Polygamy in Islam
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Since a lot of people tend to ask many questions or use this one argument in their effort to malign the religion of Islam, that is why i thought to share this detailed answer with our readers who can refer to it for their easy reference on the issue of Polygamy and its permissibility in Islam. In case they are still not satisfied, then i think there is no point in arguing because argument for the sake of argument doesn’t make any one better off. Below is the detailed reply to all such questions and remarks and i hope it will answer most of your questions. May Allah help us in broadening our knowledge and guide us to the true path leading to good and away from evil.
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: 1. ‘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. A lot of people, including some Muslims, question the logic of allowing Muslim men to have more than one spouse while denying the same ‘right’ to women. Let me first state emphatically, that the foundation of an Islamic society is justice and equity. Allah has created men and women as equal, but with different capabilities and different responsibilities. Men and women are different, physiologically and psychologically. Their roles and responsibilities are different. Men and women are equal in Islam, but not identical. Surah Nisa’ Chapter 4 verses 22 to 24 gives the list of women with who you can not marry and it is further mentions in Surah Nisa’ Chapter 4 verse 24 “Also (prohibited are) women already married” The following points enumerate the reasons why polyandry is prohibited in Islam: 1. If a man has more than one wife, the parents of the children born of such marriages can easily be identified. The father as well as the mother can easily be identified. In case of a woman marrying more than one husband, only the mother of the children born of such marriages will be identified and not the father. Islam gives tremendous importance to the identification of both parents, mother and father. Psychologists tell us that children who do not know their parents, especially their father undergo severe mental trauma and disturbances. Often they have an unhappy childhood. It is for this reason that the children of prostitutes do not have a healthy childhood. If a child born of such wedlock is admitted in school, and when the mother is asked the name of the father, she would have to give two or more names! I am aware that recent advances in science have made it possible for both the mother and father to be identified with the help of genetic testing. Thus this point which was applicable for the past may not be applicable for the present. 2. Man is more polygamous by nature as compared to a woman. 3. Biologically, it is easier for a man to perform his duties as a husband despite having several wives. A woman, in a similar position, having several husbands, will not find it possible to perform her duties as a wife. A woman undergoes several psychological and behavioral changes due to different phases of the menstrual cycle. 4. A woman who has more than one husband will have several sexual partners at the same time and has a high chance of acquiring venereal or sexually transmitted diseases which can also be transmitted back to her husband even if all of them have no extra-marital sex. This is not the case in a man having more than one wife, and none of them having extra-marital sex. (Source: IRF.Net) [As i had predicted, even after presenting clear facts, those who just want to argue for the sake of it will never be convinced and will always deviate from main topic in their duscssions. Therefore, after giving them a limited window to prove their point, i have decided to close this post for any more comments] Related Articles |
@Junaid
Latest CIA fact book
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2008 est.)
I agree female population has better life expectancy but from the figures above it is only after 65 years do they beat the male population.
Lets take UAE a Islamic Nation
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 2.74 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.84 male(s)/female
total population: 2.19 male(s)/female (2008 est.)
Do you even wonder what the studs do? Does Polyandry make sense here?
US statics need to read between fine lines as below, note US has a lot elderly people and hence obscene ratio you have.
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2008 est.)
Nature controls the population of males (XY chromosome) and females (XX chromosome). A clean probability is 50% either way and thats the way it should be.
In case you are interested in the latest CIA report
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2018.html
@Junaid
3. Hindus are more polygynous than Muslims
It was true until the Government banned this practice as you rightly stated. This rule is specifically for Hindu’s in India and not for the Muslims. India does not have a unified civil code as yet so as to not hurt religious sentiments. The other example of such liberation is using loud speakers at night. Indiann law prohibits anyone from using loud speakers within a residential locality from 10PM to 6:30AM but relaxed for the Mosques for their morning prayers.
I am not sure if you know the Mahabharata story when you point out Polygamy of Krishna, you should also have made known the Polyandry followed by the Pandhava’s who were followers of Krishna.
Polygamy was persistent in India until 1954 and I am not sure of the percentages you have mentioned above or the present percentage (I am sure it is very low now). There are no Hindu Scripture either advocating Polygamy or monogamy. I will be surprised if you ever find one. Hinduism however advocates marriage and expects every Hindu to be married. The ultimate aim for any individual following Hinduism is “Moksha” (liberation). To attain Moksha a person should give up all worldly pleasure be it relations, money, fame, sex!! etc. Hindu scriptures also state to completely attain Moksha a person should have enjoyed all these pleasures before giving it up. Lord Buddha is referred as a incarnation of Lord Vishnu who gave up his wordly pleasures before taking up Sanysa (renunciation), Buddism evolved from this very reincarnation.
Sexual disease tranmission is more in Polyandry than Polygamy!!!!! But how? A infected Male can transmit the disease to all his wives and vice versa. Can you please support your claim I am unable to comprehend this.
Man is more polygamous by nature as compared to a woman.
I would agree to you on this point but I would expand it to “Every species tries to expand their kind and thats nature and hence males tend to be more active”.
Biologically, it is easier for a man to perform his duties as a husband despite having several wives.
Valid point, Women loose interest in sex once they pregnent till off spring birth since they want to ensure their offspring is well taken care of.
But as I have substantiated with figures above Male Population is greater than female population till the age of 64 and thereafter the female population is higher. We all know post 65 there is little any Male / Female can do to expand their kind
As i have said that we can always debate about anything with selective presentation of facts so here is just one last attempt to convince you on the only major point on which you disagreed and presented the number stating Male to Female Ratio. I will also provide you sources to my information for your and our readers ready reference.
I think just presenting male to female population ratio seriously distorts the fact as it does not take into account a lot of factors that contribute towards the slight variation that can be observed in it. Taking a global ratio, the ratio comes very close to 1.01 male to female ratio. Sex ratio at birth has recently emerged as an indicator of certain kinds of sex discrimination in some countries. For instance, high sex ratios at birth in some Asian countries are now attributed to sex-selective abortion and infanticide due to a strong preference for sons. This will affect future marriage patterns and fertility patterns. Eventually it could cause unrest among young adult males who are unable to find partners. (Source: Index Mundi Website)
Now the main point that i think you are ignoring is that life expectancy of males is decreasing with an alarming rate and hence the very basis for the argument in the above blog post titled “Polygamy in Islam” stands very much true to its logic. Please find below a link to research paper that got published in Evolutionary Psychology and written by Randolph M. Nesse, Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Psychology, Research Professor, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The following is the abstract that i took out for the easy reference of our readers for the purpose of this discussion:
The full paper can be accessed at this link
http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/ep026685.pdf
Therefore, we should not look at few numbers in isolation and avoid selective reading.
@Junaid,
Excellent article. I am a big PANKHA (fan) of your articles, and this article does full justice to the topic.
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@(New) Hindustani
“There are no Hindu Scripture either advocating Polygamy or monogamy.”
And thats why in Islam, the max is set to 4 so there isnt unlimited Polygamy.
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Generally I think all of this info is present even online, and if someone was looking for answers, then they could simply look for the info. However, sometimes, some people ask questions which have been answered long ago, only to argue I guess.
But anyway, very well answred
@Junaid,
1. Pls dont give historic figues. As of the last 50 years, definitely Muslims are more polygnous than Hindus. Though I see all my muslim friends having only 1 wife.
Atleast in India in the RECENT times, I guess people opt for polygamy only
due to lack of proper education/knowledge or hard hit financial reasons.
Educated, Well Settled Muslims in India RARELY opt for polygamy.
2. I do agree that there WAS a lot a female foeticide in India
As of NOW, in India, a babies gender is not revealed before
, but again,
it is only in the villages and it is out of lack of choice.. ppl are forced to do it due to monetary reasons.
And before you argue, the female foeticide among Muslims in India is higher than Hindus
on a percentage basis… Still, i firmly believe this is due to financial reasons and
lack of education again. nothing to do with religion.
3. I have no idea on Americal popluation and neither am i interested.
They are a developed country and there is no point comparing with them till we too develop.
4. Restricting each and every man to have only one wife is not practical
Here I have a concern.
Anytime, the happies COUPLE would mean 1 MAN, 1 WOMEN
in face, the term couple itself appeals to that.
I dont think any EDUCACATED, FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT woman would be happy in a polygamy.
Again, the woman in a polygamy has compromised with life due to financial reasons.
u know what, all this aside, MONEY is the sole reason for a lot of mishaps in the world.
a small example here.
In the Warangal region of Andhra Pradesh, the poor were suppressed badly by the landlords.
This led to a lot of the poor turning into Naxalites.
For about 20 years, there was huge killings by naxals and the police on each other.
Despite all the massacre, the issue was not resolved.
Suddenly in the last few years, the strenght of naxals has diminished.
On analysing, it was found that the existing naxals have grown old and there are hardly any
new recruits.
Y are there no new recruits? Thanks to the IT growth in India, most of these poor folk
gained employment in the software industry.
Always, History is created by a few rich souls. But the people who suffer bcoz of it
are always the common folk.
Bush or Osama are just induviduals. The sufferers of their actions are COMMON, INNOCENT FOLK.
It is upto us not to get brainwashed and remain sensible induviduals.
The solution to any of the issues, be it terrorism, ethnic clensing, extremism lies in
eliminating poverty.
NO WELL EARNING PERSON WITH A HAPPY FAMILY would give up his life for any of these
extremist causes. They may lead such causes for their own benefits.
It is ultimate the POOR and INNOCENT who have no survival options who get into all this.
Imagine if Kasab comes from a well to do happy family. Why would he ever give it up to come and die in India?
The KEY to all this lies in EDUCATION and DEVELOPMENT. They would in turn make people financially strong.
Y dont all the issues we discussed in this blog ever happen in Europe ?
Simple… they cannot rercuit anyone from such places to do the DIRTY WORK for them.
EVERYONE there is earning well.
EDUCATION is the key to provide money to a nobody.
i do agree with the fact that economic situation is connected with the polygamous nature . in my part of India the population growth of Muslims was far ahead of Hindus until the 1980s. after that economic growth started to occur in this part of the country and now the situation is they are almost equal. the population growth is very less in economically forward Muslims, but it is the old tale in case of poor Muslims
” I do agree that there WAS a lot a female foeticide in India”
WAS???
Here is a video report by Indians (Karan Singh, Ch 4), showing the privately run clinics and where they throw the female foetes in Orissa, Blangalore and others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24h6CpIIqk8
Guardian UK wrote about it on 23rd NOVEMBER 2008 here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2008/nov/23/india-gender
I will rephrase your lie :
there IS a lot a female foeticide in India.!!!!
You just need to read reports and statistics.
GRRRRRR There are some VERY disgusting murderers in your country “Hasshita” who are killing such young innocent angels.
Filth of the world.
@Junaid,
You may want to add this information in your article as this is from Indians themselves!!!!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3386873.cms
Times of INDIA published this report on 21 Aug 2008, 0132 hrs IST.
‘Polygamy is secret to longevity’
LONDON: Forget long walks and calorie-controlled diets, the sure shot way to live a longer life is: get a second
wife.
That’s the conclusion of a new research, which has suggested that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones.
After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations, says Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.
The latest research might solve a long-standing puzzle in human biology: Why do men live so long? This question only makes sense after asking the same for women, who - unlike nearly all other animals - live long past the menopause.
One answer seems to be a phenomenon called the grandmother effect. For every 10 years a woman survives past the menopause, she gains two additional grandchildren, Lummaa says.
It seems that doting on and spoiling grandchildren aids their survival, as well as furthering some of their grandmother’s genes. Men, by contrast, can reproduce well into their 60s and even 70s and 80s, and most researchers assumed this explained their longevity.
But Lummaa and colleague Andy Russell wondered whether other factors explained the long lifespan of men, such as a grandfather effect. To test this possibility, the team analysed church-gathered records for 25,000 Finns from the 18th and 19th centuries.
But the grandfather effect was soon ruled out. Lummaa and Russell next wondered whether the constraints of human physiology explain male longevity. If female survival is the main explanation for male longevity, then monogamous and polygamous men would live for about the same length of time. Instead, it seems that fathering more kids with more wives leads to increased male longevity. Men, then, live long because they’re fertile well into their grey years.
“Imagine if Kasab comes from a well to do happy family. Why would he ever give it up to come and die in India?”
I am not sure what kind of family he comes from, however you seem to know his family pretty well. Anyhow. the reason may be that RAW put him upto it to throw some mud at the neighbours. Just look at what Pakistan would have gained from the whole thing? But ofcourse you will never agree and try your best to prove a case against Pakistan. Dirty Indians, Daughter Killers, Women abusers, selling and buying women as if they were a commodity.
See this report by BBC about Indians purchasing wives(because so many of you animals chose to kill your daughters):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2723513.stm
Your true face is being revealed layer by layer like an onion. Dirty Onions and Dirty Indians, both smelly and even rhymes.
Not sure why Hasshita is bringing Kasab’s name into this article, instead of accepting simple truth. may be he dont wannu accept the truth and wannu argue about other topics by makind silly statements about kasab etc!
@Junaid,
Good article. More than enough to explain to those who want to understand. More thann enough has already been written for those who WANT TO LEARN, but there are definitely those, who will look, but will not see, who will read, but will not understand. Talking to them is just like talking to walls. And those who question you on this information are this kind too unfortunately, as they already had a full chance to learn also before you told them, it is definitely not new stuff to them, they just pretend that they are still learning.
Allah will take care of these people, and will show them the Sirat-e-Mustaqeem, Ameen-Sum-Ameen.