What Is Meant Here?
This entry belongs to the Shahrur Glossary. Qiwamah, in this aspect of Shahrur’s reading of al-Nisa’ 34, is not an authority possessed by a male merely because he is male. It is a qualification that the text on which he relies links to moral and material capacity and which—according to his reading—may be realized in females as in males.
(A) What Is Attributed to Shahrur and His Evidence
Shahrur criticizes the restriction of the verse to the qiwamah of “male men” over “female women,” holding that this restriction has produced an understanding that makes the female subordinate to the male. He then maintains that the context of the verse concerns moral and material capacity and competence, and that “men” in it are those qualified for qiwamah by virtue of these capacities, whether male or female, whereas “women” are those, male or female, whose capacities are lesser. This position forms part of his reading of al-Nisa’ 34.
For tracing within the atlas: Qiwamah includes men and women, and Qiwamah according to competence.
(B) The Atlas’s Explanation
This reading makes clear that denying absolute male privilege does not entail establishing a general equivalence between the terms men, women, males, and females; rather, it is a judgment qualified by the context of the verse as Shahrur defines it. Provision is mentioned in the text of the verse he discusses, but the available evidence does not provide an independent, detailed definition of qiwamah as “management,” nor does it set out a practical mechanism for assessing moral and material capacity.
(C) Synthetic Conclusion
If Shahrur’s reading at this point is taken as it stands, qiwamah is understood as a qualification connected to a person’s capacities, rather than as a fixed privilege of sex. Accordingly, the question of the basis of authority within the family becomes a question of qualification and responsibility, not of masculinity alone. To extend this question in a synthetic reading, see Women and the family within human rights.
(D) The Open Question and the Limits of the Evidence
The atlas pages contain references indicating that Shahrur reads daraba in the verse in a non-physical manner: [[sources/كتب/محمد-شحرور-نحو-اصول-جديدة-للفقه-الاسلامي/claims/atoms/الضرب في آية النساء سحب للقوامة|Daraba in the verse of al-Nisa’ is withdrawal of qiwamah]] and The three steps are not physical beating. However, the evidence attached here is summary in nature or lacks a verbatim quotation, and is therefore insufficient to establish the details of this interpretation in this entry. Likewise, the current evidence does not establish that nushuz is “a dysfunction in the role of qiwamah,” nor does it establish the sequence of reconciliation, arbitration, and separation. These therefore remain matters requiring direct source evidence.