Is wife beating really allowed in Islam? from Planck's Constant

There are more than enough Islamic scholars who proclaim that wife beating is permitted in Islam and one Muslim leader even published a book which includes handy tips on wife-beating, so you may wonder what's the purpose of this article, isn't this a given? Doesn't everyone already know this to be true, that Islam commands Muslim men to beat their wives?

Actually there are a few Muslims in this world who worry that Islam is being criticized unfairly because of this barbaric and primitive sanction and so have written articles seeking to defend the practice. Take for example, this nonsense from answering-christianity.com:

Wife beating anytime and for any reason is never allowed in Islam. There is however a condition in Noble Verse 4:34 where Allah Almighty seems to allow the husband to beat his wife, and that is after he gives her two warnings to stop showing ill-conduct and disloyalty toward him. There is however a disagreement with some Muslim scholars on the interpretation of the word "beat" in the Noble Verse, because it could literally mean "hit" or "leave".

Alrighty then, let us exam Sura 4:34 and see if "leave" your wife is the proper interpretation:

Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme.

So instead of the word "beat," some Muslims ask us to believe that the word used for beat, "idribuhunna," could very well mean to leave them.

But does that make sense? If after admonishing them and making them go to bed alone, if they are still disobedient the husband should leave the house? If this is indeed the true meaning of Sura 4:34 then it is perhaps the least observed command in the Quran for no Muslim in the entire Islamic world leaves his home or wife if she is sassing him.

Also in the last sentence, "Then if they obey you, take no further action against them," doesn't this mean: after you beat them, if they obey you, take no more action, that is, stop beating them? And if they disobey you can beat them some more? Doesn't that make sense?

Otherwise if the interpretation is to leave them, what does it mean that if they obey you, take no more action? What more action? If they disobey, what more can you do than leave? Does that make any sense?

No, I am sorry Ahmed, the verse makes no sense if the command is to leave instead of to beat, but nice try.

This is another example where Muslims say the funniest things.