Islam and domestic violence

Use, by country, of Sharia for legal matters relating to women:

  Sharia plays no role in the judicial system

  Sharia applies in personal status issues

  Sharia applies in full, including criminal law

  Regional variations in the application of sharia

The interpretation of Surah An-Nisa, 34 is subject to debate among Muslim scholars, along with the various translations of the passage which can read 'strike them' or '(lightly) strike them' or 'beat them' or 'scourge them', depending on the translator.[5] Quran 4:34 reads:

Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband's) absence what Allah would have them guard. As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (Next), refuse to share their beds, (And last) strike them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them Means (of annoyance): For Allah is Most High, great (above you all).

— Quran 4:34 ^{(Translated by Yusuf Ali)}

Hajjar Lisa[6][7] claims Shari'a law encourages "domestic violence" against women when a husband suspects nushuz (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct) in his wife.[8] Other scholars claim wife beating, for nashizah, is not consistent with modern perspectives of Qur'an.[9] Some conservative translations find that Muslim husbands are permitted to act what is known in Arabic as Idribuhunna with the use of "Strike," and sometimes as much as to hit, chastise, or beat.[10]

In some exegesis such as those of Ibn Kathir(1300-1373AD) and Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari(839-923AD), the actions prescribed in Surah 4:34 above, are to be taken in sequence: the husband is to admonish the wife, after which (if his previous correction was unsuccessful) he may remain separate from her, after which (if his previous correction was still unsuccessful) he may[11][12] [nb 1][nb 2] give her a light tapping with a Siwak.[15] Ibn 'Abbas, The Cousin of the Prophet, is recorded in the Tafsir of al-Tabari for verse 4:34 as saying that beating without severity is using a siwak (small toothbrush) or a similar object.[16]

A translated passage by Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali and Muhsin Khan in 2007 defines men as the protectors, guardians and maintainers of women, because Allah has made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend (to support them) from their means. Upon seeing ill-conduct (i.e. disobedience, rebellion, nashuz in Arabic) by his wife, a man may 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 them means.[17]

Some Islamic scholars and commentators have emphasized that hitting, even where permitted, is not to be harsh[11][18][nb 3] or some even contend that they should be "more or less symbolic."[20][nb 4] According to Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Ibn Kathir, the consensus of Islamic scholars is that the above verse describes a light beating.[13][22] Abu Shaqqa refers to the edict of Hanafi scholar al-Jassas (d. 981) who notes that the reprimand should be "A non-violent blow with siwak [a small stick used to clean the teeth] or similar. This means that to hit with any other means is legally Islamically forbidden."[23]

Indicating the subjective nature of the translations, particularly regarding domestic abuse, Ahmed Ali's English translation of the word idribu is "to forsake, avoid, or leave." His English translation of Quran 4:34 is: ...As for women you feel are averse, talk to them cursively; then leave them alone in bed (without molesting them), and go to bed with them (when they are willing).[24] However, in his native Urdu translation of verse 4:34, he translates idribuhunna as "strike them."[25]

Laleh Bakhtiar postulates that daraba is defined as "to go away."[26] This interpretation is supported by the fact that the word darabtum, which means to "go abroad" in the sake of Allah, is used in the same Surah (in 4:94) and is derived from the same root word (daraba) as idribuhunna in 4:34.[27] However, this translation is negated by the fact that most definitions of daraba in Edward William Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon are related to physical beating[28] and that when the root word daraba and its derivatives are used in the Qur'an in relation to humans or their body parts, it exclusively means physically striking them with a Siwak(Toothbrush) (e.g. in Qur'an 2:7337:93, 8:12, 8:50, 47:4 and 47:27).

Ayesha Chaudhry has examined the pre-colonial Hanafi texts on domestic violence.[29] Her findings are as follows. The Hanafi scholars emphasised the procedure of admonishing, abandoning and hitting the wife. The Hanafi jurists say that it is the husband's duty to physically discipline his wife's disobedience (nushuz). They permitted the husband a lot of leeway in the severity of the beating. While Hanafi scholars admonish husbands to treat their wives with kindness and equity, they do not recognize the principle of qisas (retributive punishment) for injuries sustained in marriage, unless they cause death, permitting the husband to hit his wife without any liability, even if that causes wounds or broken bones, provided he does not kill her. Within this framework the Hanafis emphasised the need of following the sequence of admonishment, abandonment and hitting.[30]

Al-Kasani added that the admonishment contains two steps: gentle admonishment and then harsh admonishment. However, jurists faced a paradox with the abandonment step, since it would cause injustice to the husband as he would not be able to enjoy his sexual rights over the wife if he abandoned her. Al-Kasani ruled that a husband can abandon his wife verbally and not necessarily sexually. This means that the husband can simply force his wife to have sex. Al-Kasani pointed out that marital rape is allowed in Islamic law.[31] Other Hanafi scholars were also comfortable with marital rape. Ibn Nujaym states that as long as a wife is in her husband's house she is entitled to maintenance since he can force her to have sex with him. Al-Nasafi adds that if a wife dies during sex, the husband is not liable. Al-Nasafi also understood this to be the position of Imam Abu Hanifah.[32]

Ibn al-Humam believed that a husband can whip his wife with only ten lashes.[32] However, al-Nasafi put the maximum limit at 100 lashes.[33] Al-Nasafi also ruled that if a wife dies from the beating the husband is not liable as long as he does not exceed 100 strikes. However, if he exceeds 100 lashes then he is considered to have crossed the limit of discipline into abuse and he would have to pay blood money (diya).[34] Ibn Nujaym and al-Haskafi also ruled that a husband cannot be punished with the death penalty if he kills his wife while disciplining her. He only owes blood money.[35]

Generally, the Hanafi scholars envisioned minimal court intrusion into domestic life. The bulk of their legal rulings concentrated on protecting husbands from court in case the wife died at his hands. Hanafi scholars also discouraged public inquiries into the private lives of men. Ibn Nujaym cited two hadith as proof for this stance. One hadith states "Do not ask a man why he hit his wife." In another hadith, Muhammad "forbade a woman from complaining against her husband."[35]

The evidence of judicial records from the sixteenth century onwards show that Ottoman judges who followed the Hanafi school allowed divorce because of abuse. This did this partially by borrowing rulings from other schools of thought and partially by blending abuse with blasphemy since they reasoned a "true Muslim would not beat his wife."[36] A number of women in the 1920s-1930s left Islam to obtain judicial divorce because Hanafi law did not permit women to seek divorce in case of cruel treatment by a husband. Mawlana Thanawi reviewed the issue and borrowed the Maliki rulings which permits women to seek divorce because of cruelty by the husband. He expanded the grounds of divorce available to women under Hanafi law.[37]

According to Ayesha Chaudhary, unlike Hanafi scholars who were more interested in protecting a husband's right to hit his wife for disciplinary purposes, the Malikis tried to stop husbands from abusing this right.[29] The Maliki scholars only allowed striking a rebellious wife with the purpose of rectifying her. They specified that the strike should not be extreme or severe, must not leave marks or cause injury. The Malikis held that a husband would be legally liable if the hitting led to the wife's death. They also did not allow a husband to hit his wife if he did not believe the hitting would cause her to stop her disobedience.[38] The Shafi'i scholars upheld the permissibility of wife beating but encouraged avoiding it and did not hold the imperative "wa-ḍribūhunna" to mean an obligatory command. The views of the Hanbali scholars are a mix of the positions of the other three law schools.[29]

Jonathan A.C. Brown says:

The vast majority of the ulama across the Sunni schools of law inherited the Prophet's unease over domestic violence and placed further restrictions on the evident meaning of the 'Wife Beating Verse'. A leading Meccan scholar from the second generation of Muslims, Ata' bin Abi Rabah, counseled a husband not to beat his wife even if she ignored him but rather to express his anger in some other way. Darimi, a teacher of both Tirmidhi and Muslim bin Hajjaj as well as a leading early scholar in Iran, collected all the Hadiths showing Muhammad's disapproval of beating in a chapter entitled 'The Prohibition on Striking Women'. A thirteenth-century scholar from Granada, Ibn Faras, notes that one camp of ulama had staked out a stance forbidding striking a wife altogether, declaring it contrary to the Prophet's example and denying the authenticity of any Hadiths that seemed to permit beating. Even Ibn Hajar, the pillar of late medieval Sunni Hadith scholarship, concludes that, contrary to what seems to be an explicit command in the Qur'an, the Hadiths of the Prophet leave no doubt that striking one's wife to discipline her actually falls under the Shariah ruling of 'strongly disliked' or 'disliked verging on prohibited'.[39]

According to Honour, Violence, Women and Islam, and Islamic scholar Dr. Muhammad Sharif Chaudhry, Muhammad condemns violence against women, by saying: "How loathsome (Ajeeb) it is that one of you should hit his wife as a slave is hit, and then sleep with her at the end of the day."[40][41][42]

Percentage of women aged 15–49 who think that a husband/partner is justified in hitting his wife/partner under certain circumstances, in some Arab and Muslim majority countries, according to UNICEF (2013)[43]

Scholars and commentators have stated that Muhammad directed men not to hit their wives' faces,[44] not to beat their wives in such a way as would leave marks on their body,[44][nb 5] and not to beat their wives as to cause pain (ghayr mubarrih).[20] Scholars too have stipulated against beating or disfigurement, with others such as the Syrian jurist Ibn Abidin prescribing ta'zir punishments against abusive husbands.[45]

In a certain hadith, Muhammad discouraged beating one's wife severely:

Bahz bin Hakim reported on the authority of his father from his grandfather (Mu'awiyah ibn Haydah) as saying: "I said: Messenger of Allah, how should we approach our wives and how should we leave them? He replied: Approach your tilth when or how you will, give her (your wife) food when you take food, clothe when you clothe yourself, do not revile her face, and do not beat her."[46][47] The same hadith has been narrated with slightly different wording.[48] In other versions of this hadith, only beating the face is discouraged.[49][50]

Some jurists argue that even when beating is acceptable under the Quran, it is still discouraged.[nb 6][nb 7][nb 8] Ibn Kathir in concluding his exegesis exhorts men to not beat their wives, quoting a hadith from Muhammad: "Do not hit God's servants" (here referring to women). The narration continues, stating that some while after the edict, "Umar complained to the Messenger of God that many women turned against their husbands. Muhammad gave his permission that the men could hit their wives in cases of rebelliousness. The women then turned to the wives of the Prophet and complained about their husbands. The Prophet said: 'Many women have turned to my family complaining about their husbands. Verily, these men are not among the best of you."[51]