Quran 2:223 uses an agricultural metaphor for marital intimacy, but it does not declare women to be property. The verse regulates sexual relations within marriage; it neither permits coercion nor reduces a wife to a husband's possession or pleasure.
Why the objection has force
The criticism should not be dismissed. The verse addresses men and says, "Your wives are your tilth," an image associated with land that is cultivated by its owner. It then says, "so go to your tilth however you wish." Read in isolation, this can sound as though the wife exists as an instrument for the husband's sexual use. Since Islamic marriage law also gives husbands certain forms of authority and places duties on wives, critics reasonably ask whether the metaphor reflects a wider structure of male control.
That concern identifies a real difficulty in the imagery. Agricultural language is not the language modern readers would normally choose to express marital equality. But a difficult metaphor is not the same thing as the legal claim being attributed to it.
What the verse actually says
Your wives are a place of sowing for you, so come to your place of cultivation however you wish, and send ahead something good for yourselves. And be mindful of Allah, and know that you will meet Him. And give good news to the believers.
Quran 2:223
The immediate context is sexual intercourse after menstruation, mentioned in the preceding verse. "Tilth" translates the Arabic harth, a field or place of cultivation. The image concerns the reproductive aspect of intercourse: the field is where seed is planted, not a statement that a woman is literally owned. In ordinary language, saying "your home" or "your family" does not make those things property in every relevant sense. The possessive expression describes a relationship, not a commercial title.
Classical commentators understood "however you wish" to concern the permissible manner and position of intercourse, while excluding intercourse during menstruation and anal intercourse. It does not mean whenever or however one person wishes without moral limits. The Quran repeatedly forbids harm and commands decent treatment:
Live with them honorably. If you dislike them, perhaps you dislike something in which Allah has placed much good.
Quran 4:19
What it establishes - and what it does not
The verse establishes that marital intimacy is lawful, that its reproductive dimension may be described through the field metaphor, and that sexual relations are subject to divine boundaries. It does not establish that wives are chattel, that husbands may buy or sell them, or that a husband may force, injure, humiliate, or use his wife without regard for her welfare. The Quran also describes marriage as a relationship of affection and mercy, and says that spouses have rights comparable to their obligations, according to what is reasonable (Quran 2:228; 30:21).
At the same time, this single verse does not by itself prove that every rule of classical marriage law is symmetrical by modern standards. It should be read honestly, without pretending that all traditional gender distinctions disappear. But calling the wife "tilth" is not a declaration of ownership. It is a limited metaphor about marital sexuality, bounded by accountability, kindness, and the prohibition of harm.