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Summary
- Qur’an 4:34 lists three measures for a husband who fears his wife’s nushuz (disobedience): admonish her, leave her bed, and wadribuhunna, usually translated “strike them” or “beat them.”
- Classical commentators and jurists read the verse as permitting a last-resort blow that must not injure or touch the face; the Shafi’i school classed it as discouraged (makruh).
- Some hadith discourage striking wives (Sahih al-Bukhari 5204; Sunan Abi Dawud 2146), while others, such as the Farewell Sermon in Sahih Muslim 1218, allow chastisement “but not severely.”
- Modern Muslim positions range from a restricted permission and a symbolic gesture to readings of daraba as “turn away,” “separate” or “have sex with them.”
- Translators differ: Pickthall has “scourge them,” Abdel Haleem “then hit them,” Ahmed Ali “go to bed with them” and Laleh Bakhtiar “go away from them.”
- The New Testament tells husbands to love their wives and not to be harsh with them (Ephesians 5:25; Colossians 3:19), and the U.S. Catholic bishops call violence against women “never justified.”
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Qur’an 4:34, 4:35 and 30:21 in the Saheeh International, M. Pickthall, A. Yusuf Ali, Al-Hilali and Khan, T. Usmani, M. A. S. Abdel Haleem and Fadel Soliman translations, Quran.com. https://quran.com/4:34
- Kecia Ali, “Understanding a Difficult Verse, Qur’an 4:34,” with the pages “May a man strike his wife?”, “What is nushuz?”, “Men’s Nushuz” and “Translations of Qur’an 4:34” (including Ahmed Ali, Al-Qur’an: A Contemporary Translation, Princeton University Press, 1988), The Feminist Sexual Ethics Project, Brandeis University, revised 2003. https://www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/muslim/diff-verse.html (archived copies: https://web.archive.org/web/20250908113445/https://www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/muslim/diff-verse.html, https://web.archive.org/web/2011/http://www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/muslim/mus-essays/mus-ess-diffverse2.html, https://web.archive.org/web/2011/http://www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/muslim/mus-essays/mus-ess-diffverse-nushuz.html and https://web.archive.org/web/2011/http://www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/muslim/mus-essays/mus-ess-diffverse-transl.html)
- “A new look at a holy text,” Chicago Tribune, 10 April 2007 (Laleh Bakhtiar, The Sublime Quran; dates of the Pickthall and Yusuf Ali translations). https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/04/10/a-new-look-at-a-holy-text/
- Mariam Noor, “Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition: A Book Review,” LUMS Law Journal 3, no. 1 (2016), reviewing Ayesha S. Chaudhry, Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2013). https://sahsol.lums.edu.pk/sites/default/files/2022-09/domestic_violence_and_the_islamic_tradition.pdf
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir (abridged English translation) on Qur’an 4:34, Quran.com. https://quran.com/4:34/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir
- Abul A’la Maududi, Towards Understanding the Qur’an (Tafhim al-Qur’an), commentary on 4:34–35, Islamic Foundation UK, Islamicstudies.info. https://islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=4&verse=34&to=35
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5204 and 5825; Sahih Muslim 974, 1218 and 2328; Sunan Abi Dawud 2146 and 2147 (with al-Albani’s gradings); Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 3895. English translations as given at Hadith Unlocked. https://hadithunlocked.com/bukhari:5204
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, When I Call for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women (1992; revised 2002). https://www.usccb.org/topics/marriage-and-family-life-ministries/when-i-call-help-pastoral-response-domestic-violence
- Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version (Ephesians 5:25; Colossians 3:19; 1 Peter 3:7).
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