The Problems of Conscience and Hermeneutics: A Few Contemporary Approaches

This paper surveys the contemporary approaches to the problems of conscience raised by the verse, exploring modes of resolving the issues that arise when believing Muslims approach the verse and find its apparent meaning to violate their pre-existing notions of justice, notions which are partly informed the by the Qur'anic text itself. It finds that the prescription of 'hitting' one's wife, as the last of three mitigating directives when dealing with a woman who embodies the quality of "nushuz", creates a moment of interruption in the relationship between the believer and text. Contemporary scholars engage both text and historical precedent in the present context when (re)interpreting Qur'an 4:34 and the relative weight given to text and precedent determines the conclusions of individual arguments.