Quote:freediver wrote on Jul 21
st, 2013 at 6:03pm:
Muslim (4:2127) - Muhammad struck his favorite wife, Aisha, in the chest one evening when she left the house without his permission...
I think that we have already covered this. A single tap on the chest does not constitute a beating. If I did that to my kids they would probably just laugh.
A strike with his fingers or hand on the chest where a person's heart is was the Prophet's way of making a point to people. It is ludicrous to suggest that this gesture is some kind of beating. THe Prophet would touch people's heart so that what he said would be absorbed by their hearts and sink in. There are many accounts of him doing this with his companions:
Quote:Umar said: "...he struck my chest with his fingers and said: 'Umar, does the verse revealed in summer season, at the end of Sura al-Nisa' not suffice you?"
-Muslim
Quote:Jarir reported that:"...I could not sit with steadfastness upon the horse. I made the mention of it to he Messenger of God (may peace be upon him) and he struck his hand on my chest and said: O God, grant him steadfastness and make him the guide of righteousness and the rightly-guided one.
- Muslim
Quote:Ubayy son of Ka'b reported: "...When the Messenger of God (may peace be upon him) saw how I was affected, he struck my chest..."
- Muslim
Quote:Aisha said: "...One day the Messenger of God (may peace be upon him) said: " He who amongst you spreads the cloth and listens to my talk and would then press it against his chest would never forget anything heard from me. So I spread my mantle and when he had concluded his talk I then pressed it against my chest and so I never forgot after that day anything that he (the Holy Prophet) said..."
- Muslim
freediver wrote on Jul 21
st, 2013 at 6:03pm:
Abu Dawud (2142) - "The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife."
This hadeeth has been graded as unauthentic or weak due to the weakness of a man in the chain of narrators named Daawood ibn Abdullah al Awdi. The great scholar of hadeeth Sheikh al-Albaani mentions this in his book Erwaa Al Ghaleel. Therefore
it cannot be used as evidence in Islamic law.freediver wrote on Jul 21
st, 2013 at 6:03pm:
Muhammad's father-in-laws (Abu Bakr and Umar) amused him by slapping his wives (Aisha and Hafsa) for annoying him.
Yeah slap on the back, which is recognised even in our own culture as a sign of joviality:
Quote:a slap on the back
- praise or approval We gave her a big slap on the back for helping to organize the concert.
dioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+slap+on+the+back
freediver wrote on Jul 21
st, 2013 at 6:03pm:
Abu Dawud (2141) - "Iyas bin ‘Abd Allah bin Abi Dhubab reported the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) as saying: Do not beat Allah’s handmaidens, but when ‘Umar came to the Apostle of Allah and said: Women have become emboldened towards their husbands, he (the Prophet) gave permission to beat them." At first, Muhammad forbade men from beating their wives, but he rescinded this once it was reported that women were becoming emboldened toward their husbands.
The Prophet actively discouraged wife-beating. He only reluctantly allowed non-injurious physical discipline:
Quote:My last recommendation to you is that you should treat women well. Truly they are your helpers, and you have no right over them beyond that - "except if they commit a manifest indecency" [ fahisha mubeena ]. If they do, then refuse to share their beds, and then (as a last resort) hit them "without indecent violence"[ fadribuhunna darban ghayra mubarrih ].
- Saheeh al-Muslim
Causing harm to the wife is not allowed, and the Quran allowed women to divorce abusive husbands, unlike Catholicism where women were stuck with abusive husbands forever. In fact the wife does not even need to experience abuse but just fear it:
"
If a wife fears cruelty or desertion on her husband's part, there is no blame on them if they arrange an amicable settlement (divorce) between themselves; and such settlement is best; even though men's souls are swayed by greed...."
- The Noble Quran, an-Nisaa v.128
In Bukhari we can find a hadeeth (3526) where the Prophet tells a woman not to marry a certain man because he is a "wife-beater"
freediver wrote on Jul 21
st, 2013 at 6:03pm:
Quote:the Bukhari hadith mentioned earlier when you claimed, completely erroneously, that Muhammad "pardoned" (your word) a wife beater...you are perpetuating a lie here.
Only naivete could lead someone to an alternative conclusion.
The hadeeth was only recorded because the narrator considered the issue of remarriage raised in the hadeeth as important. The narrator does not actually mention what kind punishment or reproval was given if any - but just because it was not recorded does not mean that it did not happen