Beating Women” in the Qur’anic Culture as Meaning to Leave; Reasons and Evidences

Islam has given great importance to the foundation of family in such a way that with realism based on recognizing the talents and potentials of men and women, it has legislated rulings that suit them in the best possible way. However, one of the misconceptions in this regard is the inappropriate culture of beating women, which some have attributed it to verse 34 of Sūrat al-Nisā, but according to the research conducted on the concept of beating women in the Qur’anic culture, several questions have been raised in this respect, such as: “What are the opinions of commentators and jurists regarding the meaning of beating?” “Which of the meanings or concepts in question about beating based on evidences are preferable to other meanings?” Given the fact that the verb ḍarb does not always mean to beat and it attains different meanings according to its being placed next to different roots, many different viewpoints have been proposed regarding women based on the conditions and requirements of the time and place and the culture of the jāhilī (Pagan) society. This article tries to answer the upcoming questions in this field with a descriptive-analytical method on the basis of lexical, interpretive, narrative purposive and legal sources. Accordingly, it was found that despite various meanings such as physical beating, marriage, etc., which has been quoted for ḍarb, as well as approaches such as revocation, the most suitable meaning for waḍribūhunna in this verse is leaving home by the man and it is more compatible with rational and scriptural proofs and is preferred over other meanings.