“The best of you will not strike”
Al-Shafi‘i on Qur’an, Sunnah, and Wife-Beating
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/cisv2i2.143Keywords:
Al-Shafi'i, fiqh, Qur'an, 4, 34, marriage, marital violenceAbstract
This essay explores how ninth-century jurist al-Shafi‘i’s substantive work the Kitab al-Umm treats men’s physical chastisement of their recalcitrant wives. Its first objective is simply to provide an account of how the Umm approaches this topic, which is usually absent from legal works. Its second objective is to assess to what extent the Umm’s approach follows the methodology set forth in Shafi‘i’s theoretical treatise, the Risala. This essay demonstrates that the Umm follows the Risala’s principles of locating rules in revelation, rejecting cross-genre abrogation, and harmonizing seemingly contradictory sources, in this case reconciling the Qur’anic evidence (Q 4:34) permitting striking women with Muhammad’s exemplary practice or sunnah discouraging men from striking. Yet by positing loss of support as an additional consequence for a wife’s recalcitrance [nushuz], al-Shafi‘i departs from his stated intention to rely exclusively on revealed texts, suggesting the influence of a transactional view of marriage only implicit in revelation.
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