DRAFT: Not for Publication Of course, it is simply impossible to translate this second DRB excerpt from verse 24:31 as “beat”, “hit”, “stamp” or anything remotely synonymous with those words. It even seems nearly impossible in hindsight that the other excerpt from verse 24:31 could be translated as such either (as “stamp”). Yet so many Muslim scholars suffering from taqlid groupthink have quite embarrassingly done so nonetheless. Incidentally, similar logic has led some Muslims to argue that DRB also means sexual intercourse, or “to cover”, based on a late 11th century reference to “darab al-fahl an-naqah” by Al-Raghib al-Isfahani, in his Al-Mufradat fi Gharib al-Quran (Quran dictionary). This phrase has been cited many times by subsequent scholars and has been translated to mean “the stud camel covered [DRB] the she-camel”. Here again we have a case where the DRB root word is assumed to describe the subject of the sentence (the cause) instead of the direct object of the action (the effect). Like verse 8:12 in striking (cause) vs. severing (effect) with a sword, this has led to the spawning of entirely new meanings for the DRB root. This example of “the stud camel covering [DRB] the she-camel” is also very much like the traditional “stamp their feet” misinterpretation too. Both DRB root word usages invoke a completely nonsensical or indirect meaning (“stamp” or “cover”) in order to obscure what is actually a more graphic sexual innuendo of “spreading apart”. Given the medieval theocratic origins of these more euphemistic interpretations, we should not find these oblique embellishments at all surprising. “That Which God (Commands To Be) Guarded”: The Hijab Debate, Part 2
As promised above, for those who are interested, let’s turn once again to the ancillary topic of hijab, while also clarifying what verse 4:34 means when it refers to “that which God (commands to be) guarded”. To do so, we first need to look at the entirety of verse 24:31, along with the related verse 24:30 preceding it: Say to the believing men, that they should lower their gaze, and they should guard [wayaḥfaẓna = HFZ root] their modesty/private parts [furūjahum = FRJ root]. That (is) purer for them. Indeed, God (is) All-Aware of what they do. (Quran 24:30) And say to the believing women, (that) they should lower their gaze, and they should guard [wayaḥfaẓū = HFZ root] their modesty/private parts [furūjahunna = FRJ root] and not display/reveal [yub'dīna = BDW root] their beauty [zīnatahunna = ZYN root], except what becomes apparent/exposed [ẓahara = ZHR root] of it [i.e., by accident, like per Quran 24:58]. And let them spread [or draw] apart [walyaḍrib'na = DRB root] their shawls [bikhumurihinna = KMR root] over their bosoms and not display/reveal [yub'dīna = BDW root] their beauty [zīnatahunna = ZYN root], except to their husbands or their fathers or the fathers of their husbands or their sons or the sons of their husbands or their brothers or the sons of their brothers or the sons of their sisters or their women [female employees, friends, etc.] or whom their oaths govern or the attendants having no physical desire among the men or the children who (are) not aware of the naked aspects [ʿawrāti = EWR root, feminine plural] of the women. 65 Author: Chameleon_X
Last Updated: December 30, 2014