Universality of Quran if husband is allowed to beat wife (2)

Question:
Will you be able (in near future) to take up this issue in holistic manner. I fully accept it as a provision of last reort and similar conditional explanations, but the question is more fundamental. Beating, I mean beating (yes, mildly as per hadith) but it is not an acceptable solution in most part of the contemporary world. It is a Quranic injunction. A teaching for all times and all mankind. How is this provision so astrayed from the simple and obvious human intellect?

I do not ask for a quick answer. It is not about winning a debate. Please respond the basic idea of "beating" and then guide me.

Response:
I appreciate the spirit behind the basic idea of your questioning. If you find that in answering I am trying to win a debate, it's my failure. It's because man is complex. One wants to be fair and truth-seeking and yet there is something inside him that inclines him to win an argument. It is perhaps one of the areas where we need to do more of tazkia (purification of soul).

It is precisely because of the reason that Qur'an is meant for all times to come and for everyone that we find such provisions in it too which are meant for specific situations like the ones that were prevalent in the time when it was being revealed. I agree that the mere act of beating is not quite acceptable now; but what if it was acceptable in another society as a form of behaviour-correcting solution and the ladies accepted it as a legitimate measure? The Qur'an is not suggesting it as a measure for everyone, or for all times to come, or for that matter something that is an ideal to be followed. It has been suggested simply as an extreme measure in some circumstances in order to avoid the bigger evil of divorce, especially if the wife was likely to cause more problems for herself, the society, and her family by being divorced.

This discussion should also lead one to understand the nature of Qur'anic teachings. Some injunctions are general and and some are specific; some are binding and some are not. Each injunction has to be seen in its context and in the light of the choice of words and style of expression to decide its proper role in the over all scheme of presentation. When we decide each and every aspect of the Qur'an to be universal, we land ourselves into trouble. If we accept the reality that some part of the Qur'an was era-specific, we would accept what is real and true.

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