How could a pious Muslim who wanted his wife to pray get the idea that beating her was the way to go? Maybe from the Qur’an:
“Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them.” (Qur’an 4:34)
Muhammad’s example is normative for Muslims, since he is an “excellent example of conduct” (Qur’an 33:21) — and according to a canonical hadith, Muhammad’s favorite wife, his child bride Aisha, reports that Muhammad struck her. Once he went out at night after he thought she was asleep, and she followed him surreptitiously. Muhammad saw her, and, as Aisha recounts: “He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?” (Sahih Muslim 2127) Aisha herself said it: “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women.” (Sahih Bukhari 7.72.715)
The Qur’an commentary Ruhul Ma”ani reflects mainstream Muslim understandings of this verse when it gives four reasons that a man may beat his wife: “if she refuses to beautify herself for him,” if she refuses sex when he asks for it, if she refuses to pray or perform ritual ablutions, and “if she goes out of the house without a valid excuse.”
“Bad luck: Wife beaten up for “˜missing prayers,– by Owais Jafri for the Express Tribune, October 12 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
A man beat up his wife in Khanewal ostensibly for not offering prayers.
Police said the man fled after she fainted. She was taken to the Kabeerwala tehsil headquarters hospital, where doctors said she would likely survive.
Police quoted Shamim Bibi, 32, of Fazil Shah area as saying that on Friday morning, she was preparing breakfast for her children, who were ready for school, when her husband, Mushtaq Ahmed asked her if she had offered morning prayers.
She said when she replied in the negative, he started shouted at her and accused her of bringing him bad luck and started beating her with a stick. She said he also kicked her in the abdomen and the chest until she fainted.
Police said Ahmed had fled the house apparently thinking she had died.
Some neighbours who had heard her shout for help rushed to her house and took her to the hospital, where doctors treating her later said that she was “out of danger”.
Dr Saima Iftikhar told The Express Tribune that Shamin Bibi had suffered five fractures. She had also more than 50 bruises all over the body, she said. She said her internal organs would be examined for possible rupture over the next 24 hours.
Some neighbours who had accompanied her to the hospital said Ahmed had beaten her as brutally a few weeks ago. They said her parents had then taken her to their house. He had brought her back nine days ago after a reconciliation was effected.
An FIR was registered with Sarai Sidhu police on the complaint of Shamim’s father. Station House Officer Khizar Zaman said that police were looking for Ahmed.
The woman’s father told police that Ahmed himself did not offer prayers. He said his daughter did not want to live with Ahmed any longer. He said he had taken his grandchildren to his house.