Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands

Reviewed by: Mansur Ali, Cardiff University, UK

Published by: Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2022, 368pp. ISBN: 9780197553305

This book is about the intersection of modernity and Sunni exegetical thought. The author studies four North African modern exegetes from four different intellectual permutations: Muhammad [Abduh (d. 1905) (Islamic modernist) and Rashid Rida (d. 1935) (modernist Salafi), Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966) (Islamist), and Muhammad al-Tahir Ibn [Ashur (d. 1973) (traditionalist). Dr Mubarak compares and contrasts the aforementioned scholars’ exegeses with seven premodern Tafsirs of the Qur’an. The book primarily focuses on four verses of the Qur’an: 4:34 (rebellious wives), 4:128 (neglectful husbands), 4:3 (polygyny) and 2:228 (men’s degree of superiority).

The book can be read from a number of perspectives. On one level it is a response to and an accusation of ‘well meaning’ Muslim feminists who do not engage with the Tafsir genre and yet are quick to discard it as monolithic, patriarchal, misogynist and bereft of women’s voice. A detailed study of women related verses reveals that Muslim feminists’ approach to Qur’anic studies lies