PART 2 OF 2
THE WISDOM BEHIND PLURAL MARRIAGE IN ISLAM IN
BRIEF
*4.0 – THE WISDOM BEHIND PERMITTING PLURAL MARRIAGE*
4.1 – 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?
4.2 – 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.
4.3 – 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.
4.4 – 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.
4.5 – 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.
4.6 – 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.
4.7 – 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.
4.8 – 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.
9.0 *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.
10.0 *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
Plural marriage and fair
treatment of co-wives
11.0 WISDOM BEHIND PERMISSIBILITY OF PLURAL MARRIAGES
The number of women in
society is greater than the number of men for a variety of different reasons
and these women need to have relationships with men because, it is a part of
their nature and the only way that a society can remain just and pure, is that,
this relationship be confined to marriage. Now, if one restricts the
relationship to monogamy then it means that there will be a segment of women in
the society who cannot get husbands and they will be forced to enter into what
we call illicit relationships with men as girlfriends, as mistresses’,
prostitutes, call girls etc. This is what they will be forced into. Recognizing
the need of the society as a whole, human welfare, and in spite of some harm to
that individual woman, if we do not allow plural marriage then the harm to the
society as a whole will be greater. So, where there is a greater harm and a
lesser harm Islam will prefer to allow the lesser harm to prevent a greater
harm. Therefore, Islam confirmed the principle of plural marriage to prevent
the greater harm to the society as compared to the lesser harm that happens to
the individual woman.
(Ref. Dr. B Philips & J
Jones, Polygamy in Islam, 44-48. See also: Wives rather than mistresses by
Handy Shafiq)
REFERENCES
1) https://www.alislam.org/question/polygamy-in-islam
3) The ruling on plural marriage and the wisdom
behind it ... (islamqa.info/en/answers/14022)
4) Wisdom behind Permissibility Of Plural
Marriages - IOU Blog (blog.islamiconlineuniversity.com/question/wisdom...)
5) Benefit: The Wisdom Behind Plural Marriage -
troid.org ... (www.troid.org/brief-benefits/2880-benefit-the... )
6) Wisdom behind Prophet Muhammad's Plural
Marriages (huda.tv/articles/prophet-muhammad/387-wisdom...)
7) The Wisdom Behind Prophet Muhammad's Plural Marriages
(sharingknowledgeofislam.blogspot.com/2010/06/... )
8) The Wisdom Behind Prophet Muhammad (saw)
Marriages (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq0AROwYeZE)
9) Islamic Principles on Multiple Marriages
(Polygamy) and our ... (www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhCY_XQpVDk)
10) Polygamy: The ruling on plural marriage and
the wisdom ... (www.linkedin.com/pulse/polygamy-ruling-plural..)
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