Q.
Why is a man allowed to have more
than one wife in Islam? i.e. why is polygamy allowed in Islam?
A.
1. Definition of
Polygamy
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 (960 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:
(i) ‘Fard’ i.e. compulsory or obligatory
(ii) ‘Mustahab’ i.e. recommended or
encouraged
(iii) ‘Mubah’ i.e. permissible or allowed
(iv) ‘Makruh’ i.e. not recommended or
discouraged
(v) ‘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.