Is Our Heart a Source of Knowledge at All?

Human's knowledge of the external world is acquired through our senses and is essentially relative and uncertain.  This may lead us to doubt the existence of everything in the material world as a reality.  Instead, in a skeptical view,  everything is fictitious or mirage.  

Rene Descartes, the French philosopher ,who is "credited as a foundational thinker in the development of Western notions of reason and science"according to the page below, developed and answered this argument by resorting to his most basic instincts in his famous line "I think, therefore I am." http://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-7/descartes-i-think-therefore-i-am

I believe Descartes' proposition primarily and indirectly proves that our most fundamental source of knowledge is ,in fact, our conscience which is synonymous with our existence. That is the knowledge that comes instinctively and naturally with no efforts. I also believe that "conscience" is commonly referred as"heart" and it is precisely equivalent to "Nafs" in Quran. 

Here is the definition of the word "conscience" from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:  "the part of your mind that tells you whether what you are doing is morally right or wrong."

And these are two of the verses about "Nafs" in Quran which clarifies the fact that it is indeed God who inspires our Nafs (Conscience) resulting in a clear or in a troubled conscience. 

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا

"And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it." 91:7

فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا

"And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness." 91:8

Speaking of inspiration, the major breakthroughs in human's knowledge has always rooted in an inspiration according to the history of science.  Although it is true that usually inspirations occur after hard work and long hours of concentration on a specific problem, they come when we feel we are stock in a dead end situation. Needless to say, all forms of  art are also undeniably associated with the inspiration that the artists feel in their heart. 

Furthermore, all the rules of logic ,which is the basis for the entire human's knowledge from philosophy to mathematics, from natural sciences to the humanities, are based on the most basic question of " Does it make sense or not? " which we answer intuitively without any thinking.  

In other words, the foundational principals of our knowledge whether it is based on data collected from our senses or it is the result of a thought experiment merely in our mind, are all based on the basic rules that are hardwired in our existence.  It is only the findings of this core in us that brings us certainty and peace as clearly seen in the case of Descartes's quest for the Truth.  

Perhaps we can then, rightfully, conclude that our heart / conscience is indeed the primary source of knowledge regardless of being conscious of it or not.  

Lastly, we need to differentiate the findings of our heart from the product of our mind by the fact that the former one comes naturally, effortlessly and intuitively while the latter is the result of a thought process and some analysis.  Finally, we may be able to distinguish between the two by noticing that what we find in our heart is the only absolute perception from the whole world internal or external to our-self. 

Design Argument for the Existence of God

The following video clip is an interesting example of a human design which gives rise to the old discussion of design argument for the existence of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ9gs-5lRKc

If the link doesn't work search for "Magnets and Marbles" on you tube.

And here is a well written article which encapsulates the philosophical views for and against the design argument.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/design/

It is hard to imagine that the "Magnets and Marbles" system could be a product of randomness and pure chance, if we refrain to use the word "impossible".  By the way of analogy, it seems reasonable to assume that the natural martial world ,even the apparently lifeless Eco-system all around us, to be more complicated than the Magnets and Marbles system, the main resemblance being the coordination of highly complex parts in serving a specific purpose.

The main contemporary argument against assuming an intelligent creator for the world ,as far as I heard, seems to be the hypothesis of evolution and "natural selection" at its core as explained in details on this page:

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_01 

I tend to believe that "natural selection" would be mostly applicable to the live creatures of the world in which there is an intelligent identity that is trying to survive in the its living environment. To keep this post short, I will discuss the evolution theory as the origin of human being in a later post. 

My point from referring you to the philosophical discussions around this subject is , as it is well demonstrated in the article,  there seems to be a never ending discussion without reaching a definite conclusion like most of the other subjects in philosophy. In other words, philosophy which is derived from logic,fails to help us reach an absolute certainty probably in most cases. On the contrary, it appears that depending on our internal initial tendency we are capable of coming up with a logically sound argument for or against the discussed subject.  As a matter of fact, in philosophy our mind can be trapped in a superficial fight between the valid forms and logical structures of reasoning without really creating much value in terms of providing us with a peace of mind and certainty. 

Certainty and peace of mind ,I believe, comes only with the truth and truth can only be found by our heart. Yet, in no way I mean to neglect or under value our logical faculty which is the foundation of all human's knowledge built on empirical data collected by our five senses.  That is to say, we need to compute the material aspect of the world by our logic, by our mind and then present their findings to our heart ,that is in touch with the non-material dimension of the world, to take a side or to choose from choices we are left with after rational processing. Our heart has its own findings too that doesn't come from our senses which are only in touch with the material world. 

In a practical example, when we are to find a life partner, as much as it would be wrong to go with merely our gut feelings, it will be equally wrong to rely on a rational thought process to find the best match for the features we have listed in our mind.  Perhaps, the best choice will be the one that marries the best of the two worlds.  That is when our heart corroborates the findings of our mind.  By the same token, never marry a belief unless your heart tells you to. 

At the end, I would like to emphasis that no matter how solid our logic appears to be, it is always our heart that makes the final sense of the world.  It is only our heart that is capable of seeing the truth and can help us get to the truth once all the available arguments/data are presented to it. 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى مَدَّ ٱلۡأَرۡضَ وَجَعَلَ فِيہَا رَوَٲسِىَ وَأَنۡہَـٰرً۬ا‌ۖ وَمِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٲتِ جَعَلَ فِيہَا زَوۡجَيۡنِ ٱثۡنَيۡنِ‌ۖ يُغۡشِى ٱلَّيۡلَ ٱلنَّہَارَ‌ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٲلِكَ لَأَيَـٰتٍ۬ لِّقَوۡمٍ۬ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

13-3 "And it is He Who spread out the earth, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and (flowing) rivers: and fruit of every kind He made in pairs, two and two: He draweth the Night as a veil o'er the Day. Behold, verily in these things there are Signs for those who consider! "

هُوَ ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ ٱلشَّمۡسَ ضِيَآءً۬ وَٱلۡقَمَرَ نُورً۬ا وَقَدَّرَهُ ۥ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعۡلَمُواْ عَدَدَ ٱلسِّنِينَ وَٱلۡحِسَابَ‌ۚ مَا خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ ذَٲلِكَ إِلَّا بِٱلۡحَقِّ‌ۚ يُفَصِّلُ ٱلۡأَيَـٰتِ لِقَوۡمٍ۬ يَعۡلَمُونَ

10-5  "It is He Who made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light (of beauty), and measured out stages for it: that ye might know the number of years and the count (of time). No wise did Allah create this but in truth and righteousness. (Thus) doth He explain His Signs in detail, for those who understand." 

 وَقَالُواْ مَا هِىَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا ٱلدُّنۡيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحۡيَا وَمَا يُہۡلِكُنَآ إِلَّا ٱلدَّهۡرُ‌ۚ وَمَا لَهُم بِذَٲلِكَ مِنۡ عِلۡمٍ‌ۖ إِنۡ هُمۡ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ 

45-24 "And they say: "There is nothing but our life of this world, we die and we live and nothing destroys us except Ad-Dahr (time)[]. And they have no knowledge of it, they only conjecture. "

أَلَمۡ تَرَوۡاْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَخَّرَ لَكُم مَّا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَأَسۡبَغَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ نِعَمَهُ ۥ ظَـٰهِرَةً۬ وَبَاطِنَةً۬‌ۗ وَمِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ مَن يُجَـٰدِلُ فِى ٱللَّهِ بِغَيۡرِ عِلۡمٍ۬ وَلَا هُدً۬ى وَلَا كِتَـٰبٍ۬ مُّنِيرٍ۬

31-20 "Do ye not see that Allah has subjected to your (use) all things in the heavens and on earth, and has made His bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, (both) seen and unseen? Yet there are among men those who dispute about Allah without knowledge and without guidance, and without a Book to enlighten them!"

 صدق الله العلي العظيم

Why Quran 's text is protected ?

To a believer it is a basic fact that the original Arabic text of Quran has not been changed since it has been written about 14 centuries ago.  This is itself an undeniable miracle of Quran if we are willing to open our heart to it.  Miracles are to increase our belief in God which is the ultimate unseen truth of the world. In that sense, Quran itself corroborates this miracle in 15:9:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

انا نحن نزلنا الذكر وانا له لحافظون

"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian."

As it is clear by now, the propose of this post is not to prove that Quran has remained unchanged  over time.  Instead, I would like to draw your attention to why it is so.  Why possibly God has intended to protect this text unlike the previous ones.  Needless to say, it is only God who knows the real purpose but as it is the case through the Quran we can get a idea by looking at the facts with making a judgement through our hear applying the highest degree of honesty we can find inside our self.    

Basically if we try to take this approach in understanding Quran, in that we are not trying to prove anything to anyone, and only for the benefit of our own, we would naturally try to be our most honest with ourselves.  I truly believe that if all the facts are presented to our heart and all the potential biases such as fame, money or power are removed, our heart is absolutely capable of forming the right judgement especially in terms of good or bad, right or wrong, true or false, love or hate and all the metaphysical matters which are beyond the reach of our rational mind. 

That said, I would wonder how we can make sense about  this property of Quran.  One of the reasonable  hypothesis I heard is since Quran outlines the fundamental metaphysical laws of the world which have been and will be true forever, it does not need any change as the most fundamental principals of the world will not change.  

I believe what makes more sense however, is the fact that Quran appears to be an on going conversation between God and human. That is to say,  every one can potentially find himself the one who is addressed in Quran directly.  Basically, it appears that hesitations, questions and thinking process of Abraham, Noha, Moses or all the others are the same for all us if we would be willing to seriously make sense of our lives. 

Yet it is not only Quran's life changing stories of the past that are amazing, but also its incredible level of customization in addressing our personalized unique situation makes Quran a live conversation.  It may not be easy to prove that Quran is , in fact, alive and ongoing publicly since we are talking about individual circumstances that may not be a concern for others but in our personal lives they are extremely important and real.   

So I would invite everyone reading this to check this for yourself.  I invite you to engage a conversation with God directly by asking something that you have been struggling with for a long time, something that you have been thinking that will reveal more of God to you, something that if clarified would change your life, something you long for and wait for the answer to come to you either in context of a specific verse of Quran or indirectly through a clarification or inspiration that you will feel it in your heart which will settle your worries and gets you out of that situation.  The only requirements are being serious about it and being absolutely honest with yourself. 

It would be great to hear your experiences by replying to this post. 

Last but not least, while recognizing Quran as a live personalized conversation will help us in our lives, it does not answer the question of why God did not protect the previous scriptures.  What made 1400 years ago different from the prior history of mankind.  This is a question that I have had in mind for sometime and I hope God will let me to the answer if he wishes so. 

How Far is the Judgment Day?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

   إِنَّ ٱلسَّاعَةَ ءَاتِيَةٌ أَكَادُ أُخۡفِيہَا لِتُجۡزَىٰ كُلُّ نَفۡسِۭ بِمَا تَسۡعَىٰ (20:15)

"Indeed, the Hour is coming - I almost conceal it - so that every soul may be recompensed according to that for which it strives."

ٱقۡتَرَبَتِ ٱلسَّاعَةُ وَٱنشَقَّ ٱلۡقَمَرُ (54:1)

"The Hour has come near, and the moon has split [in two]. "    

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عِندَهُ ۥ عِلۡمُ ٱلسَّاعَةِ وَيُنَزِّلُ ٱلۡغَيۡثَ وَيَعۡلَمُ مَا فِى ٱلۡأَرۡحَامِ‌ۖ وَمَا تَدۡرِى

 نَفۡسٌ۬ مَّاذَا تَڪۡسِبُ غَدً۬ا‌ۖ وَمَا تَدۡرِى نَفۡسُۢ بِأَىِّ أَرۡضٍ۬ تَمُوتُ‌ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرُ (31:34)                     

"Indeed, Allah [alone] has knowledge of the Hour and sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted."

  صدق الله العلي العظيم

I have recently seen some Islamic scholars' video lectures in that they are trying to predict a specific time when they believe according to the sings implied in Quran the world will end  and consequently the resurrection day and judgement day will follow soon after. 

This is while according to the verse 20:15 above, it is only God who knows when the world will end and he has purposefully hidden this event until it is very close and there are obvious sings such as the moon being split into halves (verse 54:1) and so on.  Basically if people had a way to discover it then it would defeat its purpose of only believers in "Ghaib" unseen would be rewarded.  Only the true believers  in God who have lived their lives for God doing good deeds out of their faith  will survive that day. 

That said, we can look at the world's end-time  in a practical way.  That is, end of the world may either  happen in our life time, which one would reasonably consider it unlikely as our mind tells us that if it has not happened in thousand years already it is unlikely to happen soon, or alternatively our personal world will end by our death which is undeniably coming and will connect us directly to resurrection day. 

The question would now be if anyone can predict his death. The verse (31:34) states that it is again only God who knows where and when we will dye.  This time however, we can form at least a time frame in our mind as to the latest time when we will move to the other world.   That is to say, usually we are about our thirties and forties by the time we take these thoughts seriously in our life.  By then, we will be left with the remaining of average life expectancy in the particular place we are living in, which may vary from another 30 or 40 years later. 

In other words, by the time we potentially take our next life to our heart we have gone already half way.  Looking back at our first half of life on the Earth, it appears to us just like yesterday.  By the same token, perhaps we can come to the belief that our departure from the world would not be too long from now, if not tomorrow.   That is how we realize by our heart that : "Indeed, the Hour is coming".

The Mysterious Story of Abraham's Sacrificing his son - Part 2

The three remaining questions from last post were:

1. Why Abraham is so highly spoken of throughout Quran to the degree that he is called "friend of God"?
2. What is the impact of Abraham on the world after him?
3. What kind of relationship with God is illustrated in Quran by the story of Abraham's life?

1. It appears to me that the main events in Abraham's life has one thing in common which makes him so special before God.  I believe that is his total devotion to God throughout his life as far as it is narrated in Quran.  He has proven his complete surrender to God by following God's orders despite all the odds. That is to say, he surrendered himself to the fire they had thrown him in as the punishment for shattering their idols into pieces.  Abraham left his second wife "Hajar" and his son "Esmaeel" in the desert of Mecca as God had commanded him, despite the extremely harsh conditions of the terrain he left them in, with no foods and water.  The action of sacrificing his son had also the same intention although it was not commanded by God and was stopped by God. Same was true about building the "Kabaa" (God's home) in a place that was uninhabitable at the time.

Quran has not narrated the story of Abraham's life from the beginning to the end, as we can see throughout Quran it only states the highlights or the most important points of an event skipping over the details.  Perhaps we can say that Abraham like any other human being was living a normal life and he was learning by trial and errors like all of us except the fact that he has made such a critical and determinant choices to surrender to God's command in the events that has been told in Quran.  In other words, we have been given our life time to try and learn for ourselves until we spiritually ripe enough to the degree when we can surrender ourselves to God with such a pure devotion as Abraham's ,when we are tested in certain occasions.  This implies we can all walk the path Abraham did, although I do not mean we can end up being a prophet or being so special to God.  Nonetheless, everyone can have a unique relationship to God which I believe is the underlying concept of God's being "Rahim", as explained in early posts. 

Speaking practically, we can constantly try to align our intention of doing the mundane tasks with God's satisfaction as we perceive so.  Yet there will be a few occasions in everyone's life when making a choice for the sake of God will appear against the norms, against our personal interests and perhaps could be very costly to us.   I believe those are the decisions that will fundamentally affect our life afterwards.  By the way of example, if we found ourself in an unhappy marriage already with a child or with children and we feel like God would be happier with us if we stay in the marriage mostly because of the kids,  while it is clear to us that we can have a better life if separated,   this decisions can tremendously affect the future life of the children and may bear an unexpected fruit which will worth all the hardship of the long years of patience.   Needless to say, I do not mean that we should stay in a wrong marriage at all costs. 

2. I believe Abraham's surrender to God so purely not only has made him a friend of God, as stated in Quran, but it also has impacted humanity tremendously.  According to Quran in the verses following 37:110 all later prophets' ancestry could be traced back to Abraham trough either "Eshaag" or "Esmaeel".  Therefore, it maybe reasonable to assume that if it wasn't for Abraham mankind might not had the greatest/dearest prophets "Moses", "Jesus" and "Mohammad".   In verse 37:100 Abraham prayed to God to be granted a righteous child and in 3:35-37 "Omran's wife" (Maryam's mother) dedicates her baby to God which led to the birth of Jesus.  

It is fascinating how prayer of a few individuals (other humans) have affected the course of history of humanity so drastically. This is while in the eyes of the praying person God may not have granted him what he/she wished for because mother of Maryam asked for a son but she gave birth to a girl who years later turned out to be the mother of Jesus.   In the same way, it might be faire to say that if Adam's sin in heaven brought his descendants suffering on earth, Abraham's actions resulted in guiding humans to happiness again.   My point is this is potentially the scope of the effects the our relationship with God can bring about. 

3.  I believe Abraham's relationship with God illustrates an ideal way we should connect to God, that is we are to practically commit ourselves to God and do whatever we do in life for him. That is the true meaning of being God's servant (which is not the right word I believe).  We have to conceptualize the image that Quran is depicting from our potential relationship with God and discover what Quran is truly about.  We are to find a word which represents total devotion, which gives one entity priority over all others in our life in practical terms , in our actions not in our words or merely in our feelings. We are here to find out this relationship by trial and error by a learning process of dedicating yourself to different things and beings until we realize there is only one supreme being which is worth sacrificing everything we have for. That is when we fall in the true love which is eternal and will include all the humans' as well. 

The Mysterious Story of Abraham Sacrificing His Son

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

فلما بلغ معه السعي قال يا بني اني ارى في المنام اني اذبحك فانظر ماذا ترى قال يا ابت افعل ما تؤمر ستجدني ان شاء الله من الصابرين 37:102

"And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, "O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think." He said, "O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast."

فلما اسلما وتله للجبين  37:103

"And when they had both submitted and he put him down upon his forehead,"

وناديناه ان يا ابراهيم  37:104

"We called to him, "O Abraham,"

قد صدقت الرؤيا انا كذلك نجزي المحسنين 37:105

"You have fulfilled the vision." Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good."

ان هذا لهو البلاء المبين 37:106

"Indeed, this was the clear trial."

وفديناه بذبح عظيم  37:107

"And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice,"

وتركنا عليه في الاخرين  37:108

"And We left for him [favorable mention] among later generations:"

سلام على ابراهيم   37:109

"Peace upon Abraham."

كذلك نجزي المحسنين  37:110

"Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good."

   صدق الله العلي العظيم

Quranic Verses from Quran.com

Having read the above verses, there are a number of questions that come to our mind namely:

1. Is it God who demanded sacrifice of Abraham's son through a dream? 
2. Why God stopped Abraham ?
3. What is praised by God on this specific act of Abraham?
4. Why Abraham is so highly spoken of throughout Quran to the degree that he is called "friend of God"?
5. What is the impact of Abraham on the world after him?
6. What kind of relationship with God is illustrated in Quran by the story of Abraham's life?

1.  Based on the other cases in Quran where a dream has been interpreted such as Yusuf's dream, it seems that true dreams are mainly an indication of what is to come in future.  Our personal prophetic dreams, which present clear vision of an upcoming event, corroborate this fact as well. They primarily show the events that are going to happen soon.

I am not sure if there is a concrete evidence in Quran in which God has explicitly given a command to a Prophet through a dream.  On the contrary, I believe "Vahy" meaning God's words (directly or indirectly) to Prophets have always been received in their state of full consciousness.

It also appears that Dreams have something to do with personal desires and conditions. That is  to say, dreams often answer an intention or a question that we have been thinking about for a long time or they address a personal deep concern or emotion.  From this perspective, it can be assumed that Abraham might have been influenced by a tradition of his time when it was common to sacrifice their children for their Gods. Judging from Abraham's life story as narrated by Quran however, we can realize that Abraham was always obsessed with the best he could do for God in the course of his life. Evidently, it is more reasonable to assume that he had believed such sacrifice could be the ultimate deed for God. This motivation as the main source of his dream would be more consistent with his other actions such as leaving his second wife with the new born son in a desert against all the odds, as instructed by God, where was later called Mecca the holiest place on earth for ever after.

That said, we can come to the belief that Abraham's dream was not a clear instruction from God asking Abraham's to sacrifice his son.   I have seen the interpretations which take the son's words "do as you are commanded" in verse 102 as the proof for considering the sacrifice a command from God. I am not sure if that is entirely the case. In my opinion, it only shows the son had surrendered himself to God and he was willing to give his life for God if it is demanded.

2 & 3. If the sacrifice was God's command, there was no reason for him to stop Abraham.  In verse 104 it is clearly stated that God calls upon Abraham and then in 105 God tells him "You have fulfilled the vision"   and he was told this not in a dream.

One would argue that verse 106 could be the evidence to the contrary. "Indeed, this was the clear trial."     The answer to this argument is hidden in the previous verse 105: "You have fulfilled the vision." Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good."   What is the good action being rewarded by God, if it is the sacrifice itself it is not done.  What is so worthy of God's praise is infact, the Abraham's sacrifice of his dearest asset in life for God.  To give a priority to God over all his interests even if it is the life of his beloved son who is given to him after years of praying and expectations. Especially a son whose birth itself was a miracle because of the age of Abraham's wife, according to earlier verses.

We can therefore, come to the conclusion that God had never intended for Abraham's to actually kill his son with his own hand but to only test him indirectly to choose between his interests  and God's, as perceived by Abraham from his dream, definitely not based on God's command.

Most importantly, I believe the message of this event for our time is the fact that we are not allowed to hurt an innocent person with the intention of doing something for God in order to purify our soul or get closer to God.  This is a clear contradiction we can see today in many evil actions that are done in the name of religion , Islam in particular. Harming innocent man, women or children, in anyway, regardless of their faith or race is a satanic criminal act and can not be based on a true religion and its potential justification is only a distortion of truth.

I would like to emphasize that ,based on these verses of Quran, no matter how devoted we believe our action is to God, we are not allowed to commit any immoral action.  If we are to follow Abraham's footsteps look how humanly he has discussed his frustration with his son and has done noting without his consent (102).


I will try to answer the remaining  3 questions in the next post, God willing.

Does "Zaraba" Mean Hitting by Hand in Verse 4:34 ?

One of the controversial verses of Quran is certainly the verse 34 of Al-Nissa, which, seemingly, appears to suggest using physical violence against women who are in an emotional state of disobedience to their spouse.    

                                                                 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

4:34

"Men are in charge of women by what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend  from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in  absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance - [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand."

                                                                صدق الله العلي العظيم

The main idea of this verse, I believe,  is to determine the relationship between the men and women by explaining that men have dominance over women due to the advantages given to them by God and due to the fact that men support women financially. 

Having lived in Canada for some years now, I fully appreciate the significance of feminism (meaning equal rights and opportunities) in the western world as I don't find it contradictory to the fact that women and men have fundamental differences in their nature, which lead to varied needs and dependencies. Historically, women have always lived under the umbrella of men's protection in terms of their security, safety and financial needs. This dependency becomes particularly evident at time of wars, dealing with environmental risks as well as making a living. Although it is true that today women can be financially independent in many countries and they are even more successful than men, most women feel more comfortable with the idea of being financially provided for. In other words, Women, in most cases, do not prefer to earn a livelihood if they do not have to, self-improvement aspects of a job aside. 

In comparison, while women seem to be psychologically dependent on men, men are physiologically relying on women. That is why we can see more single moms than single fathers. Women show a tendency to replace their spouse with their children. Judging from life experience, I believe men and women equally need the opposite gender to evolve to their full capacity that is embedded in every human nature. 

That said, it appears men have an innate feature that when they provide for a woman they expect an exclusive commitment in return with regard to their sexual and physical intimacy needs. That is to say, men by their nature assume a dominance over their mate.  This serves as a foundation for their entire psyche and of course it works equally the same for women as well. The significance of this psychological interdependence becomes clear when it is shaken by one side cheating over the other be it in a marriage or not. The extreme reactions that most people show in response to these situations range from personal emotional drama to committing a serious crime against the partner. There are everyday news and movies to evidence this fact of life. 

The main controversy however, comes later in this verse where it is stated that when a woman shows disrespect and unwillingness toward her partner (reason is unknown) then Quran instructs a sequence of actions which starts with talking her off the mood, then if that doesn't work, abandoning her in bed is the next step and finally if either one does not help the situation it appears that Quran says striking is an option which means hitting by hand. The verse further emphasizes that when the woman seems to behave properly there should be no further follow up on this matter. 

I personally have serious reservations to take the Arabic verb "Zaraba" as hitting in this context. That is mainly because we can think of quite a number of arguments against this interpretation. Namely, the woman may have rightfully some reasons not to be willing toward her partner. Secondly, I doubt if physical violence could help anyone's temperament in such situation. And thirdly, it is not conceivable to set a punishment without exact details that would be unprecedented in Quran. Lastly, if physical supremacy of men is meant to be the final solution, it will be contradictory to the next verse 4:35 in which a biding arbitration by a representative from each side is ordered as the ultimate resort to settle lasting family disputes. 

Searching Quran for the different meanings of "Zaraba" we come across to three distinct applications. 

1. Meaning to give an example in verses : 2:26, 13:17, 14:24, 14:45, 16:75, 16:76,........
2. Meaning to hit by hand in verses : 7:60, 7:160, 37;93, 38:44, 38:44.
3. Meaning figuratively to travel, to cast, to cover in verses : 2;273, 3:156, 4;101, 5;106, 20:77, 18:11, 2:61, 43:17 and 43:58. 

It is a huge relief to see this verb is used to mean other than hitting. That is why I am inclined to believe that "Zaraba" in this case is meant to travel or to leave the woman alone which I think in real life is the most practical temporary remedy for this situation. I admit however, that we can not find a similar context in Quran in which "Zaraba" is explicitly used to mean moving out. Nevertheless, we can always ask ourselves which meaning is closer to God's satisfaction. This way, I will have no hesitation that interpreting "Zaraba" figuratively to mean travel or move out will be the best fit in this case. 

At the end of the day, we can always perceive Quran in line with God's satisfaction or we can read it word for word to support the desires of our ego and to pursue our personal interests in the name of religion. Today, a suicide-bomber or an ISIS Jihadi. for example, would claim that he is fighting for God, to the best of his knowledge.  The truth of the matter is. there is only a fine line between the two intentions which can only be seen in the light of a pure and guided heart.  Nevertheless, once these intents are materialised, their outcome are incomparable and easy to differentiate. 

Finally, this discussion may also demonstrate the fact that in the absence of the Prophet, the only legitimate authority for interpretation of Quran, we are left with hadith and personal inspiration, both of which seem to be relative and indefinite despite being extremely helpful. This will lead us to a very practical conclusion that any human understanding of holy scriptures are merely personal understandings which can not be regarded as God's orders. It does not matter whether it is based on years of studying religious texts or if it is based on personal inspiration.