Question : Why is a man allowed to have more than one wife in Islam? I.e. why is polygamy allowed in Islam

Question:
Why is a man allowed to have more than one wife in Islam? i.e. why is
polygamy allowed in Islam?
Answer:
Definition of Polygamy
1. 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 Quran is the only religious scripture in the world that says,
"marry only one".
The Quran 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 (95%
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. Quran permits limited polygyny
As I mentioned earlier, Quran 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 Quran:
"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-Quran 4:3]
Before the Quran 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-Quran 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 Dos and Donts:
Fard i.e. compulsory or obligatory
Mustahab i.e. recommended or encouraged
Mubah i.e. permissible or allowed
Makruh i.e. not recommended or discouraged
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
honorable, 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 honorable 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.

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