any one to come into your house when you do not like. If they do, then give them (slight) corporal punishment which may not leave any effect on their bodies” (M. 15:19). This shows that the infliction of slight corporal punishment is limited only to the extreme cases. Another ḥadīth shows that such conduct on the part of the wife, or such treatment on the part of the husband, would not be expected in any good family. When certain women complained to the Holy Prophet of the ill-treatment of their husbands, he is reported to have admonished the men in the following words: ‘Many women have come to the house of Muḥammad complaining about their husbands; such husbands are by no means the good ones among you” (AD. 12:42). Bukhārī also refers to the ḥadīth of Muslim quoted above and gives another under the heading “What is disliked in the matter of giving corporal punishment to women,” according to which the Holy Prophet is reported to have said: “Let not one of you inflict corporal punishment upon his wife as he would inflict it upon his slave, for he will be having amorous relations with her soon afterwards” (Bu. 67:94).

On another occasion too, the husband is allowed to exercise his authority against the wife, and this too is an occasion where the wife’s conduct is openly immoral: “And as for those of your women who are guilty of an indecency (fāḥishāh), call to witness against them four witnesses from among you; then if they bear witness, confine them to the houses until death takes them away or Allāh opens some way for them” (4:15); Allāh’s opening a way for them means that they show sincere repentance. The fāḥishāh spoken of here is clearly immoral conduct, and the punishment is a restriction on the woman’s movements so that she is deprived of the liberty to move freely in society. Reading this verse along with 4:34, relating to the infliction of corporal punishment it appears that confining to the house is the first step, and it is when they repeat their evil deeds in the house, or do not submit to the authority of the husband and desert him, that permission is given to inflict corporal punishment which is the last resort. And if even this step does not make them mend their ways, matrimonial relations may be ended.