Praise
be to Allaah.
Allaah
concluded His Message to mankind with the
religion of Islam, and He tells us that He
will not accept any religion other than that.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
"And
whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it
will never be accepted of him, and in the
Hereafter he will be one of the losers"
[Aal 'Imraan 3:85]
Your
backing away from the religion of Islam is
considered to be a loss for you, and a loss of
the happiness that awaited you, had you
entered Islam. You should hasten to enter
Islam, and beware of delaying, for that delay
may lead to regrettable consequences.
With
regard to what you mention about the reason
for your backing off being the idea of plural
marriage [polygamy or polygyny], we will
present to you the ruling on plural marriage
in Islam, and then the wisdom and noble
purposes behind it.
1
� The ruling on plural marriage in Islam:
The
shar'i text which permits plural marriage is:
Allaah
says in His Holy Book (interpretation of the
meaning):
"And
if you fear that you shall not be able to deal
justly with the orphan girls then marry
(other) women of your choice, two or three, or
four; but if you fear that you shall not be
able to deal justly (with them), then only one
or (slaves) that your right hands possess.
That is nearer to prevent you from doing
injustice" [al-Nisa' 4:3]
This
is a Qur'aanic text which shows that plural
marriage is allowed. According to Islamic
sharee'ah, a man is permitted to marry one,
two, three or four wives, in the sense that he
may have this number of wives at one time. It
is not permissible for him to have more than
four. This was stated by the mufassireen
(commentators on the Qur'aan) and fuqaha'
(jurists), and there is consensus among the
Muslims on this point, with no differing
opinions.
It
should be noted that there are conditions
attached to plural marriage:
1
� Justice or fairness.
Allaah
says (interpretation of the meaning):
"but
if you fear that you shall not be able to deal
justly (with them), then only
one"[al-Nisa' 4:3]
This
aayah indicates that just treatment is a
condition for plural marriage to be permitted.
If a man is afraid that he will not be able to
treat his wives justly if he marries more than
one, then it is forbidden for him to marry
more than one. What is meant by the justice
that is required in order for a man to be
permitted to have more than one wife is that
he should treat his wives equally in terms of
spending, clothing, spending the night with
them and other material things that are under
his control.
With
regard to justice or fairness in terms of
love, he is not held accountable for that, and
that is not required of him because he has no
control over that. This is what is meant by
the verse,
"You
will never be able to do perfect justice
between wives even if it is your ardent
desire" [al-Nisa' 4:129 �
interpretation of the meaning].
2
� The ability to spend on one's wives:
The
evidence for this condition is the verse:
"And
let those who find not the financial means for
marriage keep themselves chaste, until Allaah
enriches them of His Bounty"[al-Noor
24:33 � interpretation of the meaning]
In
this verse Allaah commands those who are able
to get married but cannot find the financial
means, to remain chaste. One such example is
not having enough money to pay the mahr
(dowry) and not being able to spend on one's
wife. ( al-Mufassal fi Ahkaam al-Mar'ah,
part 6, p. 286).
2
� The wisdom behind permitting plural
marriage
1
� Plural marriage helps to increase the
numbers of the ummah (nation, Muslim
community). It is known that the numbers can
only be increased through marriage, and the
number of offspring gained through plural
marriage will be greater than that achieved
through marriage to one wife.
Wise
people know that increasing the number of
offspring will strengthen the ummah and
increase the number of workers in it, which
will raise its economic standard � if the
leaders run the affairs of state well and make
use of its resources in a proper manner.
Ignore the claims of those who say that
increasing the numbers of human beings poses a
danger to the earth's resources which are
insufficient, for Allaah the Most Wise Who has
prescribed plural marriage has guaranteed to
provide provision for His slaves and has
created on earth what is more than sufficient
for them. Whatever shortfall exists is due to
the injustice of administrations, governments
and individuals, and due to bad management.
Look at China, for example, the greatest
nation on earth as far as number of
inhabitants is concerned, and it is regarded
as one of the strongest nations in the world,
and other nations would think twice before
upsetting China; it is also one of the great
industrialized nations. Who would dare think
of attacking China, I wonder? And why?
2
� Statistics show that the number of women
is greater than the number of men; if each man
were to marry just one woman, this would mean
that some women would be left without a
husband, which would have a harmful effect on
her and on society:
The
harmful effect is that she would never find a
husband to take care of her interests, to give
her a place to live, to spend on her, to
protect her from haraam desires, and to give
her children to bring her joy. This may lead
to deviance and going astray, except for those
on whom Allaah has mercy.
With
regard to the harmful effects on society, it
is well known that this woman who is left
without a husband may deviate from the
straight path and follow the ways of
promiscuity, so she may fall into the swamp of
adultery and prostitution � may Allaah keep
us safe and sound � which leads to the
spread of immorality and the emergence of
fatal diseases such as AIDS and other
contagious diseases for which there is no
cure. It also leads to family breakdown and
the birth of children whose identity is
unknown, and who do not know who their fathers
are.
Those
children do not find anyone to show compassion
towards them or any mature man to raise them
properly. When they go out into the world and
find out the truth, that they are
illegitimate, that is reflected in their
behaviour, and they become exposed to deviance
and going astray. They may even bear grudges
against society, and who knows? They may
become the means of their country's
destruction, leaders of deviant gangs, as is
the case in many nations in the world.
3
� Men are exposed to incidents that may end
their lives, for they work in dangerous
professions. They are the soldiers who fight
in battle, and more men may die than women.
This is one of the things that raise the
percentage of husbandless women, and the only
solution to this problem is plural marriage.
4
� There are some men who may have strong
physical desires, for whom one wife is not
enough. If the door is closed to such a man
and he is told, you are not allowed more than
one wife, this will cause great hardship to
him, and his desire may find outlets in
forbidden ways.
In
addition to that, a woman menstruates each
month, and when she gives birth, she bleeds
for forty days (this post-partum bleeding is
called nifaas in Arabic), at which time a man
cannot have intercourse with his wife, because
intercourse at the time of menstruation or
nifaas is forbidden, and the harm that it
causes has been proven medically. So plural
marriage is permitted when one is able to be
fair and just.
5
� Plural marriage does not exist only in the
Islamic religion, rather it was known among
the previous nations. Some of the Prophets
were married to more than one woman. The
Prophet of Allaah Sulaymaan (Solomon) had
ninety wives. At the time of the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him),
there were some men who became Muslims who had
eight or five wives. The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) told them to
keep four wives and to divorce the rest.
6
� A wife may be barren, or she may not meet
her husband's needs, or he may be unable to
have intercourse with her because she is sick.
A husband may long to have children, which is
a legitimate desire, and he may want to have a
sex life within marriage, which is something
permissible, and the only way is to marry
another wife. It is only fair for the wife to
agree to remain his wife and to allow him to
marry another.
7
� A woman may be one of the man's relatives
and have no one to look after her, and she is
unmarried or a widow whose husband has died,
and the man may think that the best thing to
do for her is to include her in his household
as a wife along with his first wife, so that
he will both keep her chaste and spend on her.
This is better for her than leaving her alone
and being content only to spend on her.
8
� There are other shar'i interests that call
for plural marriages, such as strengthening
the bonds between families, or strengthening
the bonds between a leader and some of his
people or group, and he may think that one of
the ways of achieving this aim is to become
related to them through marriage, even if that
is through plural marriage.
Objection:
Some
people may object and say that plural marriage
means having co-wives in one house, and that
the disputes and enmity that may arise between
co-wives will have an effect on the husband,
children and others, and this is harmful and
should be avoided, and the only way to prevent
that is to ban plural marriage.
Response
to the objection:
The
response to that is that family arguments may
occur even when there is only one wife, and
they may not even happen when there is more
than one wife, as we see in real life. Even if
we assume that there may be more arguments
than in a marriage to one wife, even if we
accept that they may be harmful and bad, the
harm is outweighed by the many good things in
a plural marriage. Life is not entirely bad or
entirely good, but what everyone hopes is that
the good will outweigh the bad, and this
principle is what applies in the permission
for plural marriage.
Moreover,
each wife has the right to her own, separate
accommodation as prescribed in Islam. It is
not permissible for the husband to force his
wives to live together in one house.
Another
objection:
If
we allow men to have plural wives, why are
women not allowed to have multiple husbands,
why does a woman not have the right to marry
more than one man?
Response
to this objection:
There
is no point in giving a woman the right to
marry multiple husbands, rather that is
beneath her dignity and she would not know the
lineage of her children, because she is the
one who bears the offspring, and it is not
permissible for the offspring to be formed
from the sperm of a number of men lest the
lineage of the child be lost and no one will
know who is responsible for bringing up the
child; this will lead to breakdown of
families, loss of ties between fathers and
children, which is not permitted in Islam as
it is not in the interests of the woman or of
the child or of society as a whole.
Al-Mufassal
fi Ahkaam al-Mar'ah, part 6, p. 290
