The ruling on plural marriage and the wisdom behind it

The ruling on plural marriage and the wisdom behind it
Praise be to Allaah.
Allaah concluded His Message to mankind with the religion of Islam,
and He tells us that He will not accept any religion other than that.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be
accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers”
[Aal ‘Imraan 3:85]
Your backing away from the religion of Islam is considered to be a
loss for you, and a loss of the happiness that awaited you, had you
entered Islam. You should hasten to enter Islam, and beware of
delaying, for that delay may lead to regrettable consequences.
With regard to what you mention about the reason for your backing
off being the idea of plural marriage [polygamy or polygyny], we will
present to you the ruling on plural marriage in Islam, and then the
wisdom and noble purposes behind it.
1 – The ruling on plural marriage in Islam:
The shar’i text which permits plural marriage is:
Allaah says in His Holy Book (interpretation of the meaning):
“And if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the
orphan girls then marry (other) women of your choice, two or three,
or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with
them), then only one or (slaves) that your right hands possess.
That is nearer to prevent you from doing injustice”
[al-Nisa’ 4:3]
This is a Qur’aanic text which shows that plural marriage is allowed.
According to Islamic sharee’ah, a man is permitted to marry one,
two, three or four wives, in the sense that he may have this number
of wives at one time. It is not permissible for him to have more than
four. This was stated by the mufassireen (commentators on the
Qur’aan) and fuqaha’ (jurists), and there is consensus among the
Muslims on this point, with no differing opinions.
It should be noted that there are conditions attached to plural
marriage:
1 – Justice or fairness.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them),
then only one”
[al-Nisa’ 4:3]
This aayah is indicates that just treatment is a condition for plural
marriage to be permitted. If a man is afraid that he will not be able
to treat his wives justly if he marries more than one, then it is
forbidden for him to marry more than one. What is meant by the
justice that is required in order for a man to be permitted to have
more than one wife is that he should treat his wives equally in terms
of spending, clothing, spending the night with them and other
material things that are under his control.
With regard to justice or fairness in terms of love, he is not held
accountable for that, and that is not required of him because he has
no control over that. This is what is meant by the verse,
“You will never be able to do perfect justice between wives even if it
is your ardent desire”
[al-Nisa’ 4:129 – interpretation of the meaning].
2 – The ability to spend on one’s wives:
The evidence for this condition is the verse:
“And let those who find not the financial means for marriage keep
themselves chaste, until Allaah enriches them of His Bounty”
[al-Noor 24:33 – interpretation of the meaning]
In this verse Allaah commands those who are able to get married
but cannot find the financial means, to remain chaste. One such
example is not having enough money to pay the mahr (dowry) and
not being able to spend on one’s wife. (al-Mufassal fi Ahkaam al-
Mar’ah, part 6, p. 286).
2 – The wisdom behind permitting plural marriage
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?
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.
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 – 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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