Chowrangi

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.

Before the Qur’an was revealed, there was no upper limit for polygamy 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 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.

Polygamy is permitted in Judaism. According to Talmudic law, Abraham had three wives, and Solomon had hundreds of wives. The practice of polygamyy continued till Rabbi Gershom ben Yehudah (960 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.

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.

Islam however, does not encourage polygamy. Only when there are widows and divorced women in society can a man take more than one if he firmly believes he can treat them equally.

Verse from Surah Nisa of the Glorious Qur’an: “Marry 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.” [Al-Qur’an 4:3]

Other posts by Mohammad Yusha

• What is the West doing preaching love and respect for Women - II - November 7th, 2008
• What is the West doing preaching love and respect for Women? - November 6th, 2008
• A letter to the West - November 6th, 2008
• Death and Destruction due to Fornication - November 5th, 2008
• Alcohol - A deadly poison - November 4th, 2008
• Jihad against Desires - November 4th, 2008
• Why do rich people commit suicide? - November 3rd, 2008
• Haram money and its destructive effects - November 2nd, 2008
• Deaths from eating and drinking competitions - November 1st, 2008
• Problems with Dieting - October 29th, 2008