Wife Beating in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

The caveat, "but not severely", appears also in the other narrations of the farewell sermon in other hadith collections, though the English translators in some cases mistranslated the phrase, as explained in the next section.

#Muhammad reaffirms the command of wife-beating in his parting sermon, albeit as a 2nd resort (3rd  resort in the Qur'an) and "without severity". He did not merely permit it, but commanded it.

It is clear from all of the above that wife-beating has been an accepted part of Islam since its inception. Even if Muhammad had some reservations about the beating of women, he repeatedly indulged men who used physical force on women in his presence, and was persuaded to not only permit wife beating, but actually commanded it for certain types of persistent misconduct.

Ignoring Muhammad's comparison of women to domestic [[animals]], some may point to the [[The Farewell Sermon|authentic farewell sermon]] and his instructions to “beat them, but not severely,”. See the discussion on Muhammad's attempts to moderate the severity of the beatings above. However, what one considers to be a severe beating is subjective, in contrast to an outright ban, and within the context of Islam the definition of a “severe beating” is wholly dependent on what Muhammad or his followers saw as severe. A beating without severity leaves far too much room for domestic violence against women, and later scholars had to add more stringent limitations to further mitigate Muhammad's words.

Wife-beating is divinely sanctioned in the Qur'an and Hadiths, and is viewed as a method for husbands to keep their wives under control. Despite some of the statements made by Muslim apologists, wife-beating is institutionalized in Islam. Muhammad was easily persuaded by Umar to allow his followers to beat their wives. Although there is evidence of his concern at the consequences and attempts to mitigate them, he failed to commit to an outright ban, showed indifference to at least one heavily beaten woman, on one occasion violently pushed 'A'isha, and allowed Abu Bakr and Umar to slap his wives and hit other women.

The article also shows the deceptive means Muslim apologists use to cover up the fact the Qur'an and Hadith sanction wife-beating by using other verses of the Qur'an in an attempt to support their view that Islam promotes equality between men and women, that wife-beating is forbidden and surah 4:34 has been [[Misinterpreted Verses|misinterpreted]]. The problem with their argument is it only reveals the inconsistencies of the Qur'an, and their arguments have been easily [[Refutations|refuted]], by Islamic scholars and the Hadiths. This is an unfortunate situation for women in the Islamic world, who could have been better protected had Muhammad and the Qur'an clearly prohibited domestic violence.