Aminah 4 Allah
I beleive in Allah
Assalamu Alaikum Dear Brothers and Sisters in Islam,
I have had a non-Muslim ask me the following:
I have been preparing a response to this statement but inshallah I want to ensure that I am as close to 100% accurate as possible.
My response is as follows:
But Allah swt knows best.
Wassalam,
Aminah
I have had a non-Muslim ask me the following:
Alhumdulilah she has given me an opportunity to respond to this.What is with the husband being able to have more than one wife? I dont know how that is respectful to women and kind to his first wife.
I have been preparing a response to this statement but inshallah I want to ensure that I am as close to 100% accurate as possible.
My response is as follows:
Now to respond to your query about men being able to take more than one wife: Islam is a religion that is for all times and all places and unlike other religions will never require modification to adjust to the situations we’re faced with at any given time. Therefore Islam was not just created to be the religion of humanity during the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime nor just for our lifetimes in the 20th and 21st centuries. This is the basic reason why God has allowed polygamy in Islam. Now let me explain this further with some basis as to why.
First of all, I think that it is important to point out that polygamy was not something new to God’s religions when Islam came along. In the Bible and Torah polygamy is allowed and men are allowed to take an infinite number of women as wives. See Exodus 21:10. Even King David had 6 wives and other companions according to 2 Samuel 5:13, 1 Chronicles 3:1-9, 14:3 and if you can imagine, King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines which is stated in Kings 11:3. In the New Testament, Jesus himself allowed polygamy in the New Testament.
In the fourth chapter of the Quran there is a Verse that refers to polygamy. The Noble Verse 4:3 “And if you fear that you will not deal fairly with the orphans, marry of women who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if you fear that you cannot do justice to so many then one only or the slaves that your right hands possess. Thus it is more likely that you will not do injustice.” The meaning of this verse is to be taken into consideration after a tragedy occurs such as a war or plague takes many of the men from society. Polygamy is only allowed in Islam to help Muslims deal with societal crises that may be the remains of a natural event, sweeping illness or bloody war that takes the lives of many men leaving women without a husband and children without families. In Islam it is the husband’s duty and responsibility to ensure that his wife is provided for. She of course is able to work on her own accord but all that she earns is hers for the keeping and her husband still has to support his wife and provide for her a home, clothing and other basic needs including affection. So to sum this verse up in the event that there are way more women and children left than men after some sort of a catastrophe then and only then can a man take a second, third and to a maximum of four wives. He may only do this if he is sure that he will be able to treat them all equally. If his first wife is against this then he should highly reconsider as she, of course, has the right to divorce him for going ahead with a decision of this magnitude that is against her wishes. Divorce is only a last resort in Islam as the bonds and sanctity of marriage are very strong in God’s eyes and all possible solutions should be exhausted before a divorce is granted.
It is important to understand that many of the women that a man would take on as second, third and fourth wives would likely be widows that could be much older than him and would likely already have children. So men are not getting all the fantasies fulfilled by marrying a row of four hot young wives. Polygamy is strictly allowed in Islam only to solve social problems that may face Muslims. Polygamy is definitely not encouraged in the Quran nor is it something that God allowed because he likes it. God discourages polygamy in the same verse in which he allows it (4:3) “and if you fear that you cannot do justice to so many then only one.” God clearly prescribes men to be fair to all his wives or not to marry more than one at all! Later on Allah told men "Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women, even if it is your ardent desire...(4:129)" which clearly confirms the excuse that He gave them to practice polygamy. This is not a contradiction, it clearly proves that when Allah Almighty allowed polygamy, He only allowed it because the Muslims had an emergency or crisis and at least half or more than half of the men were lost.
Taking into consideration that today in Canada we do not have a crisis of men losing their lives that is causing hugely negative impacts on society then as I understand it polygamy is clearly not allowed in our society!
But Allah swt knows best.
Wassalam,
Aminah