Is this proof you can't use a Miswaak to hit? Or is it proof that everything on the day of judgement will come about because Allah knows all things... Are the words of the Prophet in this instance proof that you can't use a Miswak to hit? Or was it more like "If I do something unjustly with this miswak, then Allah will question me concerning it"... Like "If I do something wrong with my computer, Allah will ask me concerning it"- doesn't make the Computer haram completely for the sake of Halal. Since we know that the Prophet was a mercy to mankind, and free from dhulm... this could be the reason he stopped himself from hitting her without a shari'i reason.... Secondly, why would the ayah be in the Qur'an as a last resort if it had no significant meaning or action related to it? Obviously different women/men work and understand on different levels.. But to proclaim that "if you need to every strike your wife then what exactly did you have with her in the first place" is a statement based upon one persons understanding, while Allah is the all knowing and understanding, and has prescribed hitting in certain cases for certain individuals, and it doesn't automatically mean the relationship was sour to begin with. For example..... You have a drunkard, or a Zani... They know the consequences of their actions but they still do it, would you say the punishment for them is not needed because they were Zaani or Drunkards inside even before doing the act of Zina or Drinking, so let them be with their sins? No you wouldn't because sins/bad actions happen and the punishment for them happen according to the circumstances that you ended up in. So the punishment of striking your wife does not automatically mean the relationship was bad to begin with, rather it should be on a relationship to relationship basis.... right?