Marrying more than one woman.

Prepared by Imam Ameen Ahmed.

Islam permits the Muslim to marry more than one wife in order to resolve some very pressing human problems, individual as well as social. ( Yusuf Al-Qardawi, 190). In pre-Islamic times marriage to many women sometimes hundreds, took place and Islam came to lay down definite restrictions, and limited the maximum number of wives a man might have to four. In the case of the Holy Prophet (S) though, who himself had nine wives, was exempted from this by Allah for the sake of Da’wah (the propogation of Islam) and The conditions which Islam lays down for permitting a man to have more than one wife is confidence on his part that he will be able to deal equitably with his wives in the matter of food, drink, housing clothing and expenses, as well as in the division of his time between them. Anyone who lack the assurance that he will not be able to fulfill all these obligations with justice and equity is prohibited by the Almighty from marrying more than one woman for Allah says in the Holy quran:

…marry then of the women you deem fit to marry O Muhammad ,

Hadith: The Prophet is reprted to have said:

Anyone who has two wives and does not treat them equally will come on the Day of resurrection dragging one of his body which will hanging down.

Much has been said for and against Polygamy in the modern world where women have clamouring more and more for their so-called rights and freedom. Despite ‘women’s lib’ advances and the pre-occupation with gender issues in the modern world, women and the important roles they should play in society are still overlooked and even abused. Treated with disdain and used as sex objects in a permissive world free-love, the movie-world, pornography and advertising, the non-muslim world has little to offer the status of the female. Only Islam has guaranteed the right s and status of women as expounded by the Holy Quran and the Prophet’s tradition, even in a polygamous marriage or arrangement . Excesses and abuse of women do exist in so-called Muslim countries amongst illiterate and uncultured masses, but these are both un-Islamic, has no justification in the Shariah or are practised more than often as a custom or way of life amongst the nationals of that particular country , community or groups of people.