Refutation of 'daraba' = beat:

http://www.islamawareness.net/Wife/beating1.html

http://imedaindia.ning.com/profiles/blogs/verse-4-34-the-meaning-of-the-word-dar...

Assuming all the Quran translators are wrong (which they are not)

what does Idriboohunna mean gandalf, does it mean beat them?

Allah Almighty used the word "daraba" in Noble Verse 14:24 "Seest thou not how Allah sets (daraba) forth a parable? -- A goodly Word Like a goodly tree, Whose root is firmly fixed, And its branches (reach) To the heavens".  "daraba" here meant "give an example".  If I say in Arabic "daraba laka mathal", it means "give you an example".

Allah Almighty also used the word "darabtum", which is derived from the word "daraba" in Noble Verse 4:94, which mean to "go abroad" in the sake of Allah Almighty:

"O ye who believe! When ye go abroad (darabtum) In the cause of Allah, Investigate carefully, And say not to anyone Who offers you a salutation: 'Thou art none of a Believer!' Coveting the perishable good Of this life: with Allah Are profits and spoils abundant.  Even thus were ye yourselves Before, till Allah conferred On you His favours: therefore Carefully investigate.  For Allah is well aware Of all that ye do.   (The Noble Quran, 4:94)"

So "daraba" literally means "beat", or "go abroad", or "give" but not in the sense to give something by hand, but rather to give or provide an example.

...I would prefer children to fear getting run over than to fear a beating.

You cannot beat common sense into a child, only fear...

Michael Gove slackens rules on use of physical force in schools

Education secretary seeks to stem 'erosion of adult authority' by recruiting former male soldiers to the classroom


Ministers are scrapping a requirement for teachers to record instances when they use physical force, as part of a wider move to "restore adult authority" in the wake of the riots in England.

The education secretary, Michael Gove, said that he wanted greater numbers of men teaching, particularly in primary schools, so as to provide children with male authority figures who could display "both strength and sensitivity".

In a speech delivered at Durand academy, in Stockwell, south London, Gove said the regulations on the use of force inhibited teachers' judgment.

He said: "So let me be crystal clear, if any parent now hears a school say, 'sorry, we can't physically touch the students', then that school is wrong. Plain wrong. The rules of the game have changed."

Gove said men considering teaching were deterred by a fear of rules that made contact between adults and children "a legal minefield".

The government was planning to start a programme this autumn encouraging former members of the armed forces to take up teaching, specifically to ensure more male role models, Gove said.

In a speech that sought to address the causes of the riots in August, Gove began by making a moral distinction between what he called a "hard-working majority" and a "vicious, lawless, immoral minority". But he went on to examine what he said were the policy failures that lay behind the creation of the "educational underclass".

He said: "To investigate where the looters came from is not to make excuses because of background. It is to shine a light on failures that originated in poor policy, skewed priorities, and the deliberate undermining of legitimate authority."

Gove said he was haunted by the thought that, if circumstances had been different, he might have been a part of this underclass. The education secretary highlighted his own family background. "I was born to a single parent, never knew my biological father and spent my first few months in care.

"Thanks to the love of my adoptive mother and father, and the education I enjoyed, I was given amazing opportunities. So I know just how much the right parenting, the right values at home, and the right sort of school matter in determining a child's fate."

Gove said there had been a slow erosion of adult authority, subverted by a culture in which young people felt able to ignore civilised boundaries. "The only way to reverse this dissolution of legitimate authority is step-by-step to move the ratchet back in favour of teachers."

Gove also spoke of an "iron-clad link" between illiteracy, disruption, truancy, exclusion and crime.

More than 430,000 children were absent for 15% of school time, and more than a million pupils missed 10% of the academic year, he said.

He added that only a third of those students who missed between 10% and 20% of school got the "basic minimum" of five good GCSE passes.

The government is asking Charlie Taylor, a headteacher and Gove's adviser on behaviour, to look at improving "alternative provision" units for children with behavioural problems.

Taylor will be asked to work with Lord Harris of Peckham, who sponsors academies, to speed up the ability of those entities to create provision for excluded and disruptive pupils.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed Gove's statement concerning the use of force against pupils.

He said: "ASCL is delighted that the secretary of state has responded to our advice with the wise decision not to proceed with these regulations. The requirement would have imposed yet another bureaucratic burden that did nothing to improve discipline or safeguard children.

"The use of physical restraint is thankfully required very rarely in schools. On occasions where it is needed, detailed guidance exists and staff fully understand the need to follow it to the letter. Schools already keep records of breaches of discipline."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/01/michael-gove-physical-force-schools

you can't expect people to take that more seriously than all the authoritative sources from within Islam that say Islam permits wife beating.

The word iḍribūhunna comes from the root ḍaraba (Arabic: ضرب). The word has been used many times in the Quran to mean: to hit, to travel the earth, to set up, to condemn and to give examples. Thus scholars interpret iḍribūhunna differently. Whereas many interpret it to mean "to strike", others hold that the term means "to separate".[34] Such an action is to be administered only if neither the husband nor the wife are willing to divorce.[39] In the context of this verse, iḍribūhunna has also been interpreted to mean "go to bed with them",[40] the Arabic root word "daraba" being taken from the prosaic example "the stud-camel covered the she-camel".[41]

The 2007 translation The Sublime Quran by Laleh Bakhtiar translates iḍribūhunna not as 'beat them' but as 'go away from them'. The introduction to her translation discusses the linguistic and shari‘ah reasons in Arabic for understanding this verb in context. The Prophet never beat his wives, and his example from the Sunnah informs the interpretation of this verse. This interpretation is supported by the fact that some other verses, such as 4:101 which contains word darabtum (derivation from daraba), demonstrate also the interpretation of Arabic word daraba to have meaning 'going' or 'moving'.[54]

The world-renowned and well-respected Islamic scholar Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri has given the same translation in his translation of the Quran "Irfan-ul-Quran" ("(...)and (if they still do not improve) turn away from them, striking a temporary parting.(...)").[17]

This translation is further supported by the fact that the word "darabtum" is used in the same Surah (4:94), which means to "go abroad" in the sake of Allah and which is derived from the same root word ("daraba") as "idribuhunna" in 4:34.[55]

I am having trouble understanding why there would be any confusion as to the real meaning.

I just explained to you why it makes no sense Gandalf. Your only argument in favour of an alternative translation is that it is "linguistically possible"

On the other hand, the arguments against the alternative translation are that it makes no sense at all, either in the context of what is written or in the historical context of how the meaning was passed on.

Are you suggesting that Muslims have mistranslated the word for a millenia?