Friday, January 25, 2013

When Muhammad hit his wife

This is a hadith going back to Aisha:
[...] When it was my turn for Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) to spend the night with me, he turned his side, put on his mantle and took off his shoes and placed them near his feet, and spread the corner of his shawl on his bed and then lay down till he thought that I had gone to sleep. He took hold of his mantle slowly and put on the shoes slowly, and opened the door and went out and then closed it lightly. I covered my head, put on my veil and tightened my waist wrapper, and then went out following his steps till he reached Baqi'. He stood there and he stood for a long time. He then lifted his hands three times, and then returned and I also returned. He hastened his steps and I also hastened my steps. He ran and I too ran. He came (to the house) and I also came (to the house). I, however, preceded him and I entered (the house), and as I lay down in the bed, he entered the (house), and said: Why is it, O 'Aisha, that you are out of breath? I said: There is nothing. He said: Tell me or the Subtle and the Aware would inform me. I said: Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story). He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me? I said: Yes. He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you? She said: Whatsoever the people conceal, Allah will know it. He said: Gabriel came to me when you saw me. He called me and he concealed it from you. [...]
--Sahiih Muslim, Book 4, No 2127

5 comments:

Unknown said...

This hadith can be easily clarified.
See here
http://www.letmeturnthetables.com/2011/03/muhammad-beat-aisha.html

JohnG. said...

Hello Abu, and Hello Abdul Hakim,

Dealing with the violent or peacefull nature of islam isn't easy.
There are many violent words in the Quran, and violent facts in hadiths and history....
On the other hand, as soon as Violent sentences of the Quran or of hadits are quoted, muslims apologetics answer that the true meaning isn't the violent meaning.
I read carefully your site Mister Hakeem and thank you for showing many muslim understand the Quran and Hadith a peaecefull and merciful way...
On the other hand we see in the world many violence done in perfect accordance with these same books (Quran, hadiths)...
How to conclude from external view of islam ?

The sole thing I can say for the moment is the following : facts ! facts ! facts !

Coming back to the exemple you took the facts I Can see - despite you interesting and full of promises remarks, mister Hakeem- are the following :
- First most of Quran translation or hadith when it comes to "beat" the women... I wrote beat because in several langages I read the translations done by muslims or scholars of the arab is really the word "beat". It shows (despite the fact that all translations are treason) that it is widely understood as something violent ! Perhaps muslims should have sort of councils to definetively bring soluce to that problem ! I see that as a intra-muslim-faith problem !
- The second thing is that even if Muhammad just pushed Aisha in the Hadith we're dealing with, it was violent... And she had pain ! Undermining what apologists say , muhammad being just a peacfull man....

Well, being not at ease I'm open with the suggestions of both of you.

JohnG. said...

Sorry for the many mistakes : I wanted to make a preview to correct them but just posted my comment...!!

Abu Daoud said...

Abdul Hakim, I think John has provided a good (and peaceful) response to you. I have nothing to add.

Unknown said...

With regards to your first question about to
''how to conclude from external view of Islam''?

The only solution is to see what scholarly tradition has to say.

For example:

There are certain ''christians''
who bomb abortion clinics.
You should look at what the vast majority of biblical commentators and scholars have said about this.

I personally have not, but I am 99.99% confident that almost all Christian scholars would condemn this. (Almost all the ones I have listen to thus far have).

For scholarly Muslims views I suggest you visit
onislam.net




For your second question.
I agree, there SHOULD be some sort of councils to inform Muslims how to understand the verse.
However, I dont think it is fair to say Muslim scholars have done nothing in this regards.
See this lecture from Zaytuna institute's youtube channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDEKJDgXO-U


As for your last question, the website I referenced clarifies that

'''There are more reports showing that Holy Prophet, may Allah bless him, used to do the same pushing and striking on chest to ward off wrong thoughts'''


Doesn't it seem a little weird that if Muhhamed (pbuh) beat Aisha, that she herself said

''''Allah's Messenger, may Allah bless him, never beat anyone with his hand, neither a woman nor a servant, but only, in the case when he had been fighting in the cause of Allah …” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 4296)'''