope, sorry, can't do that. I have to be patient, and if things are so horrible (aren't all wives like that? [bad joke]) then I have recourse to "tap" her. Yea... tap her. That's a hell of a beating, Robert.
Then Spencer does his usual low ball sucker punches on the Prophet, salalahu alayhi wasalim. He portrays the Prophet (salalahu alayhi wasalim) as a wife beater who gives the example for all Muslim men to go and beat their wives. But hadiths like: "Could any of you beat his wife as he would beat a slave, and then lie with her in the evening?" (Bukhari and Muslim) are never explained by Spencer, but are simply brushed aside because they don't fit into his schematic of Islam as a religion of violence.
The most pathetic attempt by Spencer to connect wife beating and Islam is his use of statistics. This is just another example of how Spencer, David Horowitz (his main source of support and probably financial gain) and others blind themselves to the extraordinary amount of abuse American women suffer. From RAINN: "Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. One in six American women are victims of sexual assault, and one in 33 men. In 2005-2006, there were an average annual 232,010 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault."
But no, let us criticize the Muslim world and not ourselves. It's called introspection Robert, maybe you should wonder why our wonderfully modern country has more domestic and sexual abuse than most countries out there. Everyone else should wonder why you have such a virulent agenda against Islam and how pathetic your scholarship is.
4 comments:
the answer is not in statements it is in the deeds, when a kurdish girl is beaten to death an eglish girl is murderd by her uncle, when an iraqi father kills his two daughters in a cab, you need more than just to explain away these acts, deeds speak louder than words,
the fact remains that all over the islamic countries the abuse of women is pervasive, the abuse of women what ever the islam says or allows is not the question at first, the question is how it is implemented and here the muslim can not escape by talking the facts away, muslims pride in mistreating their women, even the educated and the so called enlightened ones, bause of muslim women today in all regions of the world is a fact,period. one does not need study quran, but just observe ,
second if everything wrong done by muslims is not in ISlam then where do all these morons come from and what is being done to teach the correct practice of Islam to the illiterate mases, the muslim leaders and the middle classes and their nations have failed, all they do is make excuses and go on . either what you practice is Islam or something else and if it is something else then declare these people non muslims and get them to shut up and understand too many muslims are only good for making excuses and that only because they fear to speak the truth and expose what true islam realy is
The abuse of women is pervasive in Western society as well, maybe you didn't see the statistics I posted from RAINN.
Where do all the morons come from? Well they obviously don't follow their religion properly. Catholic priests who molest children don't speak for the majority of Catholic priests, so why would wife beating Muslim husbands speak for all Muslim husbands?
I clearly demonstrated from traditional Islamic literature that the verse does not mean "to beat," but could more accurately mean "to tap." But you're right in a certain sense, and I've spoken about this before, that education is needed in the Muslim world to teach people how to be upright Muslims.
The same is needed in the United States - show American men how to be upright men - and not beat their wives or murder them or whatever.
The same is needed in the United States - show American men how to be upright men - and not beat their wives or murder them or whatever.
the fact if that wife beaters in the wwest are more often than not jailed yet in country's like the Islamic kingdom of jordon HONER KILLINGS ARE COMMON and wife beaters are not jailedslamic wife-beating book 15-Jan-04 03:23 am
A Muslim cleric who wrote a book that advised men how to beat up their wives without leaving incriminating marks has been sentenced by a Spanish court.
Mohamed Kamal Mustafa's book, Women in Islam, sparked outrage among women's groups when it was published three years ago...
In his book, Mustafa wrote that in disciplining a disobedient wife: "The blows should be concentrated on the hands and feet using a rod that is thin and light so that it does not leave scars or bruises on the body."
Mustafa - imam at the mosque in the southern Spanish town of Fuengirola - said he was opposed to violence against women and had been simply interpreting the Koran.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3396597.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp3Eam5FX58&eurl=http://onemansblog.com/2007/03/15/the-rules-of-islamic-wife-beating/
you were saying
It all condenses to one thing: people are quick to categorize. Just because some ignorant, illiterate men beat their women to show their strength, it automatically implies that it is common practice among Muslims or allowed in Islam. As is mentioned countless times, such ignorance is found in the western culture as well but it is just ignored when it comes to defaming Islam.
If they really want to make a stereotype then they should observe people who have actually read and understood the contextual meanings of Qur'an and are aware of what Islam truly represents.
Besides as far as the "beating" is concerned, it is clearly said that first the husband should try to make his wife understand calmly and through love and affection. "Beating" should be used as the last resort even after "turning away from her in bed". And the "beating" should be such that it should not harm her in any way and especially the face should be avoided...as mentioned earlier...a light tap.
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