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Polygamy in Islam
Legitimacy – conditions- Its purpose
An Introduction:
Marriage in Islam is a noble relationship and it is recommended strongly specially in adulthood. Any sexual relation outside marriage in Islam is forbidden and considered an adultery, a big sin and unlawful punishable crime. It is a disgrace illegal unallowable social relation . In the other hand there is a freedom to have more than one wife(polygamy) at the same time a person is not forced to live with a spouse if they are not compatible and choose to separate they can apply for divorce process which is easily given by a judge and they lead another life.
Polygamy in Islam is an acceptable legal matter by Muslims that because God constituted, organized and controlled human behaviors to distinguish between human and other creatures. We all know that animals eat, drink and mate with any female of its kind mindlessly but human has a mind, heart feelings and must live and behave differently so It is God’s law for mankind to follow specific rules in life and He knows what is best for them and for their life so God specified the method of fulfilling human sexual need only through marriage , the relation that gives the woman her rights and support as a human has dignity and pride, God is the best knower of human innate needs, psychological and biological formation so God’s law is the most perfect complete and most merciful God says: "
{ أَلَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَقَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ }الملك14 .
"Should not He Who has created know? And He is the Most Kind and courteous, the well-Acquainted( of everything)" So Islamic laws had great influence and effect as gratitude and glorification for God" "
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In the other hand woman in Islam is cared about, protected and supported by the man support here means all kinds of supports specially financial support and man here means the closest relatives beginning with the father if he is alive and able to do so or the responsibility goes to her brothers, grandfather then uncles and when she get married the responsibility goes to her husband and if he dies the responsibility goes back to her closest relatives. In Islamic law the supporter is forced to protect woman’s dignity as a human that needs to be protected and supported by all means and she has the right to sue, complain and appeal in a court if the man who is responsible refused to do his obligation as a supporter. A woman in Islam does not have to work to live unless she choose s to do so. There is no system in the world that protects, support and help woman as the Islamic system. .
Non-Muslims’ attitude toward polygamy comes out of either ignorant, naïve, close minded or stubborn envious spiteful persons used this matter to degrade and lift a hand against the whole religion of Islam stating that woman life is a miserable life under this law of polygamy which in their point of view is not proper way of life in the time of knowledge, development, civilization globalization and freedom.
To explain the fact about polygamy in Islam, we must discuss the topic from two points of view :
First; Legitimacy and conditions
Second: Purpose and interests
Concerning the first point we will say that when Islam came, there used to be ten or more wives under one man as in the story of Ghelan Ibn Omayyah when he converted to Islam he had ten wives so the prophet told him to choose only four of them to keep and divorce the rest of them. And Al-Harith Ibn-Kayis said "I converted to Islam and I had eight wives and mentioned that to the prophet , he said to me choose four of them ( to keep and divorce the rest.) so there is a limited number of wives we allowed to marry and a Muslim can’t exceeded that number (four) God says:
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1.Resource: Probe Ministries: (www.probe.org) crime in America by Kerby Anderson 14 July 2024
{وَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلاَّ تُقْسِطُواْ فِي الْيَتَامَى فَانكِحُواْ مَا طَابَ لَكُم مِّنَ النِّسَاء مَثْنَى وَثُلاَثَ وَرُبَاعَ فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلاَّ تَعْدِلُواْ فَوَاحِدَةً أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ ذَلِكَ أَدْنَى أَلاَّ تَعُولُواْ }النساء3.
" Then marry women of your choice, two, three or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with them, then only one or(the slaves) that your right hand possess. That is nearer to prevent you from doing injustice"
This God’s law has two distinctive characters:
1-Allowing a man to marry more than one and limiting that up to four as a maximum.
2- It is a law that is relative to an important control and a clear condition that is the ability to deal justly with the wives or marry just one wife.
In Imam Kortobi’ interpretation of the mentioned verse; he say that the word One here to prevent increasing numbers of wives that lead to injustice in treating wives that means justice is an obligation not a choice and to mean that one is enough in this case.
And in Imam Ibn katheer, Al-Shokani and Al Baghawi interpretations of the same verse is the same meaning.
Shaikh Al-Sadi says in his interpretation of the same verse that is a polygamy is allowable if a person is definitely can be just and fair and secured of injustice and trusted himself of giving his wives all their rights equally, otherwise he should have only one wife. Justice is the main and most important condition in polygamy along the time from the prophet’s time up to the last day of life. That was stated by God in Qur’an, strongly recommended by the prophet and always explained clearly by all scholars of Islam. Justice means treating all wives equally in all senses of living, housing, financial support for living and spending equal period of time with every wife.
From this we can understand that polygamy is not an Islamic practice because it was existed before Islam and Islam just made it a just and controlled practice.
The second point about polygamy is the purpose of its legalization in Islam:
Islam is a life system for human, it’s a realistic logical and compatible with human innate creation and needs for all in all places and in all times . it’s based on values and principles take in consideration human dignity and pride to lead better life and make a clean society. Polygamy was legalized and allowed for many different reasons and cases. First, there are more women in most societies than men that because men are killed in wars, accidents, get sick and die or they have to go a way for works and make living and they leave women they are responsible about in the house without a protection or support, in addition to that these days most men don’t get married or delay marriage for financial reasons. That leave us with three choices:
1-A man marries only one woman and leave other women single for the rest of their lives.
2-A man marries only one woman and involves with the single ones unlawfully betraying his wife.
3-A man marries more than one woman( in Islam up to four) lawfully and solve this social problem and having clean society .
From the argument above we can see that polygamy is the best solution and if we know that in Islam it is an obligation that a woman is helped ,supported and protected by the man. a father, a brother or a husband)that makes a woman live with her pride and dignity free of financial responsibilities.
She is a house wife that lives independently
Second, polygamy is a solution for widows who have children and mostly unlikely to be accepted by single men but a married man can have a second wife. Third, It is a solution for not beautiful women or women have any physical problem in her body should she stay single for the rest of her life? No, she can be a second wife for a capable man. Fourth, It is a solution for old single women who want to marry and live as other women.
Some scholars of Islam says that a woman have the condition of being the only wife for the man before the marriage.
Another point is that it is better for a woman to be a second wife than to be single for the rest of her life and having living responsibility, illegal sexual relation and be one parent person . A third point is that the fertility period of a woman is shorter than a man, it last up to the age of fifty but in the man it can last to the age of eighty or even after that so if he marries only one woman and she reached the infertility age when he is still fertile, or may she get a disease or if she is sterile, there will be a problem for him to have a relation so a second wife is a better solution than a girlfriend or a mistress because these two are unlawful in Islam noticing that keeping his first wife is better than divorcing her and if a man can have only one wife and if the woman is sterile and the man wants to have children and he loves his wife wants to keep her he has no choice but to marry a second wife again polygamy is the best solution otherwise he must divorce his first wife and marry the second that lead to increase the number of divorced women in the society which is a social problem from these we can say that .
Islam constitutes and controls human life in a reasonable and logical humanitarian way of life.
Some westerners agree and support the idea of polygamy in the society; Gostav Lubon said" polygamy is a good system, it raises the ethical standard of nations and strengthen the family bond and give a woman respect and happiness that is not exist in Europe"
Bernard Show said " Europe will be forced to go to Islam before the end of the twenty century wanted or not"
The scientist Tos sees that allowing a man to marry more than one woman is a solution that solve the problem and our daughters will be house wives and the bad thing forcing the European man to marry only one woman that led to run away girls and force them to work in man’s job and the problem will get worse if a man not allowed to marry more than one wife.
يسلموووووو
بارك الله فيكى
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