When the Quran says "your wives are a tilth for you, so go into your tilth when you like", what does it mean?

Question

Quran 2:223 “your wives are a tilth for you, so go into your tilth when you like ...” http://www.usc.edu/dept/msa/quran/002.qmt.html

The chapter mentions nothing about womans rights in this matter, this entitlement for husbands has no stated exception. Read the chapter and see if I am correct.

Now, consider the ramifications. This verse literally gives complete s-xual entitlement to men, with no exception. In a legal sense, woman are property, like sheep or pigs.

Consider the phrase "a tilth unto you". A "tilth" is the strongest claim to property in all known jurisprudence. Its based on the idea that the "tilth" is a product of your labor mixed with the land and is recognizied as absolute by the majority of all property law schemes.

When can men use their wives? Its straightforward...whenever "you like". No right of refusal is mentioned, even for sickness. Thus based on a western value system, this is an absolute and unconscionable permission to rape.

EDIT: Thanks Raisin nutz ;)

Answer 1

I love you!

keep up the GREAT work!!

Answer 2

Much as I must say that I absolutely can't effing stand Muslims (b/c they support Islam which supports sharia which supports the stoning of little girls among other atrocities and generally stupid and/or barbaric practices) I must say that I don't see anything in this verse about beating. 'Tilth' means (I looked it up) cultivation of land or land to be plowed or some ****, in case anyone doesn't want to look it up.

Answer 3

Maybe based on Western value systems...

But Muslims don't apply Western value systems when they're interpreting the Quran.

No sane Muslim man believes that he has the right to rape his wife. Because Islam instructs Muslims to be kind to women (mother, wife, daughters etc.). And clearly, raping your wife is by no means a kind act.

Answer 4

some men regardless of religion may argue that point and say 'there can be no rape in marriage'... of course they haven't been arrested for the rape yet...
overall, why does such an attitude surprise you so much? Many men do even nowadays treat women as property in the places you've never imagined - western world.

Answer 5

Women in western societies have much more crap to go through, you seem smart so look at rape and abuse statistics. My point is that there is no perfect system but there are pros and cons, you see.

I don't like biased opinions and generalizations.

You give thumb downs as much as you like, we live in systems whether its governed by culture or religion. In Islam you are allowed to beat your wife for discipline, in the western culture you can have sex with a minor and leave her and the baby to suffer alone. Still can't see my point!

Answer 6

They consider the Quran perfect and unchanged don't they? so presumably there is no part that anyone will say "oh that no longer applies" as many Christians do with the Bible...so this permission to force yourself upon your woman still stands along with all the other violent and dangerous encouragements to dominate and kill kafirs.

Answer 7

Islamic women like the plowshare just as much. Wake the hell up! Stop picking your nose and think you're picking a fight.

Answer 8

You might want to add this other sick verse from the qu'ran that sanctions wife beating. Definitely Islam takes in consideration women's rights!.(sarcasm)
Quran (4:34) orders a man to beat his wife if she doesn't obey him!
Quran 4:34: Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in their sleeping places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.

Answer 9

The true menaing of those words are not for the wife or woman. That is for the land, where you are planting things and vegetables for food. It means you go to the land where you are tilthing or simply tilling for it is the source of food for you. But the muslim misinterpreted it as wife or woman that is why the have more than one wife.
jtm

Answer 10

this is not a correct translation ...

any way it speaks of bed potions during physical relationship in bed .. it means that both husband and wife can carry any position in their physical relationship in bed as they like ..


it is not a rape .. the wife can refuse :)

Answer 11

In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful

2:222 And they ask thee concerning menstruation. Say,
'It is a harmful thing, so keep away from women during menstruation, and go not in unto them until they are clean.
But when they have cleansed themselves, go in unto them
as Allah has commanded you. Allah loves those who keep themselves clean.'

2:223 Your wives are a sort of tilth for you; so approach your tilth when and as you like and send ahead some good for yourselves; and fear God and know that you shall meet Him; and bear good tidings to those who believe.

Holy Quran

You forget to mention 2:222 it will makes it more clear but i guess you know what you do i will explain. Of all the matters that concern human life on earth, the matter relating to the sexual relation of one human being with the other, is the most delicate one. The Holy Qur'an has dealt with the sexual matter in a language unapproached in its purity and grace by any other religious order in dealing with law pertaining to similar questions. A comparison between the Qur'anic language and the wording of similar passages in the Bible (Lev.18:19, 20:18 Rn. 248b to r. 222) or any other religious scriptures will prove the unsurpassed purity of the language of the Holy Qur'an. It must also be remembered that the Holy Qur'an was revealed through the Arabian Prophet who was not educated at the hand of any mortal in the world, at a time when the poets in Arabia prided over naked and shameless expressions of sexual contact and intercourse.

"*Do with your tillage as you like*" explains "Do with them as ordained" of the previous verse, but keep in mind that women are a tillage, therefore, dealing with it in a wasteful or unnatural way is foolish and detestable.

Woman is compared to the tilth. With this comprehensive and meanigful comparison it has been most eloquently declared that the real or the sole object of conjugal relations between the sexes should not be the satisfaction of the carnal desires but to produce the best possible fruits with purity of body and mind worthy of being acceptable to the service of the lord. Mother is the basic fountainhead from whom the character and conduct of the issue springs or gets its start. This actually raises the position of women and establishes her importance to the human society through the importance of the correct marital relationship, contrary to what you understand about this verse.

Now let us see what Jewish tradition regarding the husband’s role towards his wife stems from the conception that he owns her as he owns his slave.

This conception has been the reason behind the double standard in the laws of adultery and behind the husband’s ability to annul his wife’s vows. This conception has also been responsible for denying the wife any control over her property or her earnings. As soon as a Jewish woman got married, she completely lost any control over her property and earnings to her husband. Jewish Rabbis asserted the husband’s right to his wife’s property as a corollary of his possession of her: “Since one has come into the possession of the woman does it not follow that he should come into the possession of her property too?”, and “Since he has acquired the woman should he not acquire also her property?”

Thus, marriage caused the richest woman to become practically penniless. The Talmud describes the financial situation of a wife as follows:

“How can a woman have anything; whatever is hers belongs to her husband? What is his is his and what is hers is also his... Her earnings and what she may find in the streets are also his. The household articles, even the crumbs of bread on the table, are his. Should she invite a guest to her house and feed him, she would be stealing from her husband...”
(San. 71a, Git. 62a)

The fact of the matter is that the property of a Jewish female was meant to attract suitors. A Jewish family would assign their daughter a share of her father’s estate to be used as a dowry in case of marriage. It was this dowry that made Jewish daughters an unwelcome burden to their fathers. The father had to raise his daughter for years and then prepare for her marriage by providing a large dowry. Thus, a girl in a Jewish family was a liability and no asset.

Christianity, until recently, has followed the same Jewish tradition. Both religious and civil authorities in the Christian Roman Empire (after Constantine) required a property agreement as a condition for recognizing the marriage. Families offered their daughters increasing dowries and, as a result, men tended to marry earlier while families postponed their daughters’ marriages until later than had been customary.

Under Canon and civil law a married woman in Christian Europe and America had lost her property rights until late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For example, women’s rights under English law were compiled and published in 1632. These ‘rights’ included: “That which the husband hath is his own. That which the wife hath is the husband’s.

Islam, since the seventh century C.E., has granted married women the independent personality which the Judaeo-Christian West had deprived them until very recently. In Islam, the bride and her family are under no obligation whatsoever to present a gift to the groom. The girl in a Muslim family is no liability. A woman is so dignified by Islam that she does not need to present gifts in order to attract potential husbands. It is the groom who must present the bride with a marriage gift. This gift is considered her property and neither the groom nor the bride’s family have any share in or control over it. In some Muslim societies today, a marriage gift of a hundred thousand dollars in diamonds is not unusual.

The bride retains her marriage gifts even if she is later divorced. The husband is not allowed any share in his wife’s property except what she offers him with her free consent.
The Qur’an has stated its position on this issue quite clearly:

“And give the women (on marriage) their dower as a free gift; but if they, Of their own good pleasure, remit any part of it to you, take it and enjoy it with right good cheer.”(4:4)