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| Defining Critical Words in
4.34
Qawwâmuna: Mohammad Asad has translated this in
"The Message of the Qur'an" as - Man shall take full care of
woman with bounties which had been bestowed more abundantly…." He
explains, "The expression "Qawwâm" is an intensive form of
"Qaim" (one who is responsible for
or takes care of a thing or a person). This "Qama alal mar'a"
signifies "He undertook the maintenance of the woman" or
"He maintains her" (See Lane, vol.8 pg. 2995). The grammatical
form of Qawwâm is more comprehensive than Qaim and combines the concepts
of physical maintenance and protection as well as moral responsibility.
From this wide range of meanings, some interpolate that a husband is responsible for his wife, ie: her disciplining, teaching and guidance in all matters “As for
the meaning of qawwâm, when I checked the
lexical meanings of the root, there is (among many meanings) the meaning
of 'be in charge of, manage, run, tend, guard, keep up, preserve, take
care of, attend to, watch over, look after'. From this comes the
definition of qawwâm as 'manager, director, superintendent, caretaker,
keeper, custodian, and guardian’. This range of definitions might
allow for a paternalistic interpretation if you were disposed to find one,
but considered on the whole it carries the sense of, to take an analogy,
stewardship over the environment as opposed to exploitation. (The
parallel themes of femininity and the natural earth being noted, as also
in the verse "Your wives are a tilth unto you...".) What
emerges very clearly from this analysis is the complete lack of warrant
for coercion, dictatorship, domination. I still think we should
explore another side of this root, reflected in the word qayyim,
meaning 'righteous, true, reliable', i.e. this verse establishes a
husband's responsibility to treat his wife well, to be kind, caring, and
just. This takes it further away from dictatorship and makes it a
partnership.”
Faddala: preference Dharaba has
several meanings other than striking, one of them meaning to return to
having sexual relations, ie: return to normal life. The word translated as "slap/hit/beat"
derives from the Arabic root DRB. 'dharaba'
metaphorically means to have intercourse, and quotes the expression 'darab
al-fahl an-naqah', 'the stud camel covered the she-camel,' which is also
quoted by Lisan al-'Arab. It cannot be taken here to mean 'to strike them
(women).' (Raghib in his Al-Mufridat fi Gharib al-Qur'an gives the meanings of these words with special reference to this verse.) 'fa-'izu'
means to 'to talk to them so persuasively as to melt their hearts.' (See
also v.63 of this Sûrah where it has been used in a similar sense.)
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