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I am a muslim woman who is doing my own humble searching for truth .. My tongue is Arabic so I understand very well God's verse mentioning a conditional permit to a man for having two or three or four wives (and that is if he's responsible for an orphan female or a widow with child whom he needs to be around to provide for and support). All other references to polygamy throughout my readings refer to socio cultural conditions presupposed and regarded as a religeous permission). If you have anything serious to tell me please do. If you will refer to the same personal opinions or historical circumstances.. please spare me. I need solid proof to help me conclude this matter for my own self knowledge. Thank you.

2007-03-25 03:57:42 · 4 answers · asked by manool 2 in Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

In response to the person (whom i thank) who copied and pasted from a mentioned site:
1) the sentence "Marry women of your choice..two or three..." is not how the holy verse starts.. It is the second part of the verse that starts "If you fear being injust to the orphans, then marry women of your choice".. It's an If-Then rule.
You copied that it is Al Quran surat and there is no such surat in the Quran.
2- The statistics included are not correct. It has been 50 years when women outnumbered men on our planet. Men outnumber women in most of the world by a percentage ranging from 1.2 to 1.6. Check it out.

2007-03-25 04:52:42 · update #1

4 answers

It's not unconditionally, there are a number of strict rules to follow.

I'll just copy and paste, happy reading.

Definition of Polygamy

1. 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; whereas polyandry is completely prohibited.

Now coming to the original question, why is a man allowed to have more than one wife?


2. The Qur’an is the only religious scripture in the world that says,"marry only one".


The 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 other religious scriptures, whether it be the Vedas, the Ramayan, the Mahabharat, the Geeta, the Talmud 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 few centuries ago that the Church restricted the number of wives to one.

Polygyny is permitted in Judaism. According to Talmudic law, Abraham had three wives, and Solomon had hundreds of wives. The practice of polygyny continued till Rabbi Gershom ben Yehudah (95% C.E to 1030 C.E) issued an edict against it. The Jewish Sephardic communities living in Muslim countries continued the practice till as late as 1950, until an Act of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel extended the ban on marrying more than one wife.


3. Hindus are more polygynous than Muslims


The report of the ‘Committee of The Status of Woman in Islam’, published in 1975 mentions on page numbers 66 and 67 that the percentage of polygamous marriages between the years 1951 and 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 Muslims. 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 women of your choice, two, or three, or four; 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 justly with them.

In the same chapter i.e. Surah Nisa verse 129 says:

"Ye are never able to be fair and just as 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 have more than one wife.

Broadly, Islam has five categories of Do’s and Don’ts:

‘Fard’ i.e. compulsory or obligatory

‘Mustahab’ i.e. recommended or encouraged

‘Mubah’ i.e. permissible or allowed

‘Makruh’ i.e. not recommended or discouraged

‘Haraam’ 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. 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, during the pediatric age itself there are more deaths among males as compared to the females.

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 U.S.A 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 females in U.S.A 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. All those who are modest will opt for the first.

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.

2007-03-25 04:02:36 · answer #1 · answered by Adia Azrael 4 · 2 1

Salam.Allah has determined within the Qur'an that polygamy is halam for muslim guy if he would deal with his other halves(two,three or four) relatively or justly.But Allah spoke that the majority muslim guys would no longer preparation the justice to all in their other halves,so Allah steered to take just one spouse. We must be given it like or dislike bacause it's the choice of Allah.We don't no longer all advantages of it however within the society there are extra females than guys which would make a social issues..There are many unfertile other halves and there are lots of husband who died and left the widows and orphans..Allah has given us its emergency door for its answer I myself is not going to preparation the polygamy despite the fact that it's approved due to the fact that I would no longer deal with my other halves relatively and I have a restricted finacial earnings and one spouse is adequate for me. Yes I consider you that marriage is not just headquartered on love.There are many points which must be judged.

2016-09-05 15:14:01 · answer #2 · answered by gadis 4 · 0 0

Why not formulate your own opinion dear? Would you want your husband to have two, three, or four wives? Some including an orphaned female? It's the modern day honey, you can do whatever you want, but I would hate to see you allow your husband to make love to other woman solely because a book told you he must.

2007-03-25 04:03:27 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 2

I always heard that islamic men may have no more than three wives, and may only sleep with one per night.

2007-03-25 04:01:55 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1 2

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