Page 350 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger
P. 350
Bigotry:
The Dark Danger
You who believe! Do not be like those who are unbelievers and
say of their brothers, when they are going on journeys (darabu)...
(Qur'an, 3:156)
When you are traveling (darabtum) in the land... (Qur'an, 4:101)
The word "daraba" is clearly not being used in the sense of "to
beat" in these verses. The same thing applies to verse 34 of Surat an-
Nisa', which we are considering here. When we analyze the word
"daraba" in the light of this verse, there are three different meanings
we need to look at: 1) Remove them from the home, 2) Force them to
go outside from where they are, or 3) Beat them.
In order to understand the sense in which the word daraba is
used in verse 34 of Surat an-Nisa', we need to return to the term "If
there are women whose disobedience you fear," at the beginning of
the verse. The word "nushuz" is translated to mean "rebellion and
disobedience" in many texts. Some commentators who take every op-
portunity to try and include the idea of humiliating women in verses
about them, either put "obedience to men" in parenthesis or else try
to give that idea through misleading translations. Yet the word
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