Understanding Qur'anic Verse 4:34?: The Muslim Response to Domestic Violence | Ustadha Maryam Amir
Channel: Muslim Community Center - MCC East Bay
Date: 2021-10-18

Ustadha Maryam Amir urges the Muslim community to take a stand against domestic violence.

Domestic violence happens everywhere all the time and affects everyone. Women are the principal victims. Ustadha Maryam brings awareness.

She encourages the Muslim community to break the silence and empower women in the Muslim community so they are not forced to stay in marriages in which they are abused. 

– More talks on domestic violence: https://mcceastbay.org/nisa
– More Sheikha Maryam Amir: http://mcceastbay.org/maryam
– More sessions for Muslimahs: http://mcceastbay.org/women

This talk was hosted by the North American Islamic Shelter for the Abused (NISA) and delivered via the Muslim Community Center - East Bay (MCC East Bay) in Pleasanton, California on October 17, 2021. 

Love shouldn’t hurt. October is National Domestic Violence Awareness.

MCC proudly works with the North American Islamic Shelter for the Abused (NISA), which shelters women fleeing abuse and provides skills and resources to become self-sufficient. 

– More talks on domestic violence: https://mcceastbay.org/nisa

About the Speaker: 
Maryam Amir received her master’s in Education from UCLA. She holds a second bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University. She has studied in Egypt, memorized the Qur’an, and researched a variety of religious sciences, ranging from Quranic exegesis, Islamic jurisprudence, Prophetic narrations and commentary, women’s rights within Islamic law, and more for the past 15 years. She’s featured in a video series on faith produced by goodcast.net called The Maryam Amir Show. She actively hosts and highlights women from around the world who have memorized the Quran through the #FOREMOTHERS campaign. She is an instructor with SWISS and Hikmah Institutes and has served as a guest instructor with AlMaghrib Institute and DiscoverU. Her focus in the fields of spiritual connections, identity actualization, social justice and women’s studies has given her the opportunity to lecture throughout the United States and the world. She holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and speaks multiple languages.

MCC partners with regional organizations like the North American Islamic Shelter for the Abused (NISA) to provide shelter, mental health counseling, and social services to a vulnerable community that the MCC is honored to help serve. 

MCC partners with regional organizations like the North American Islamic Shelter for the Abused (NISA) to provide shelter, mental health and counseling and social services to a vulnerable community that the MCC is honored to help serve. 

- Learn more about the NISA shelter: https://asknisa.org
- More domestic violence talks at MCC: http://mcceastbay.org/nisa
- More topics addressing community & social justice issues: http://mcceastbay.org/community

MCC proudly works with the North American Islamic Shelter for the Abused (NISA), which shelters women fleeing abuse and provides skills and resources to become self-sufficient.

Some topics covered in this talk:

- Intro to tafseer of Quran, ch. 4, v. 34
- Recitation & translation of Verse
- Tafseer of the start of the verse, men as Qawwamun
- Discussion of Mahr in connection to men as Qawwamun
- Divorce was easy and not a stigma; Story of Asma (RA) as an example
- Explanation of why men have financial responsibility towards women
- Mahr as financial stability/financial safety plan for a woman in case of fasq or divorce, according to Ibn 'Abbas
- Housewife can stipulate contractually to be paid to cook, clean, etc; investment of Mahr 
- Reality of financial support for Muslim women after divorce; mahr as a right for women
- Ideal husband is not about how much money he makes; qualities of an Islamically good wife
- Interpretation of the word 'Nushooz', as committed by the husband, according to Ibn Abidin and others
- Women committing 'Nushooz', according to Imam Al-Shafi'
- Context of verse's revelation
- Qur'an gives guidelines to the concept of 'dharb'
- Definition of 'dharb' 
- Scholars' rulings of restricting verse in certain circumstances
- Other interpretations of verse
- Final part of verse explanation - "God is the Most High and the Most Great" - Allah SWT as the Wali of Women
- Story of 'Aatika, wife of Omar, as evidence that verse is not about physical harm
- System of Islamic law in supporting women
- Not all scholars trained in Islamic family/marriage law
- Verse is intended to bring peace, as well as the verse after it

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