Understanding Q. 4:34 in relation to wife-abuse : tradition, feminists and faith leaders

Afifi, Mahmoud Ali Gomaa and Naguib, Shuruq (2024) Understanding Q. 4:34 in relation to wife-abuse : tradition, feminists and faith leaders. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

Qur'ān 4:34 is the verse taken literally to authorize the husband to physically discipline his (nāshiz recalcitrant) wife. A substantial body of scholarship, mainly within Islamic feminist literature, has emerged to resolve the ethical and hermeneutic problematic this verse poses. Much of this literature has been yoked on the theoretical interpretation of Q. 4:34 to mitigate the theological concerns arising from the letter of the verse and its historical interpretations. Theological positions in the classical tradition, perceived to be sustained by traditionally trained scholars today, are often dismissed by feminist interpreters as unhelpful. However, as the findings of this thesis show, in their attempt to eschew stereotypical images of that tradition as patriarchal, traditionally trained scholars do not subscribe to classical readings of the verse. Nevertheless, they dismiss the feminist hermeneutics of Q. 4:34 as secular/western. Building on contemporary scholarship on Q. 4:34 but diverging in aims and approach, this thesis combines i) an exploration of the hermeneutic history of Q. 4:34, from classical to feminist readings; with ii) an investigation of the extent to which these interpretations are/are not deployed in practice, and where polarization and/or tensions in relation to the verse are mitigated. To ground the discussion in a case study, the thesis will focus on Britain, examining the interpretations and practices of UK imams and traditionally trained Muslim faith leaders. The focus of the thesis is, therefore, on how UK imams and Muslim faith leaders read and deploy Q. 4:34 (if at all) in their approach to wife abuse in contemporary Britain. Further, what impact does their context have on their reception of the hermeneutic/exegetical tradition of Q. 4:34? As the research draws attention to the crucial role 'context' plays in mitigating the text and its sanctioned interpretations in the classical tradition, the first part of the thesis is a textual examination of Q. 4:34 as read within works of tafsīr, fiqh, and feminist hermeneutics. This textual part of the thesis redressed the dismissal and lack of in-depth engagement with the exegetical tradition of Q. 4:34, as key to a contemporary hermeneutic of application that combats wife abuse in contemporary context. The second part of the thesis investigates through semi-structured interviews and an ethnography of a two-day meeting of 70 British-based imams and scholars how they read and apply Q. 4:34 in their practical treatment of wife abuse in their communities. The analysis situates their readings and practices in the wider textual tradition explored in the first part. The research illustrates how, in aspiring for a reinterpretation of Q. 4:34 which mitigates its effect on their communities within the context of Britain, imams and scholars often produced hybrid yet novel tradition-based strategies which also bespeak modernist/feminist hermeneutics despite prevalent ambivalence against feminism amongst many of them. The thesis argues that these strategies and interpretations primarily exemplify the dialectic between text and context, and secondarily problematizing the emphasis in current scholarship on a textual solution for wife hitting. In conclusion, the thesis argues that the perceived polarization between feminists and traditionally trained scholars is a sham as they share, in practice, similar views when approaching Q. 4:34. Further, it proposes as a productive way forward that, at the practical level redressing wife abuse, requires a more in-depth, contextual approach in which praxis guides and predicates interpretation within Muslim communities.