Why in Islam....more than one marriages are permitted legally ?

Question

Muslims can have four wives...legally....at anytime.
Why it is allowed....and apart from Islam, any other religion permits it...(legally).....?

Answer 1

Noble Verse 4:3 was revealed to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in Madina after he migrated to it from Mecca and established an Islamic state there right after the battle of Uhud in which the Muslims not only had lost badly against the Pagans, but also suffered a dramatic decrease in the number of Muslim men.

The Muslim men before that battle were approximately 700. They became only 400 after the battle. This loss had left so many Muslim women (1) Widows, and (2) Not able to get married if they were single.

To make matters even worse, the Muslims had faced yet another battle against the Pagans in Mecca and its neighboring tribes who wanted to attack the Muslims in Madina to finish off Islam once and for all, and by the Jews and the Christians in Madina who betrayed the Muslims in the "battle of Trench" after signing a defense treaty with Muhammad peace be upon him against the Pagans.

All praise due to Allah Almighty. With Allah's Will and Mercy, the Muslims had miraculously won the battle against the Pagans of Mecca and drove them back to where they came from, and then attacked the Jews and the Christians who betrayed the defense treaty and kicked those hypocrites out of Madina forever!

These continuous battles against the Muslims were very costly in terms of Muslim men's lives. The women had to be taken care of one way or another. For this reason, Allah Almighty had revealed the Noble Verse 4:3 to Muhammad peace be upon him to solve the social problems that the Muslims were facing. That is why at the very beginning of the Noble Verse 4:3 we see Allah Almighty setting a conditional clause for Orphans "If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans...(4:3)." This Noble Verse came down for the purpose of protecting the Orphans and to increase the number of the Muslims by allowing the men to marry multiple wives (preferably from the grown Orphans at that time), up to four wives only. The purpose was absolutely not for man's sexual pleasure nor privilege, nor was it to support man's personal ego. It was revealed to solve a major social problem to prevent major sins such as illegal sex and prostitution.

Polygamy is not encouraged in the Noble Quran, nor Allah Almighty had allowed it because He really liked it. He was clearly careful to highly discourage polygamy to men by telling them "but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one...(4:3)" which clearly orders men to either be fair or to not marry at all, despite the fact that we lost many men, Allah Almighty still didn't want polygamy to really take place. That's why He later told men "Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women, even if it is your ardent desire...(4:129)" which clearly nullifies the excuse that He gave them to practice polygamy. Is this a contradiction then? Absolutely not!. It clearly proves that when Allah Almighty allowed polygamy, He only allowed it because we (the Muslims) had an emergency; we lost almost half of our men if not even more. When Islam later became much stronger and Muslims defeated the infidels in the continues battles that were forced upon them (the Muslims), Allah Almighty nullified the excuse that he gave to men to practice polygamy, which would then lead to prohibiting polygamy altogether.


Hopefully the above is clear for you...

Answer 2

Good question...but Muslims are allowed more than one wife on very strict rules and regulations...not that easy...Secondly, most countries don't allow this I.e. United States so Muslims here cannot do this...
Thirdly this was allowed back in the day because the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) needed to spread the religion. Plus all but ONE wife of his was not a widow. He would marry the oppressed, poor, and widow to give them support in addition to spread the word of Islam. Nowadays Islam is the second largest religion in the World. I believe the Mormons also permit this.

Answer 3

Mormonism does it too. At least they did when I checked last. The reason Islam allows a man to take more than 1 wife if he so desires is 1) If they're more women then men in a society then it should be allowed and 2) To provide security for the unwed woman/widow who may or may not have children of her own. A man may take a second or third or even fourth wife if he can provide for them equally and treat them justly and fairly. But if he can not he should be content with just one wife. Due to this sitiuation most men end up either having just 1 wife or stay single. Islam also enforces marraige on every man and woman as it provides the women with protection and a sense of security and ensures a man that he will have sons.

Answer 4

Polygamy is strongly discouraged in the Qur'an and is only permissable in a few circumstances....
Polygamy was a way of life until the Quran was revealed 1400 years ago. When the earth was young and under-populated, polygamy was one way of populating it and bringing in the human beings needed to carry out God's plan. By the time the Quran was revealed, the world had been sufficiently populated, and the Quran put down the first limitations against polygamy. In the Bible on the other hand polyagamy has no restrictions and being equitable to ones wife is not necessary (2 Samuel 5:13, 1 Kings 11:3,Genesis 4:19, Deuteronomy 21:15, Exodus 21:10 etc)-so yes it is permitted and unregulated in the Bible....Christians may say but Jesus came and changed all this but why would they still feature it in the Bible if it wasn't part of their religion, and do they not believe the Bible is the word of God and what God wants?......

Polygamy is permitted in the Quran, but under strictly observed circumstances. Any abuse of this divine permission incurs severe retribution. Thus, although polygamy is permitted by God, it behooves us to examine our circumstances carefully before saying that a particular polygamous relationship is permissible. It is only allowed in war for orphans/widows.
Polygamy is dicouraged in the Qur'an, it is only allowed in very restricted situations....if God had banned polygamy at once there would be mass poverty and homelessness would result as the 2nd,third, 4th, 5th, 6th etc wives were turned out of their homes.
But the Qur'an reveals that God very strongly does not want polygamy in general....
"If you fear lest you may not be perfectly equitable in
treating more than one wife, then you shall be content with one." BUT...
(4:3) "You cannot be equitable in a polygamous relationship, no matter how hard you try." (4:129)
In todays world generally any polygamous marriage would be against the Qur'an and Islam as they are not marriages purely for a man who just wants another wife or thinks he can handle one...for this reason in most countries, such as the one I'm from (Australia), polygamy should be illegal as it is not needed and therefore not Qur'anic.
In Islam you don't just get to marry four women because you want ot our you thnk that you can handle them, God does not like or want polygamy only in the most dire of circumstances...as we live in a world today where other measures can be taken to avoid such circumstances even in dire times of war and orphans etc most polygamous marriages would definately be unQur'anic.

Answer 5

Before the Qur’an was revealed, there was no upper limit for polygyny and many men had many 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 justly with them.

So, Islam came to control having an infinite number of wives, like it was during the Pre-Islamic era.

Hence, Islam does allow having more than one wife, yet it has set conditions for that, which is that the husband should be fair with all his wives, and treat them equally, which is very difficult.
Since it is very difficult to be just with all wives, in practice, most of the Muslim men do not have more than one wife.

The reason for multiple wives in Islam was not to satisfy men’s desire and that's it, but for the welfare of the widows and the orphans of the wars. During war times, many women are unable to find husbands, and they might prefer to be a co-wife than no wife.

Also allowing multiple marriages is useful in case a man's wife is sterilized and can't give him the chance of being a father; here he has the right to marry another wife, and leaving the choice to her whether she wants to continue being his wife if he marries another woman or not

However men are prohibited from cheating on their wives, meaning a man can't marry another woman without the knowledge of his wife. He should tell her, for she might refuse such situation, and in this case it's totally her right if she asked for divorce.

Answer 6

It is more of a cultural thing than an islamic thing. Most african nations allow more than one wife, because that is just how the culture operates. Not necessarily just islamic nations. In islam, you are allowed more than one wife. But this was just how it was. Even those of the old testament had more than one wife. It was just the customs of the land. And if they were not wives, then they were legally allowed to have sex with them if they were slaves, servants, or concubines. Like abraham(pbuh) and hajar. Sarah was the wife of abraham(pbuh) though he had sex with hajar legally. But I don't know if he married her though. I do know that she was his slave given by the pharoah for fear of his lord. And King Solomon(pbuh) was known for having 500 wives or concubines. I forgot which one it was.PEACE!

EDIT:My mother has a friend from africa(ghana and a christian) and he told me that they can have many wives over there. Even if you believe in christianity. Because it is still the culture that allows multiple wives.

Answer 7

It is not legal in Turkey n Turkey is a muslim country. It was allowed when Quran sent from God coz at that time there was wars n it was allowed for preventing from unwed relationships. It still exists on Quran but itz not recommended anymore. The best thing n the most recommended marriage is with one wife marriages in Islam.

Answer 8

Islam is the only religion that says marry only one woman, Judaism and Christianity allowed it until they decided to allow man to reform the word of God, you can marry more than one wife but there are consequences for not being able to treat them equally, and since it is hard to treat them equally you have to be very careful in partaking the decision, the reasons for being able to marry more than one wife is because warfare might reduce the numbers of men, if a man wants to take care of a widow etc...
hopefully someone else gives you more info bc im tired

Answer 9

If you think about it... it is a solution to one of the biggest problems in society. Men cheating on their wives by having mistress(es), and even raising families with their mistress(es)!

It is to prevent men from having illegal affairs with women. It is better for a men to be legally responsible for women than to just sleep around with them and treat them like whores. Islam is giving women a chance to have self respect here.

What is a man's first wife is not able to have children, and he wants children who are biologically his? He has a right. Surrogacy is not permitted in Islam. Should he divorce is first wife just because of that? Of course not. So here's a solution.

Only a small percentage of Muslim men actually have more than one wife. The Qur'an also states that a man is only allowed to marry more than one if he is able to treat and provide for all of them equally.

Answer 10

Not quite right.
A muslim is permitted to have up to four wives IF HE HAS THE FINANCIAL MEANS TO BE ABLE TO SUPPORT ALL FOUR EQUALLY.
This is permitted by the teachings of the self-apponted sex-pervert, Mohammed, because that's the way he wanted to live. One of his wives was aged six at the time of the marriage and that marriage was consummated by sexual intimacy when she was nine. What kind of man is that?
Other religious sects permit polygamy. Try the Mormons for the most infamous, but there are many minor sects/cults that indulge ... it's a crazy world and the religious fools make it crazier.