An-Nisa, 34

[1] This verse adjudges the role of a husband as protector and maintainer of his wife and how he should deal with disloyalty on her part.

[4] ar-rijālu qawwamūna ʿala -n-nisāʾi bimā faḍḍala - llāhu baʿḏahum ʿala baʿḍin wa bimā ʾanfaqū min ʾamwālihim fa-ṣ-ṣāliḥātu qānitātun ḥāfiẓātun l-il-ghaybi bimā ḥafiẓa -llāhu wa-l-lātī takhāfūna nushūzahunna fa-ʿiẓūhunna w-ahjurūhunna fi-l-maḍājiʿ w-aḍribūhunna fa ʾin ʾaṭaʿnakum falā tabghū ʿalayhinna sabīlan ʾinna -llāha kāna ʿalīyyan kabīranAbdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an (1934): 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.

As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (Next), refuse to share their beds, (And last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them Means (of annoyance): For Allah is Most High, great (above you all).

[5]Muhammad Abdel-Haleem, The Qur'an (2004): Husbands should take good care of their wives, with [the bounties] God has given to some more than others and with what they spend out of their own money.

But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance - [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them [lightly].

[3] In Muhammad's farewell sermon as recorded in al-Tabari's History,[9] and in a Sahih Hadith collected by Abu Dawud,[10] he gave permission to husbands to hit their wives under certain circumstances without severity (فَاضْرِبُوهُنَّ ضَرْبًا غَيْرَ مُبَرِّحٍ fadribuhunna darban ghayra mubarrih; literal translation: "... then beat them, a beating without severity") When the cousin and companion of Muhammad, Ibn Abbas, replied back: “I asked Ibn Abbas: ‘What is the hitting that is 'without severity'?’ He replied [with] the siwak (tooth-stick) and the like’.

Then he said: 'I enjoin good treatment of women, for they are prisoners with you, and you have no right to treat them otherwise, unless they commit clear indecency.

[18][19][20] Jonathan A.C. Brown said: 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'.

[27]The Qur'an is also very specific that both men and women should receive equal punishment for wrongdoings (24:2), and that God will give a believer who does a righteous deed, regardless of being male or female, Paradise (4:124).

Scholar Ayesha Chaudhry[31] writes that many Muslims have this fundamentally flawed way of examining the text, writing that "Despite the potential for such verses [4:34] to have multiple plain-sense meanings, living Muslim communities place these interpretations in conversation with the pre-colonial Islamic tradition".

The late Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Hussein Tabataba'i (1903-1981 AD) provides the following exegesis on 4:34 from both Sunni and Shi'ite sources in his Mizan:Ibn Abi Hatim has narrated through Ash’ath ibn ‘Abdil-Malik from al-Hasan that he said: “A woman came to the Prophet complaining against her husband that he had slapped her.

Then Allah revealed the verse, “Men are maintainers of women… (4:34); so the woman returned without retribution [ad-Durr 'l-munthur, as-Suyuti].

The Sunan and Musnad compilers recorded that Mu`awiyah bin Haydah Al-Qushayri said, "O Allah's Messenger!

[43] The term daraba is translated by Yusuf Ali as "beat," but the Arabic word is used elsewhere in the Qur'an to convey different meanings.

Shaffii law only allowed the husband to use his hand or a wound-up handkerchief (mina malfuf), not a whip or stick.

All schools of law prohibited striking the wife in the face or in any sensitive area likely to cause injury.

In effect, any physical harm was grounds for compensation and divorce since the Prophet had limited striking one's wife to 'a light blow that leaves no mark.'

All schools of law agreed that if the wife died due to a beating, her family could claim her wergild or possibly even have the husband executed.

The introduction to her translation discusses the linguistic and shari‘ah reasons in Arabic for understanding this verb in context.

[64] The book Woman in the Shade of Islam by Saudi scholar Abdul Rahman al-Sheha stated that a man may "beat" his wife only if it occurs without "hurting, breaking a bone, leaving blue or black marks on the body and avoiding hitting the face, at any cost."

A widely used 1930 English translation of the Quran by British Muslim scholar Marmaduke Pickthall determined the verse to mean that, as a last resort, men can "scourge" their wives.

Muslim feminist writer Asra Q. Nomani has argued, Indeed, Muslim scholars and leaders have long been doing what I call "the 4:34 dance" -- they reject outright violence against women but accept a level of aggression that fits contemporary definitions of domestic violence.

[3]Feminist writer Amina Wadud writes in her book, ''Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam'':[1] No community will ever be exactly like another.

[68]Ibn Ishaq has said that Muhammad in his The Farewell Sermon said that:[1] [wives] should not commit any open indecency (Fāḥishah Mubiyya).

If they do, then God permits you to shut them in separate rooms and to beat them, but not in a way that causes pain.Nada Ibrahim of the University of South Australia states that three words—qawwamuna, nushuzahunna, and wadribuhunna—are mistranslated due to the lack of equivalent English alternatives.

Rather, it means a practical action to inspire disobedient women to obey the legitimate rights of their spouse.