Beating Women is Forbidden in Islam

 

 This chapter written by Ahmed Al-Amir & Tsekoura Vivian

Introduction

All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord all of the worlds, Who sent Muhammad as a Messenger of glad tidings and as a warner, as well as to call the whole world to the Path of Allah, and as a bright light. May Allah’s Blessings and peace be upon him, his family and his Companions.

This chapter was written as an answer to the claims of many people who are deceived and misled by Satan. The matter of beating women in Islam has been discussed in many gatherings and there are many websites addressing that matter, without understanding or having knowledge about this, and some of the enemies of Islam unjustly invent lies on that matter. They invent words that have neither roots nor branches, they are completely baseless. Therefore, I would like to put in the generous reader’s hands the attitude of Islam on beating women and its differentiation with the attitudes of other religions, since Islam is the only religion that states the forbiddance of beating women, either young or older. So, I present for you the details of the matter, and then you can judge, after you have acquired knowledge and understanding on the matter.

 

Did Allah’s Messenger ever beat any of his wives?

 

The Prophet is the good example which all Muslims should follow, as Allah the Exalted has ordered them to. Allah, the Exalted, says:

“Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah (Muhammad) you have a good example to follow, for whomever hopes for (the Meeting with) Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much.” (33:21)

Allah, the Exalted, also described the noble Messenger’s morals, saying in the Qur’an:

“And Verily, you (O Muhammad) are on an exalted (standard of) character.” (68:4)

 The Prophet applied his good morals in practice, from which people learned how to treat other people. The Prophet said: “Verily, I was not sent but to perfect and complete the best ethics.” (Malik in Al-Muata’ & Al-Bukhari in Al-Adab Al- Mufrad & in As-Silsilah As-Sahiha No. 45)

Do we then read in the Prophet’s biography or in his words (Ahadith) anything that shows that the Prophet has ever beaten any woman or any child? Or do we even find in his enemies’ words who lived during his time and saw him and heard him, any claim that would blame him for such a thing? And let us look upon Aisha, the Prophet’s wife, and what she said about him after his death, to see what kind of a husband he was:

“His character was the Qur’an.” (Ahmad & Sahih Al-Gami No. 4811)

“Messenger of Allah  never hit anything with his hand neither a servant nor a woman.” (Muslim)

 And let us look at the words of the Prophet’s servant, Anas bin Malik:

: “I remained in the service of the Messenger of Allah for ten years. He never once told me ‘Oof’. When I did something, he never asked me, why did you do so? When I did not do a certain task, he never asked me why I did not do it. And the Messenger of Allah had the best character among all people. (and also possessed the most excellent features, so much so,) that I never felt a silk cloth, nor pure silk, nor any other thing softer than the palm (of the hand) of the Messenger of Allah. Nor did I smell any musk or any other fragrance, more sweet smelling than the sweat of the Messenger of Allah.” (Muslim & At-Tirmidhi)

 

The thesis of Islam about beating women:   Is it allowed or forbidden in Islam?

 

The sources of the Islamic Law are the Verses of the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, and based on these two we will arrive at the judgment of Islam on beating women and in their light you, dear reader, can decide in which category of acts one should place beating women. That is, the category of the obligatory, the preferable, the permissible, the repugnant or the forbidden?

Iyas bin Abd Allah said that the Messenger of Allah said:

“Do not beat women”, then (some other time, after the Prophet had forbidden beating women) ‘Umar ibn Al- Khattab came to the Prophet, saying to him: “Women overcame their men, disobeying them and treating them with arrogance and bad manner.” Then the Prophet gave them permission to beat them (making an exception for such cases). After that many women came to the Prophet’s wives complaining about their husbands. And then the Prophet said: “Many women have come to Muhammad’s wives complaining about their husbands, those men are not the best among you.” (Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, Ad-Darmi & Al-Albani reported it as Sahih)

 

From an analysis of this Hadith we can conclude the following:

 This hadith (saying of the Prophet) includes three different sayings of the Prophet, which he said on three different occasions and not only on one, single occasion.

The first occasion:

The Prophet said “Do not beat women.”, and here ends the first occasion. Therefore, whoever heard these words from the Messenger of Allah learnt with certainty that the Islamic view on beating women was that it is forbidden and that whoever does it is a sinner, since he has violated the Prophet’s command.

According to the above, I address my response to you, dear reader. If you were there during that time and heard the Messenger of Allah say, “Do not beat women” would you say that beating women, according to the Islamic Law, is obligatory, preferable, permissible, repugnant or forbidden? And would you consider that whoever did it would be rewarded or considered a sinner? And would you say that Islam oppresses women and allows beating them?

The second occasion:

 Now, let us move on to the second part of the hadith, in which ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab came to the Prophet, meaning that this happened on another occasion than when the Prophet said: “Do not beat women.” ‘Umar came to complain about the women, saying: “Women overcame their men, disobeying them and treating them with arrogance and a bad manner.” Here and only here, as an exception, the Prophet , taking into consideration the realistic circumstances of life, gave permission to beat one’s wife, but ONLY in such circumstances. But how should this beating be? This will be explained later on.

The third occasion:

Now, let us move on to the third part of the hadith. (After that many women came to the wives of the Prophet complaining about their husbands. And then the Prophet said: “Many women have come to Muhammad’s wives complaining about their husbands, those men are not the best among you.”). Here lies the final judgment about beating women in Islam, that it is a repugnant or a forbidden deed if the husband transgresses the limits set by Allah, which will be explained later on.

Do you understand from this hadith that the Messenger of Allah commended whosoever beats his wife? Or did he encourage that one beats his wife? Or did he reprove whosoever beats his wife?!!! The Prophet’s Companions rushed to receive the pleasure of Allah’s Messenger. And that is why they knew with certainty that he who beats his wife is not the one to receive the Messenger’s pleasure, quite the opposite. That is, he who does not beat his wife and forgives her mistakes is the one who will receive the pleasure of the Messenger. And without any doubt, any deed that the Prophet hated goes to the category of the repugnant acts, or even the forbidden ones.

Can beating women be moved from the category of the repugnant to that of the forbidden?

We saw that the basis for this subject in Islam and the first judgment of Islam about beating women makes the action forbidden. Then the action moved to the category of the permissible acts for some specific reasons, and finally it was moved to the category of the repugnant. But when does beating women become forbidden? It is a forbidden action if it is an unjust transgression, without any reason, since every form of unjust transgression is forbidden in Islam. Allah, the Exalted, said in His Wise Book, warning against any form of injustice:

“And whoever among you commits injustice (i.e. sets up rivals to Allah), We shall make him taste a great torment.” (25: 19)

 Allah also said:

“And the unjust will have neither any Wali (Protector, Guardian), nor any Supporter.” (42:8)

“Fear and abstain from injustice (and oppression). Verily, injustice will turn into excessive darkness in the Day of Judgment.” (Muslim)

Allah’s Messenger also said:

“Fear the supplication of the oppressed, as there is no screen between it and Allah.” (Al-Bukhari)

 The Prophet also said:

“Fear the supplication of the oppressed, even if he is a disbeliever, as there is no screen for it (between itself and Allah).” (Ahmad & Al-Albani reported it as Sahih)

 In addition, Islam did not only forbid hurting one’s wife physically, but even verbally. Allah, the Exalted, says:

 “Verily, those who accuse chaste women, who never even think of anything touching their chastity and are good believers are cursed in this life and in the Hereafter, and for them will be a great torment.” (24:23)

 Allah, the Exalted, also says:

“And those who annoy believing men and women undeservedly, they bear (on themselves) the crime of slander and plain sin.” (33:58)

The Prophet of Allah also said:

 “The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the people are safe, and the believer is the one from whom the people’s lives and wealth are safe.” (An-Nasa’i)

And notice that in the previous hadith the Prophet said that people are safe from the hand and the tongue of a Muslim. He did not say that Muslims are safe.

Therefore, the one who claims that Islam encourages injustice or beating women invents a great slander and an enormous lie.

 

The judgment of an Islamic court concerning the beating of women

 

Now, it is best to move on to the practical implementation of the subject to the everyday life by an Islamic court, namely to see the judgment of an Islamic court in a case of beating women. Islamic courts address this issue with much seriousness, protecting the rights of women and judging against the men who beat their wives. Here is an example.

The newspaper Riyadh published the following news item on its website on December 12th, 2012:

 “The court of the town Al-Katif in Saudi Arabia sentenced a husband who had beaten his wife to 30 lashes in public view, so as for him to be an example for anyone else who may do the same act in the future. The judge also ordered the man to attend a ten-day seminar at an institute specialized in the art of treating women and family issues and finally to pass a written examination, the results of which would be attached to the case file.”

Similarly, all the courts in all the Islamic countries convict any man who beats his wife. The funny thing is that some women take advantage of this and intimidate or threaten their husbands. When they want to take revenge for something, they lightly hurt themselves and then falsely report to the authorities that their husbands did that, although the men are innocent!

The conclusion from the above case is that no sensible Muslim, who follows the teachings of Islam, does accept any injustice towards his wife, and that Islam, our religion, neither taught us, nor ordered us to do anything like this. On the contrary, Islam has prohibited all forms of injustice and has ordered forgiveness, patience, tolerance and confrontation of evil with goodness. And we should know that Islam has not made the beating of women a permissible act but made it an exception for some individual cases in which there is nothing else to be done. Moreover, it surrounded it with specific conditions in order for this to happen very rarely and only to achieve a specific purpose, which is the protection of the home and morality in the society in general.

 

REFERENCE:
Book: “Women in Islam & Refutation of some common Misconceptions”
by Dr. Abdur Rahman bin Abdul Kareem Al- Sheha

Translated by: Abu Salman Deya ud-Deen Eberle.