Sura 4:34

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Sure 4:34 is a verse in Sura 4 , calledالنساء / an-nisāʾ  / 'The women', which in traditional Islamic exegesis of the Koran is regarded as evidence of the superiority of the man over the woman in marriage . Since the 1980s , the verse has played a central role in the Islamic-feminist efforts for a gender-equitable interpretation of the Koran. Traditionally, a woman's duty of obedience to her husband and the man's right to chastise her in the event of rebellion are derived from the verse . The Islamic feminist Koranic exegesis doubts that this is the original meaning of the Koran verse and suggests alternative interpretations.

German translations and Arabic wording

In Rudi Paret's German translation of the Koran , which is based on traditional exegesis , the verse reads as follows (the Arabic key words are added at the appropriate places):

“Men are above women (ar-riǧālu qauwāmūn ʿalā n-nisāʾ) because God has honored them (before them by nature) and because of the expenses they made of their fortune (as a morning gift for women?) . And the righteous women are humbly devoted to (God) and pay attention to what is hidden (from outside) because God is careful (that is, because God is concerned that it should not be made public). And if you fear that (any) women will revolt (nušūz) , then admonish them, avoid them in the marriage bed and beat them ( wa-ḍribū-hunna )! If they obey you (then again), then do (further) nothing against them! God is exalted and great. "

Hartmut Bobzin translates the verse a little differently, which is particularly noticeable in the first expression:

“The men stand up for the women (ar-riǧālu qauwāmūn ʿalā n-nisāʾ) because God gave one of them preference over the other and because they have used some of their wealth. The pious women are humbly devoted, they guard the hidden, because God also keeps it. But those whose unruliness (nušūz) you fear, those who admonish, stay away from them in the camp and beat them (wa-ḍribū-hunna) . If they obey you, don't do anything about them. God is exalted and great "

The Arabic text of the verse can be found here .

Traditional interpretation

Generally, Muslim scholars understood the beginning of Sura 4:34 as a legitimation of the authority of men over women in marriage. Even at the earliest exegetes , the note found on the revelation occasion to this verse. Thus, the verse was revealed, slapped the man his wife, the matter before Mohammed was brought and this then as a referee at the man, the law of retaliation would be enforced. In some versions of this hadith it is added that Mohammed commented on the revelation of the verse with the following words: "I wanted one thing and God wanted another."

At-Tabarī explains that what God has distinguished men with over women is their expense in the form of the bride's offering and alimony. Later generations of exegetes, such as Ibn al-ʿArabī al-Maʿāfirī, usually mention the “lack of reason” of women as an explanation for why men were given authority over them.

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl al-Sheikh , Deputy Minister of Justice in Saudi Arabia and head of the country's religious police, deduced from Sura 4:34 that women must be subjected to total control. Everything else is a "crime against Islam".

Feminist exegesis

As early as the 1980s, the Moroccan suffragette Fatima Mernissi dealt with this verse. She pointed out that there is no tradition according to which the Prophet himself ever raised a hand against one of his wives, and suggested that permission of the Prophet on the use of violence against women under the influence of ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb (controversial second caliph of Islam, 634-644), who is known for his misogynistic attitude.

In the early 1990s, the American-Muslim women's rights activist Amina Wadud dealt with the first part of the verse. She rejected the notion that the Arabic expression qauwāmūn ʿalā implied that the Koran placed men higher than women. Rather, this expression indicates an obligation on the part of men to support them financially during the time in which their wives are prevented from doing their own work due to pregnancy and breastfeeding, namely because the men have the greater financial power at their disposal. In this context, she referred to the English translation of the Koran by Marmaduke Pickthall, in which the expression with qauwāmūn ʿalā is translated as "in charge of". Hartmut Bobzin's new translation of the Koran also takes up this interpretation of the verse. Here the relevant passage is translated as: "The men stand up for the women".

In order to defuse the request to beat women, new translations for the expression wa-dribū-hunna have also been proposed. Some argue that this is interpreted as a “slap on the bottom”, others point out that the relevant verb daraba also occurs several times in the Koran with the meaning “to shape an example” (e.g. Sura 16 : 76) and accordingly this meaning can also be used here. The Iranian-American author Laleh Bakhtiar translated the expression with "then, go away from them", meaning that the verse recommended that men as a last resort in marital disputes do not recommend beating their wives, but rather distance themselves from them.

literature

  • Kecia Ali: Sexual Ethics & Islam. Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence . Oxford 2006. pp. 117-126.
  • Rabha Al-Zeera: Violence Against Women in Qur'an 4:34. A Sacred Ordinance? In: Ednan Aslan (ed.): Muslima theology. The voices of muslim women theologians. Lang, Frankfurt am Main [a. a.] 2013, pp. 217-230.
  • Margot Badran: Feminism and the Qur'an , in Jane Damen McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an . Vol. II. Leiden 2002. pp. 199-203.
  • Laleh Bakhtiar : The Sublime Quran: The misinterpretation of Chapter 4 Verse 34, in: European Journal of Women's Studies, 18, 2011, pp. 431-439.
  • Karen Bauer: 'Traditional' Exegesis of Q 4:34, in: Comparative Islamic Studies, 2, 2006, pp. 129–142. Digitized
  • Muhammad El-Arabawy Hashem: Wife Beating: Modern Readings of the Qur'ān (4:34), in: Journal of the Faculty of Languages ​​and Translation, Al-Azhar University , 3, 2012, pp. 6-50.
  • Mohamed Mahmoud: "To Beat or Not to Beat: On the Exegetical Dilemmas over Qur'ān, 4:34." in Journal of the American Oriental Society 126 (2006) 537-550.
  • Manuela Marin: Disciplining Wives: A historical reading of Qur'ān 4:34 , in Studia Islamica, 97, 2003, pp. 5-40.
  • Center for Islamic Research and Promotion of Women (ed.): A single word and its great effect - A hermeneutical approach to the Qur'an Surah 4, verse 34, with a view to the gender relationship in Islam . Cologne 2005.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Bauer: 'Traditional' Exegesis of Q 4:34. 2006, p. 129.
  2. ↑ Bauer: 'Traditional' Exegesis of Q 4:34. 2006, p. 130.
  3. ↑ Cf. at-Tabarī : Ǧāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-qurʾān ad Sura 4:34.
  4. ↑ Bauer: 'Traditional' Exegesis of Q 4:34. 2006, p. 131.
  5. ↑ Bauer: 'Traditional' Exegesis of Q 4:34. 2006, p. 132.
  6. ↑ You mess with the king. In: Basler Zeitung . September 27, 2016.
  7. ↑ Cf. Mernissi: The political harem. Mohammed and the women . Freiburg 1992. p. 208.
  8. ↑ See Badran 202f.
  9. ↑ See Charles Kurzman (ed.): Liberal Islam. A sourcebook . Oxford 1998, p. 137.
  10. ↑ See Ali 122 and Asma Barlas: Believing Women in Islam. Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an. Austin 2002. p. 188.