Polygamy
Q. Why is a man allowed to marry more than one wife in Islam? Or
why is polygamy allowed in Islam?
Answer:
1. Definition of Polygamy Polygamy means a system of marriage
whereby one person has more than one spouse. Polygamy can be of
two types. One is polygyny where a man marries more than one
woman, and the other is polyandry, where a woman marries more
than one man. In Islam, limited polygyny is permitted and
polyandry is completely prohibited. Now coming to the original
question, why is a man allowed to have more than one wife?
2. Qur'an is the only religious scripture in the world that says
'marry only one' Qur'an is the only religious book, on the face
of this earth, that contains the phrase 'marry only one'. There
is no other religious book that instructs men to have only one
wife. In none of the religious scriptures like the Vedas, the
Ramayan, the Mahabharat, the Geeta or the Bible does one find a
restriction on the number of wives. According to these
scriptures one can marry as many as one wishes. It was only
later, that the Hindu priests and the Christian Church
restricted the number of wives to one.
Many Hindu religious personalities, according to their
scriptures, had multiple wives. King Dashrat, the father of Rama,
had more than one wife. Krishna had several wives. In earlier
times, Christian men were permitted as many wives as they
wished, since the Bible puts no restriction on the number of
wives. It was only a couple of centuries ago that the Church
restricted the number of wives to one.
Polygyny is permitted in Judaism. According to Talmudic law,
Abraham had 2 wives, and Solomon had hundreds of wives. The
practice of polygyny continued till Rabbi Gershom ben Yehudah.
(960 A.D to 1030 A.D) issued an edict against it. The Jewish
Sephardic communities living in Muslim countries continued the
practice till as late as 1950, when an Act of the chief
Rabbinate of Israel extended the ban on marrying more than one
wife.
3. Hindus are more polygamous than Muslims The report of the
'Committee of The Status of Woman in Islam', published in 1975
mentions on page numbers 66,67 that the percentage of polygamous
marriages between the year 1951 -1961 was 5.06 among the Hindus
and only 4.31 among the Muslims. According to Indian law only
Muslim men are permitted to have more than one wife. It is
illegal for any non-Muslim in India to have more than one wife.
Despite it being illegal, Hindus have more multiple wives as
compared to the Muslim. One can imagine what would have been the
percentage of polygamous marriages among the Hindus if the
Indian government had made it legal for them. Earlier, there was
no restriction even on Hindu men with respect to the number of
wives allowed. It was only in 1954, when the Hindu Marriage Act
was passed that it became illegal for a Hindu to have more than
one wife. At present it is the Indian Law that restricts a Hindu
man from having more than one wife and not the Hindu scriptures.
Let us now analyse why Islam allows a man to have more than one
wife.
4. Qur'an permits limited polygyny As I mentioned earlier,
Qur'an is the only religious book on the face of the earth that
says 'marry only one'. The context of this phrase is the
following verse from Surah Nisa of the Glorious Qur'an: 'Marry
woman of your choice in twos' threes' or fours' but if ye fear
that ye shall not be able to deal justly, (with them), then only
one' [Al-Qur'an 4:3]
Before the Qur'an was revealed, there was no upper limit for
polygyny and many men had scores of wives, some even hundreds.
Islam put an upper limit of four wives. Islam gives a man
permission to marry two, three or four women, only on the
condition that he deals with them justly. In the same chapter
i.e. Surah Nisa verse 129 says: 'It is very difficult to be just
and fair between women'. [Al-Qur'an (4:129)]
Therefore polygyny is not a rule but an exception. Many people
are under the misconception that it is compulsory for a Muslim
man to marry more than one wife.
Broadly, Islam has five categories of Do's and Dont's.
(i) 'Farz' i.e compulsory
(ii) 'Mustahab' i.e recommended or encouraged
(iii) 'Mubah' i.e permissible
(iv) 'Makruh' i.e 'not recommended' or discouraged
(v) 'Haram' i.e prohibited or forbidden
Polygyny falls in the middle category of things that are
permissible. It cannot be said that a Muslim who has two, three
or four wives is a better Muslim as compared to a Muslim who has
only one wife.
5. Average life span of females is more than that of males By
nature males and females are born in approximately the same
ratio. During paediatric age however, in childhood itself a
female child has more immunity than a male child. A female child
can fight the germs and diseases better than the male child. For
this reason, there are more deaths among males as compared to
the females during paediatric age.
During wars, there are more men killed as compared to women.
More men die due to accidents and diseases than women. The
average life span of females is more than that of males, and at
any given time one finds more widows in the world than widowers.
6. India has more male population than female due to female
foeticide and infanticide. India is one of the few countries,
along with the other neighbouring countries, in which the female
population is less than the male population. The reason lies in
the high rate of female infanticide in India, and the fact that
more than one million female foetuses are aborted every year in
this country, after they are identified as females. If this evil
practice is stopped, then India too will have more females as
compared to males.
7. World female population is more than male population In the
USA, women outnumber men by 7.8 million. New York alone has one
million more females as compared to the number of males, and of
the male population of New York one-third are gays i.e
sodomites. The USA as a whole has more than twenty-five million
gays. This means that these people do not wish to marry women.
Great Britain has four million more females as compared to
males. Germany has five million more females as compared to
males. Russia has nine million more females than males. God
alone knows how many million more females there are in the whole
world as compared to males.
8. Restricting each and every man to have only one wife is not
practical Even if every man got married to one woman, there
would still be more than thirty million more females in USA who
would not be able to get husbands (considering that America has
twenty five million gays). There would be more than four million
females in Great Britain 5 million females in Germany and nine
million females in Russia alone who would not be able to find a
husband.
Suppose my sister happens to be one of the unmarried women
living in USA, or suppose your sister happens to be one of the
unmarried women in USA. The only two options remaining for her
are that she either marries a man who already has a wife or
becomes public property. There is no other option. I have posed
this question to hundreds of non-Muslims and all opted for the
first. However a few smart people before accepting, said they
would prefer their sisters to remain virgins. Biologically, it
is not possible for an average man or a woman to remain celibate
throughout life. It may be possible in exceptional cases of one
in ten thousand. In the vast majority, the person either gets
married or performs illicit sex or indulges in other sexual
perversions. Sex hormones are released in the adult body every
day. That is the reason why Islam has prohibited monasticism.
In Western society it is common for a man to have mistresses
and/or multiple extra-marital affairs, in which case, the woman
leads a disgraceful, unprotected life. The same society,
however, cannot accept a man having more than one wife, in which
women retain their honourable, dignified position in society and
lead a protected life.
Thus the only two options before a woman who cannot find a
husband is to marry a married man or to become public property.
Islam prefers giving women the honourable position by permitting
the first option and disallowing the second. There are several
other reasons, why Islam has permitted limited polygyny, but it
is mainly to protect the modesty of women.
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