On nushūz: what is it, and what does the Qu'ran say about it?
A key concept to understand the position of the Qu'ran, and so of literalist islam, on domestic violence is the concept of nushūz. In order to understand what nushūz means in the context of the Qu'ran we have to understand two things:
a) the root from which the word originates
b) its use in context.
a)
Nushūz derives from the triliteral root
nūn shīn zāy, whose derivative words (nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.) are used five times in the whole of Qu'ran: two times as conjugated forms of the verb
unshuzu, one time as a conjugated form of the verb
nunshizu, and two times as the noun
nushūz
As the verb unshuzu, the root occurs twice in the Sura 58, verse 11:
O you who have believed, when you are told, "Space yourselves" in assemblies, then make space; Allah will make space for you. And when you are told, "Arise," then arise; Allah will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge, by degrees. And Allah is Acquainted with what you do.
The words used here are
unshuzū and
fa-unshuzū. It's actually the exact same word, only the second time it's preceded by a prefixal resumption particle. The use is a verbal one. It's the 2nd person masculine plural of the imperative of the verb.
In other words it's a command for many people (Arabic uses the masculine form in a collective, generic sense) to do something. In this specific context, the meaning is to "rise up", to "stand up" all together.
It's an intransitive verb, contrasted with "
yarfaʿi I-lahu" (Allah will raise, literally [*will raise Allah], but Allah is the subject).
The contrast between
unshuzu and
rafa'a (from which
yarfaʿi) is more or less the same of the contrast between the English verbs
rise and
raise.
They both mean "to move upwards", but rise (like unzhusu) is intransitive, so doesn't take an object, and it implies that someone or something move upwards by itself, while raise (like rafa'a) is transitive, so it does take an object, and it implies that something or someone is moving something or someone else upwards.
The verb
nunshuzu is used in the Qu'ran only once, in a transitive way, in the Sura 2, verse 259:
Or [consider such an example] as the one who passed by a township which had fallen into ruin. He said, "How will Allah bring this to life after its death?" So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years; then He revived him. He said, "How long have you remained?" The man said, "I have remained a day or part of a day." He said, "Rather, you have remained one hundred years. Look at your food and your drink; it has not changed with time. And look at your donkey; and We will make you a sign for the people. And look at the bones [of this donkey] - how We raise them and then We cover them with flesh." And when it became clear to him, he said, "I know that Allah is over all things competent."
The word used here is
nunshizuhā "we raise them", with the 3rd person feminine singular suffixal object pronoun "-ha". In this case the root "nūn shīn zāy" is used to form a transitive verb, but the subject of the verb isn't just a human being, it's Allah.
Clearly the root "nūn shīn zāy" is used in the Qu'ran to express the act of "moving upwards", whether it is something being raised by a command or rising by itself, or Allah raising things.
b) the noun "nushūz" is used only two times in the Qu'ran.
The first time it's used in the infamous verse 34 of 4th Sura, in the form nushūzahunna "their ill-conduct" (nushūz+
ephentic -a- + 3rd person feminine plural possessive pronoun -hunna").
The other time it's used in:
Qu'ran, Sura 4, Verse 128 wrote:And if a woman fears from her husband contempt or evasion, there is no sin upon them if they make terms of settlement between them - and settlement is best. And present in [human] souls is stinginess. But if you do good and fear Allah - then indeed Allah is ever, with what you do, Acquainted.
The word used here is nushūzan, the accusative (object) form of the indefinite, masculine noun nushūz. Note that nushūz from the word in the 34th verse is to be answered with a progressive series of punishments from men (first a verbal admonishment, then denial of physical intimacy, then beating) if it's done by women, but if it's done by men women only have the right of a "settlement" (the word used is "ṣul'ḥan", reconciliation, from the root "ṣād lām ḥā", associated with the meanings of what's righteous, of peace, of amend and reform).
Basically in cases of nushūz men can punish women, but women are told to make peace with their husbands.
All right, but what is nushūz?
Well, the meaning isn't set in stone, but it can be inferred from the meaning of the other words associated with it: unshuzu and nushuzu. Those verbs, as we have seen, are associated with the idea of "rising", of "moving upwards", of "standing up".
Nushūz has a negative connotation, so to best translate it to English we have to find a word connected to the idea of "rising" which has a negative connotation. There is one expression which fits, luckily: "being uppity", namely acting unpleasantly because of a false belief of being more important, of higher status, than one is.
With this in mind it's easy to see that for women nushūz requires escalating punishment from their husband, while in the case of men nushūz requires simply reconciling with their wives.
Basically nushūz is violating boundaries, violating rules about one's status, elevating oneself beyond the rule you must observe. Which rules? Of course the rules of the Qu'ran itself about marriage in general.
Some translate nushūz with "arrogance" or with "disobedience" or "pride". Those translations aren't bad per se (better than a more generic "ill-conduct"), but they miss the point, the etymological and contextual connotation of nushūz.
The Qu'ran is a set of rules about everything, giving everything and everyone a rank, a place. Nushūz is elevating yourself beyond the place that the Qu'ran gives you. However for women nushūz requires punishment, for men reconciliation. How so?
The answer is rather easy: a woman, according to the Qu'ran, is naturally inferior to her husband. The husband is also inferior to the rules of Allah, and so has a set of obligations towards the wife, but the naturally superior figure, the one who can punish the other for being "uppity", is the husband.
Nushūz is contrasted, in the 34th verse of the 4th sura, to
qānitātun (obedience, from the root
qāf nūn tā) of the
fal-ṣāliḥātu (righteous women, from the root
ṣād lām ḥā, connected to what's righteous, peaceful, reconciled, reformed).
The root
qāf nūn tā is also present in:
Quran, Sura 33, Verse 35 wrote:Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so - for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.
The words used here are wal-qānitīna/wal-qānitāti, where the prefix "wal-" is the prefix form of the conjunction wa ("and"). To whom are obedient men and women in this verse? To Allah, of course.
So to whom are obedient women in the 34th verse of the 4th Sura? To the laws of Allah as they're outlined in the Qu'ran (and, incidentally, in other holy books).
This means that in a couple the husband is the one who can punish the wive for not obeying to the rules of the Qu'ran, while a wife must be trying to find peace, a settlement with her husband (it's highly preferable, at least) if he disobeys some rules or doesn't fulfill his duties.
It's clear that while both husband and wife are subordinated to Allah, the husband can enforce the rules of Allah by punishing the wife, while the wife should find some conciliation and reparation even in cases of violation of the rules or of neglect.
This is the root of the position of prominence of the men in a marriage, even with some marital duties, that is codified in the Qu'ran. In this context it's easy to see that the Qu'ran doesn't sanction domestic violence in general, but it does sanction the enforcement of its own rules by men on women, through beating if necessary to the obstinate refusal of the wife to obey to those rules.
This is the origin of both the justification for domestic violence in islam and of the belief of devout muslims that what they're doing isn't violence, and so that all domestic violence in muslim countries must be cultural or circumstantial in origin. Islam doesn't say that all domestic violence is OK if men do it, but it gives men the right to enforce the rules in the holy books if their wives violate them.
Everything else, such as the nature of the "corrective" beatings (they shouldn't case permanent injury, they shouldn't leave marks, yadda yadda yadda) is just a matter of details, of disagreement between muslim scholars.
Again, like the case of child sexual abuse, being a muslim doesn't make you become a domestic abuser, but islam gives room for justification of domestic abuse by giving the husband the power to police the life of the couple according to the Qu'ran, even physically (with no further prescriptions) if necessary due to the wife's "uppity" and "stubborn" actions.