Competing Cosmologies
\r\nThe use of Quranic text and prophetic practice to support opposing patriarchal and egalitarian cosmologies illustrates the malleability of these texts as well as the influence of idealized cosmology-driven expectations on the selection and interpretation of source texts. In the pre-colonial period, the uncontested reign of one patriarchal idealized cosmology resulted in generally monolithic interpretations of the prescription of wadribuhunna in Quran 4: 34. No pre-colonial exegete or legal scholar proposed that it was unacceptable, immoral, unethical, or forbidden for husbands to hit their wives. They all interpreted the imperative wadribuhunna to mean that husbands could hit their wives, although most of them chose to qualify this prescription by describing the beating as non-extreme (ghayr mubarri). Still, they were all able to imagine and rationalize a situation in which it is appropriate for a husband to hit his wife with just cause in an ethical manner. Being familiar with intelligent and strong women and witnessing male abuse of power did not make legal and exegetical scholars question the husbandly disciplinary privilege in marriage. No pre-colonial exegete or legal scholar offered an alternative meaning for wadribuhunna other than “hit them,” even though they demonstrated methodological ease with multiple interpretations of other words and phrases in the Quran. Within the text of Quran 4: 34 itself, for example, they offered numerous meanings for terms such as fear (khawf), wifely nushuz, and the second imperative of abandonment (wa-hjruhunna).
\r\nIn contrast, in the post-colonial period, competing idealized cosmologies have led to multiple interpretations of wadribuhunna. Some post-colonial scholars have interpreted wadribuhunna to mean that husbands can physically discipline their wives, while others hold that they may not hit their wives at all. This creative variety is the result of picking one cosmology and defending it against other cosmologies. In all of these interpretations, the Quranic text and prophetic practice are called upon for authority and support. The philological structure of the Arabic text of Q. 4: 34 remains intact, but its meanings are highly contested and shaped by multiple influences. Post-colonial scholars, especially progressive and reformist scholars, display a keen awareness of gender-egalitarianism and also human fallibility regarding abuse of unchecked power. Although there was no room for such considerations in the pre-colonial patriarchal cosmology, there is much more space to interact with these ideas in a world where patriarchal and egalitarian idealized cosmologies jostle for supremacy.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n \"Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition\" - Ayesha S. Chaudhry, pp. 219-221