The canonical Sunni Hadith collections also include recollections of the Prophet’s Farewell Sermon, given on Hajj in what would be the final year of his life. One of the parting pieces of wisdom he leaves his followers is the commandment to ‘Fear God as concerns your womenfolk, for indeed you took charge of them with God’s assurance.’ The Prophet further explains that only if a wife allows herself to converse with men against her husband’s wishes or, in another version of the Hadith, commits some grievous transgression (fahisha mubayyina, a phrase with sexual innuendo) can the husband strike
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