When is polygamy allowed in islam

In the Jewish scripture and saying of their sages the number four signifies completeness, wholeness, or fullness. Allah in His wisdom has determined four to be an adequate number to provide proof beyond doubt four witnesses or to provide adequate time. It represents comprehensiveness, wholeness and fullness or completion. Women who are married to chronically ill, sterile or impotent husbands are allowed recourse to divorce, if they feel the situation is unbearable. Marriage is between a man and a woman.

A woman can have only one husband at a time. This is Divine intent and design. Islam forbids polyandry which is when a woman is married to more than one husband at the same time. One reason for this is that it is not physically possible to bear children of multiple husbands at the same time; one of the many reasons this has not been institutionalized throughout the ages.

Hence polyandry does not serve the purpose of marriage and will create more emotional and practical problem than the restricted polygamy solves in certain circumstances. Another issue with polyandry and polygamy being permitted at the same time in the name of equality is that if one woman can have multiple husbands, then the husband can also have multiple wives, and there is no limit on these extended relationships and the family unit cannot be easily defined.

Is polygamy allowed in Islam? Let us now analyse why Islam allows a man to have more than one wife. 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. 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.

Many people are under the misconception that it is compulsory for a Muslim man to have more than one wife. 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. 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. 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. World female population is more than male population In the USA, women outnumber men by 7. 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.

The U. A as a whole has more than twenty-five million gays. This means that these people do not wish to marry women. Some religions view any fulfilment of natural desires as lowly or worldly, and have taken the position that the most spiritual way to live life is to be celibate. Islam, on the other hand, does not take this extreme approach, and considers marriage a necessary means to guard a person from evils by providing an outlet for those natural desires, which exist in order to ensure procreation and the continuation of human life.

Without marriage, a person would be in constant danger of committing sin in order to fulfill those desires. An acknowledgement of the existence of such desires does not however mean that Islam has opened the door for lustful pursuits of sensuality as the only objective.

Marriage, therefore, is an institution in Islam aimed at helping a person become more spiritual and connected with God. By having an outlet for those natural desires, a person can freely and calmly pursue the real goal in life which is the worship of God. Whether it is a monogamous marriage or a polygamous marriage, this objective remains the same. Furthermore, the four purposes of marriage listed above can apply both in the case of a monogamous marriage and a polygamous marriage.

For instance, if the purpose of marriage is to guard oneself against evils, and this purpose is not being fulfilled with one wife, the husband is given the permission to marry a second wife. Hazrat Mirza Bahir Ahmad ra explains this scenario as follows:. However, it is possible that a person is confronted with circumstances whereby he is unable to uphold his righteousness and purity, whilst maintaining relations with a sole lady, who happens to undergo periods of menstruation, pregnancy, delivery, suckling, and other forms of ailments, etc.

Then, even if by an extraordinary effort he is able to safeguard himself from practical indecency, in the least, one aspect of impurity continues to dominate his thoughts, or perhaps there is a risk of him becoming afflicted by some physical ailment. Hence, the correct remedy for such a person is none other than polygamy.

This is just one example. There can be other situations where any one of the purposes of marriage is not being achieved with one wife. In such circumstances a man may seek remedy for his situation with a second wife. Given the above understanding for the reasoning behind polygamy, critics have raised two important questions:. The answer to the first question is that it takes a great amount of naivety to suggest that men should remain patient all the time and never ever have recourse to having another wife.

This is especially evident in the long line of Prophets in the Bible who were men of God and yet had multiple wives. One critic has taken specific issue with the idea that a man decides to marry a second wife because he is not able to have a male child from the first wife. He argues that having children is much more important to women as compared to men. If the husband and wife collectively decide that the man should take on a second wife because the first wife is unable to bear children or have a male child, what objections can any critic lay on them?

What moral authority do the critics have over any husband and wife who have decided to do this for their own circumstances and their collective happiness? In fact, this is not just a hypothetical situation. Women and men have indeed taken this option where the first wife was unable to have children. The man married a second time and was able to have children from the second wife who were loved dearly by the first wife.

The fundamental issue at hand is one of intention , not the action itself. The Holy Prophet sa beautifully said:. Islam teaches that all human actions are to be judged by intentions. The fundamental requirement is that Muslims live their lives with Taqwa God Consciousness. They should be constantly aware that God is watching their actions and will hold them accountable for even their evil thoughts as Allah says in the Quran:.