Quran
Has Permitted Multiple Marriages for Exceptional Circumstances
Main
Points:
1. Islam has
permitted men to have four wives.
2. However,
four marriages are conditional.
3. A man cannot
do justice to all his four wives.
4. Grand Mufti
said polygyny creates problems for children.
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By
New Age Islam Staff Writer
1 June 2022
Representative
Photo/ File
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The Grand
Mufti of Al Azhar University of Egypt has stirred a debate on polygyny (having
more than one wife) among Muslims. Recently replying to the query of a viewer
on a TV programme Dr Al Taiyab said that keeping one wife was in accordance
with the principle of the Quran and it was better for the family and children.
The viewer had asked him whether a man can marry a second woman without
informing his first wife while staying in a foreign country. Dr Al Taiyab
replied that the husband is not obliged to inform his first wife of his second
marriage but keeping one wife was better. He referred to the verses of the
Quran where the Quran has permitted men to have four wives but has also linked
it with justice and equality with all the wives. He said thay polygyny causes
injustice to the children in many cases.
Dr Al
Taiyab's statement has come as a surprise to many Muslims who have been made to
believe that Islam promotes and encourages polygyny. This is because the pre-Islam.
Arab society was a polygamous society. Men had more than four wives and women
also had sexual relationship with more than one man. Islam brought an end to
this waywardness. Since the Arab society was largely polygynist, Islam limited
the number of wives to four as taking a radical step of limited the number of
wives to one would cause problems in society. Islam follows he principle of
gradual change. Slavery was discouraged and slaves were gradually rehabilitated
in the mainstream of the society.
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When the
critics of Islam criticise Islam for allowing four wives, they do not take this
historical or cultural truth into consideration. The fact that the Quran has
discouraged polygyny in the same way it discouraged slavery. It has made
justice and equality with all the four wives a pre-condition for polygyny.
Even the
general Muslims have his wrong notion that Islam encourages to have four wives.
They are unaware of the Quran's position that doing justice to all the wives is
next to impossible and so the men should keep only one wife. There are to
verses in the Quran that deal with polygyny.
"If
you fear that you wont be able to do justice to orphan girls, then marry other
women you like except them in twos, threes or fours but if you fear that you
wont be able to do justice to them then one woman or slave-girl whom your right
hand possesses( is better). In this way you will be saved of injustice."(Al Nisa: 3)
In this
verse the holy Quran permits four wives but the stress is on justice. And so
the Quran says that keeping on wife will save the man from doing justice.
In the next
verse in the same surah Al Nisa, the Quran again stresses on equality and
justice among his wives.
"And
whatever effort you make you wont be able to maintain equality among them, so
do not incline towards one and leave the other in uncertainty as if hanging in
the air. And if you make amends and observe piety hen God is all forgiving and
Kind and if they part ways then God will bless them."(Al Nisa: 129-130)
The two
verses clearly say that men can marry four women provided they can maintain
equality among them and do justice to them. In the second verse the Quran says
that man cannot do justice to all and so he should restrict himself ro one
marriage.
The Quran
keeps human psychology in mind. Every man and woman has distinct virtues and
flaws. If a man marries four women, all the four women won’t be equally
beautiful. One of them will be more educated and more sophisticated while the
other may be less mannered. One even may have some physical flaws. So in this
case, treating all wives equally in all matters will not be possible for the
husband.
Now the
question is why the Quran permits four wives when it knows that the man cannot
do justice to all of them. The Quran has permitted multiple marriages for
exceptional circumstances. If the first wife is not able to conceive for
different reasons or gives birth only to girls. The man has the option to marry
a second time or third time. We see in monogynous societies where second
marriage is not permitted, the wife is tortured or killed for giving birth to
only girls. In England a king had to kill his queen because she did not give
birth to a son as his heir. He badly needed a second wife to get an heir. In
Christianity, only one wife is permitted and the husband cannot have second
wife during the life of the first wife.
Islam has
kept the door open for such exceptional circumstances. For those who want to
have four wives without any compulsion, the Quran has put the precondition of
justice and equality.
So when Dr
Mohammad al Taiyab said that only wife is sufficient, he actually stressed in
the same Quranic principle of justice and equality.
He also
noted the social implications of multiple marriages. The children bear the
brunt of the bitterness in relations between the husband and wife. More often
rhe man marries a second time to divorce the first wife. There cannot be a
strong emotional bonding between the couple when the husband thinks that he can
marry again and bring another woman and the woman has the constant fear that
her husband can marry another woman without informing him. The trust is lacking
in such relationship.
The Arab
society has been a polygynist society for many centuries and their mentality
has not changed with time. That's why when Dr Al Taiyab reminded them of the
Quranic position on polygyny, they protested.
The modern
world has a different approach to marriage. Marriages are seen even by the
Muslims as a permanent union between a man and a woman with social obligations
and duties towards the children. To them, the family is a social unit of which
the husband, the wife and the children are inseparable parts. Marriage for them
is not merely a biological and sexual union for physical gratification. Dr Al
Taiyab's views only reflected the advance of the global Muslim society from
polygyny to monogamy.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/al-azhar-grand-mufti-polygyny/d/127146
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