This study can be praised for two points. It’s uniquely courageous for implementing a holistic and multidisciplinary approach within Islamic studies— which is still rare—and for the amount and wide range of source texts Morrow was able to study and include in the research. This gives the reader a detailed insight in the classic and contemporary diverse options Islam offers, yet convincingly argues to interpret ?araba in a nonviolent way.

Reading Religion

Reading this religio-archeological debate is analogous to viewing a championship Wimbledon match with ideas bouncing from one side of the argument to the other as each player applies skill, study, and passion to the effort. The difference is that the winner of a tennis match will not change the course of life for billions of humans. "While I disagree with discarding Islamic Tradition and traditional scholars, as this amounts to tossing out the baby with the bathwater, I am equally convinced that fossilized religions have no future. They degrade, disintegrate, and return to dust. For religions to survive, they must be living organisms. They are like gardens that require care, cultivation, and pruning" (p. 189). If Dr. John Andrew Morrow can make even a dent in a 1400-year-old pattern of abuse, hundreds of millions of women will benefit and, he predicts, Islam itself will rise heavenward in the estimation of believers and unbelievers alike.

Barbara Castleton, Midwest Book Review

Morrow’s work of excellent scholarship and research is a must-read for those who want a clear understanding of the real meaning of the Qur’anic verse 4:34.

Laleh Bakhtiar, Resident Scholar, Kazi Publications, Chicago

What John Andrew Morrow has done is important and, in my view, it is so far the most comprehensive discussion/exposé of different possible readings of the second part of 4:34.

Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Professorial Research Associate, Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, SOAS, University of London

John Andrew Morrow, in this valuable work, discusses the perception management played on Qur’anic verses and Islamic sources regarding violence against women, and he reveals the truth.

Abdülaziz Bayindir, Founder of the Süleymaniye Foundation and Professor of Islamic Law at the University of Istanbul

Any Muslim who sees Muhammad as an exemplar of mercy and justice is routinely charged by Islamophobes with engaging in “whitewash.” There’s no way, however, that Dr. John Andrew Morrow can be accused of this offense, seeing that the darker aspects of Muslim history and jurisprudence have never been more starkly contrasted with the true sunnah of the Prophet than in the present book. Though Muhammad is known never to have beaten his wives, traditional fiqh (jurisprudence) and tafsir (Qur’anic commentary) have for the most part conveniently ignored his example, routinely taking the Arabic verb daraba in Q. 4:34 as literally meaning “to beat,” even though it is used 58 times in the Qur’an to denote many other things, and “to beat” is not even its most common meaning. Unfortunately, it is the rare Muslim “feminist” who will question this interpretation -- but if Muslim women are so attached to male authority, maybe Dr. Morrow can teach them the real meaning of feminism, and Muslim men the real meaning of chivalry. Once again the author incisively demonstrates that the supremely human example of the Prophet Muhammad is the one truly Islamic pathway to a just and equitable Islam.

Charles Upton, Author of The Virtues of the Prophet, Day and Night on the Sufi Path, The System of Antichrist, and Dugin against Dugin