(June 6, 2009 at 7:34 pm)Dotard Wrote: But, yeah. Hey. P2u, do you not see the connection of whether it says beat the wholly hell out of your women or just hit them lightly, just be sure to hit them, is still an act of violence against another?
Hitting someone doesn't always consider to be act of violence. In Islam, as a whole Men and Women are equal but not identical. In some situation Husbands has rights and superiority over their Wives, while in other Wives has rights and superiority over their Husbands and in some situation it's equal.
If you look at the general human nature/behaviour men are more physical while women are more emotional. If you look the everyday life in a marriage, sometimes the husband may require to hit her wife to bring her out of a prolonged bad mood even though there is an undercurrent of love and desire for the woman and no real harm is done to the woman.
Like the example I gave before, in movies, one often sees the following type of scene: a man and a woman love each other but in some matter the woman simply does not want to listen to the man even though she realizes deep down that he is thinking for the good of both of them. The man tries all the tender ways to bring the woman around to his point of view without any success. Frustrated, the man at last bursts into anger and gives the woman a slap. This shakes the woman out of her mood and she falls on his shoulders, with both happier than before. Of course, movies are no guide for us but sometimes they do represent human nature and life as it is.
(p.s According to some traditions the Prophet (PBUH) he said that hitting should be in way that it should not cause injury, bruise or serious hurt. On this basis some scholars like Tabari and Razi say even that it should be largely symbolic and should be administered "with a folded scarf" or some such thing". However, to be effective in its purpose of shaking the wife out of her nasty mood it is important that it should provide an energetic demonstration of the anger, frustration and love of the husband. In other words, it should neither seriously hurt the wife nor reduce it to a set of meaningless motions devoid of emotions).
peace2u