TREATMENT OF WIVES: KORAN VS. NEW TESTAMENT

Treatment of Wives: Koran vs. New Testament

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Here is my response to a Christian-Basher:

You have mistakenly charged that Islam’s teachings about wives and women are similar to the Bible’s teachings. So bear with me as I make some comparisons between the Koran and the New Testament. I’ll cite the Koran first and follow it with NT teachings:

·        [Surah 2.223] Your wives are a tilth [cultivated field] for you, so go into your tilth when you like, and do good beforehand for yourselves…

In the Koran, the male’s needs are supreme. The wife must service her husband on demand. Instead, the NT teaches equality and mutuality:

o       1 Cor. 7:3-5:  The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.

   

·        [Surah 2.228] And the divorced women should keep themselves in waiting for three courses; and it is not lawful for them that they should conceal what Allah has created in their wombs, if they believe in Allah and the last day; and their husbands have a better right to take them back in the meanwhile if they wish for reconciliation; and they have rights similar to those against them in a just manner, and the men are a degree above them, and Allah is Mighty, Wise.

In the Koran, men have more value and rights than women. However, in the NT, both are of equal value:

·        Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

o       Ephes. 5:31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."

   

·        [Surah 2.282] …call in to witness from among your men two witnesses; but if there are not two men, then one man and two women from among those whom you choose to be witnesses…

The court testimony of a man is equal to two women. In the NT, there is no distinction:

·        1 Cor. 11:11: In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.

   

·        [Surah 4:34] Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them…

The Bible never counsels a husband to beat or physically abuse his wife. Instead:

   

o       1 Peter 3:7: Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

·        Col. 3:19: Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

·        Ephes. 5:28-33: In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church… However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Here is a video of a Muslim cleric teaching wife beating: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2007/01/islam_beating_w.html