In surah Nisa (please correct me if I am wrong), the beating of women is justified. Very few scholars I have come across who are against this understanding of surah Nisa. I also failed to understand why Quran is in support of this act. My mother and grandmother are always trying to give me explanation that this beating concept of Quran is for those women who are married but unfaithful to their husbands. But whose gonna check the husband? If a man is an adulterer who is going to beat him?
You have seen on television last month that how a woman was beaten brutally in front of media by her husband and brother in law. If we believe Surah Nisa, this heinous act is acceptable in Islam.
What is your understanding on beating of women by their husbands?
Answer
The mention of beating up of women in surah al-Nisa carries the following conditions: i) It can only be done by a husband to his wife; ii) the husband can do it only in case if the wife is guilty of as serious a crime as creating conditions of revolt against him (nushuz); iii) the husband cannot beat up his wife unless he satisfies the first two conditions mentioned in the verse: counselling her and, in cause it fails, not sharing bedroom with her.
What I understand from the above conditions is that a husband too cannot beat up his wife simply because he has been angered by her. He cannot hit her unless he has satisfied the first two conditions, which would normally take a few days if not weeks or months to complete. There is no question of anyone other than a husband resorting to beating up a woman.
The kind of beating allowed to a husband is, according to a hadith, not supposed to be hard. It should not leave any mark on her body. In other words, it can only be mild pat to make the wife realise that she’s behaving improperly.
The converse possibility of allowing wives to beat up husbands wouldn’t be possible because it would disturb the husband-wife relationship envisaged by Islam wherein the husband has a slight administrative edge over his wife. Also, in most cases, being inferior in strength, a wife’s cause wouldn’t be hugely served if she resorts to beating up her husband.