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WIVES
RATHER THAN
MISTRESSES
POLYGAMY
NECESSITY OF THE AGE
Called
for by:
Hamdy Shafiq
DEDICATION
To my beloved father
who has devotedly given me and taught me a great deal, and, for whom I
supplicate Allah to bless his life and reward him as dearly as he has done me.
The Author
PREFACE
Polygamy is a practice
that has been heavily, frenziedly and ceaselessly assailed by orientalists to
call great Islam into serious questions and malign its honest messenger
Muhammad.
Polygamy was verbally
attacked as early as the era of Prophet Muhammad himself, when Jews attempted to
cast doubts on the validity of the system.
Omar, who was
Ghafra's slave, narrated, "Jews, upon seeing Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) marrying a great deal of women, said: Look at this man who never eats his
full, and who, we swear by God, is keenly interested in women". They seem to
have cast covetous eyes on, and found fault with, Prophet Muhammad for his
polygamous practice. So covetous they were that they said, may Allah curse them,
"If he were really a prophet, he would not be so eagerly interested in women".
Huyay son of Akhtab, a leading Jew, was the one who most criticized the prophet.
However, Allah ‑ exalted
be He ‑ belying them, told them about His grace and amplitude of means which He
has endowed His prophet with. Marking the occasion, Allah has revealed to His
prophet the verse reading, "Or do they envy mankind for what Allah has given
them out of His bounty?”[1],
referring to His prophet Muhammad. The same verse goes to say further "But We
had already given the people of Abraham the Book and Wisdom, and conferred upon
them a great Kingdom", obviously referring to what Allah ‑ exalted be He ‑ has
conferred upon David and Solomon (peace be upon them both) of wives and female
slaves: each one of them had married more than Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) was to have later.[2]
Throughout ages, foes of
this religion, inside and outside alike, have been attempting to discredit the
principle of polygamy, with their ultimate goal as being to plunge deeply into
skepticism the Holy Quran, the Shari'ah and Prophet Muhammad himself.
A Muslim country has
carried matters to such an exaggerative degree that it has introduced a
toughened‑up anti‑polygamy law on the model of Western nations.
In Egypt, Jihan, the
wife of late president Anwar El‑Sadat, has one day attempted a similar ban on
polygamy, but well‑grounded ulema (religious scholars) of Al‑Azhar, and members
of the entire sweeping Islamic trend, have managed to nip in the bud the
attempted barring of polygamy. (Unfortunately, Jihan did later succeed in having
a certain law passed, which regarded polygamy as in itself posing harm to the
first wife, thus empowering a first wife to bring a lawsuit for divorce. In the
wake of President Sadat's murder, with his widow having almost no influence to
wield, this law article has later been rescinded.
Nevertheless, media have
persistently been having a bad press of polygamy, though permissible in the
Shari'ah. As media have been ridiculously depicting polygamists, as exhibited by
vile, low‑quality films and TV serials, they have, at the same time, been
alluring enormities as a matter of jocularity. A secular woman has even appeared
on an international television station lately to assail polygamy as introduced
by Islam.
Some others have been so
insolent and perverse to have published in a Cairo‑based weekly newspaper a set
of serial articles under the title of "polygamy is haram" ‑ or polygamy is not
permitted by religion. So simply an obscure ignorant attempt, with a foolish and
insane stroke of the pen, to suspend the application of confirmed texts of the
Holy Quran and Sunna (Traditions of the Prophet).
Public opinion in Muslim
nations has even been so led astray that women in Egypt's rural areas have been
circulating a common saying about a man planning to keep another wife to the
effect that they would rather proceed in his funeral than proceed in his
marriage ceremony.
These reasons, and
others, have prompted me to write this book, which I regard as only a modest
attempt at rectifying fallacious notions and straightening out matters ‑ and it
is Allah alone whose assistance can be sought in the face of all such blasphemy.
Chapter One
PRE‑ISLAM POLYGAMY
It is not Islam that has
ushered in polygamy. As historically confirmed, polygamy has been known since
ancient times ‑ a phenomenon as old as mankind itself With polygamy having been
a commonplace practice since Paranoiac times, Ramses II ‑ Pharaohs' most
celebrated King (reigned 1292‑1225B.C.)‑ Kept eight wives, and scores of
concubines and female slaves who gave him more than one hundred and fifty sons
and daughters. Temple walls, with the names of wives, concubines and children
inscribed on them, stand vividly in witness of the practice. Beautiful Queen
Neferteri was the most celebrated of Ramses II's wives, followed in rank and
order by Queen Asiya Nefer otherwise known as Isis Nefer, who bore him his son
King Merenbetah. Merenbetah was to ascend to the throne later following the
death of his father and elder brothers.
History books give an
account of Moses' Pharaoh as having kept several wives, including Asiya (May
Allah be pleased with her), who was his female cousin too. Having failed to give
him any children, she held Moses to her bosom when her maids picked him up from
a box floating in the Nile River. The Holy Quran relates her story in the surah
(chapter) of the "Narration" as follows, "(Here is) a joy of the eye, for me and
for you: do not slay him. It may be that he will be of use to us, or we may
adopt him as a son".[3]
Polygamy was not less
commonplace during Abraham's era than it had been in ancient Pharaonic times.
Hajar, Prophet Abraham's second wife, gave birth to Ishmael, who would have been
slain, and who is the forefather of all Arabs. His first wife Sarah gave Prophet
Abraham Ishaq. (Peace be upon them all).
Prophet Yaaqub (Jacob)
kept two sister wives, who were his maternal uncle Laban's two daughters. In
addition to the two wives, named Liya and Raheel,[4]
Prophet Jacob had two female slaves, owned by him and with them he used to have
legitimate intimacies as this practice has long been known when the female
slaves are owned by the master. The four women Prophet Jacob kept ‑ the two
wives and two female slaves ‑ gave him the so-called tribes (eleven sons). It
was his wife Raheel who gave him his son Yusuf, and later gave him Benjamin. She
was Prophet Jacob's most beloved woman he legitimately kept.
Prophet Dawud (peace be
upon him) kept several wives and numerous female slaves. His son Solomon, also a
prophet, had a lot of wives and female slaves.
In this context, we
should not let go unheeded the malicious rumors and gross lies deliberately
mongered by Jews about Prophet Dawud.
Enamoured of the wife of
one of his military commanders, Prophet Dawud is falsely claimed to have sent
him to his death at the battlefront and married his widow.
Having been as
despicable as such, the lie has been vehemently dismissed as absolutely
ungrounded by major interpreters of the Holy Quran, including Ibn Katheer.
Imam Ibn Katheer has
further branded the purported incident as a lie interpolated by Jews, which
should be brushed aside.[5]
A belief in the
infallibility of prophets (peace be upon them all) is an invariable principle of
true faith. To regard chastity, and noble manners, of prophets with the least
skepticism is to be outspokenly infidel ‑ we seek refuge with Allah that we
should not be one of those casting doubts on chastity of prophets.
Prophets Dawud and
Soliman had many wives and scores of female slaves sexually enjoyed. Hence, one
can not perceive that either one of them still needed more women to satisfy his
sexual desires. Moreover, it is not less imperceptible that it was Prophet
David, who had been known to observe fasting every other day, should resort to
mean trickery by getting rid of his senior commander to fill in his place with
his widow.
Polygamy was also
widespread in pre‑Islam Arabian peninsula.
Imam Al‑Bukhari (may
Allah be pleased with him) narrated, according to an authentic chain of
narrators, that when Ghilan of the Thaqif tribe (a companion of the prophet)
embraced Islam he had ten wives. Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him), said
to him, 'Select four legal wives of them".
Abou Dawoud (may Allah
be pleased with him) reported in his collection of prophetic Traditions, that
Umayra of the Assad tribe said, "When I embraced Islam, I had eight wives. When
I told prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him) he said, "Keep four of them".
Al Imam A]‑Shafi'y (may
Allah be pleased with him) reported that Nawfal son of Mu'awiya Al‑Dailamy said,
"When I embraced Islam, I had five wives, so Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon
him) said to me, "Keep four wives ‑ whomever four you like ‑ and divorce the
remaining one".
Imam Al‑Bukhari reported
in the Book of Niqah (Wedlock) that Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him)
made a bond of brotherhood between Abdul‑Rahman son of Awf and Saad son of
Al‑Rabi Al‑Ansari. Al‑Ansari had two wives, so he very generously offered to
give Abdul‑Rahman half his wives and property. Abdul‑Rahman replied, "May Allah
bless you with your wives and property. Just kindly show me the market and I can
manage my affairs".
Polygamy was frequent
among Slavic, who now account for Russians, Serbs, Czechs and Slovaks, dotted
all along Lithuania, Estonia, Macedonia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Germans and Saxons also
widely practiced polygamy. (Germans and Saxons are the two major races to which
almost all the population of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and England belong). Pagans in Africa,
India, China, Japan as well as other southeast Asian regions have always been
polygamists.
Dr. Muhammad Fouad
Al‑Hashemi confirms "the Church as having recognized polygamy up to the 17th
century".[6]
None of the four gospels
is known to have explicitly barred polygamy. It so happened that some European
peoples, dictated only by non‑polygamy pagan traditions, barred the practice of
keeping more than one wife. (Only some peoples were known to have barred
polygamy, since most European peoples ‑ as mentioned before ‑ practiced it on
the largest possible scale). When that anti‑polygamy minority converted to
Christianity, it clamped the traditional polygamy ban down on the rest of
Christians. As time passed by, Christianity was increasingly, falsely though,
believed to have essentially barred polygamy. It is only an old tradition
clamped by some down on the others throughout ages.
Opponents of polygamy
are invited to pick up the gauntlet ‑ if they can ‑ and produce any single
religious text out of any of the New Testament four gospels, which prohibits
polygamy. As to the Old Testament, otherwise known as Torah, it involves
explicit texts that polygamy was an accepted practice in the creeds of Abraham
(Allah's friend), Isaac, Jacob, Dawud, Soliman as well as other prophets sent to
the Children of Israel (peace be upon them all as well as upon our Prophet
Muhammad).
Even socially,
sociologists and historians, including Westermark, Hubihos, Hiller and Genburg,
note that polygamy was widely known only to peoples who had attained a
considerable amount of civilization. Having settled down at river valleys as
well as rainy regions, and converted to organized cultivation and grazing,
rather than hunting, collecting forest fruit and primitive farming, those
peoples adopted polygamy as a widely‑accepted social system. At an earlier more
primitive phase, it was family unity and monogamy, which were the prevalent
social values.
Those historians and
sociologists, quoted above, go even further to announce that a world of more
civilization tends to be heraldic of wider‑scale polygamy. The account given by
those scientists‑ who are all non‑Muslims ‑stands in testimony of the validity
of polygamy, as introduced by Islam, and strongly refutes the argument of those
fallacious opponents of polygamy who plead that it has long been outdated.
Therefore, polygamy had
been, as so far exhibited, a commonly ‑accepted practice even before Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) was sent as a mercy to all mankind. However,
polygamy as such was absolutely unrestricted, as the number of wives or
concubines ‑ as shown by examples ‑ was limitless. A polygamist was not required
to fairly treat his wives, nor had he to do them any justice, as later
stipulated by Islam.
So, if Islam, which is
as great, merciful and just as it is, has ordered that wives be treated on a par
with each other, put the number of wives kept by a husband at one time at a
maximum of four women and banned polygamy if injustice is feared on the part of
the husband ‑ why do some come out and object to the practice so ignorantly and
over stringently? Does it stand to reason that when heaven descends mercy upon
us we throw it back to the most Beneficent and most Merciful?
Pre‑Islam community was
brimful of diverse forms of injustice, crime and enormities covertly and overtly
alike.
It was a woman who would
always be victimized. A husband would always spend most of his time in the bosom
of prostitutes, recognized by red flags raised over their tents, and would go
back home only when he is fatigued, having run out of money and physical
strength. In the meantime, a wife did not dare to raise her voice in objection.
Another husband would
stay for several months in a row with a wife of his, whom he considers the most
beautiful of all, conferring gifts and enormous money exclusively on his
children by her, with the other wife or wives ‑ let alone their children ‑ never
daring to articulate a single word in resistance to this gross inequality.
So what if Islam has
permitted polygamy making it restrictively hinging upon justice, mercy as well
as marital duties and tribute to all wives and children on a par with each other
‑ why do we reject it and assail with abusive words the divine legislation,
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the entire religion.
Truly it is not their
eyes that are blind, but the hearts in their chests.
Chapter Two
LEADERS’ MISTRESSES
Mourners walking in the
funeral procession of France's late president Francois Mitterrand whispered out
of astonishment and curiosity when they saw a lady wearing a black hat and
thick, dark sunglasses, accompanied by a blonde girl whose face showed that she
was really and deeply in grief, paying last respects to the president's dead
body as they walked side by side with the late president's widow. However, the
funeral turned topsy‑turvy when it was revealed that the lady was the late
president's mistress and the blonde girl was his illegitimate child given birth
to through marital infidelity.
Indeed, it is Paris, the
world's most fantastic and freaky city: the wife and the mistress seen walking
side by side, having seemingly developed mutual understanding and accord that it
was then no use vying with each other after Mitterrand himself had passed away.
Some time later, a
Swedish female journalist, identified as Kristina Forsen, released a book called
"Francois Told Me" ‑ by Francois she meant the late French president Francois
Mitterrand. The book and the exciting photos on the inside pages showed a sinful
love story and another marital infidelity with her by the late French president
‑ much to the surprise of France and the entire world.
Interviewed by major
newspapers of France and the world, which rushed to have lengthy talks with her
on her affair with president Mitterrand, Kristina Forsen disclosed that her love
affair with the president ran for 17 years. One such newspaper, "France Soir"
reported "Marvin" ‑ an eight‑year‑old handsome boy living with Kristina ‑ as
having illegitimately been born to her by Parisian philanderer Mitterrand.
Declining to identify
Marvin's father to profession colleagues, she yelled, "He is my own son alone!
And I will not ever make known his father's name. I will not let anybody
trespass on this very private part of my life".
Recounting her affair
with Mitterrand from the very beginning, Kristina said that she had first met
him in 1979 when she was introduced to him by the late Swedish prime minister
Olof Palme as an enthusiastic journalist who wished to interview him. Although
he was as doubly old as she was, an age discrepancy never hindered a relation to
grow.
Commenting on the age
discrepancy, she said, "In such cases names, ages and positions fall deeply into
oblivion. We then only recall a sense of ecstasy, being enraptured in lost
moments".
Kristina was never
ashamed when the French press alluded to her as having been a thorn right into
the heart of the French president's family. Answering back, she said, "Neither
his family, the entire political quarters, nor anybody around him can assail or
disparage me. Simply, they did not have what I had, so they had to withdraw
quietly. They realized that I was to him the breeze, which he freely breathed
in, out of his golden case and his boring traditional life! It was I who broke
the boredom he had been feeling throughout his life before he met me; he found
within me an independent approach of thinking about all matters of his life,
which he had never experienced before".
Kristina recounted a
great deal which people did not know about president Mitterrand. She disclosed
that they had a private house in the woods, where they met unnoticed by his
wife, the press, or even, his personal guards. In short, they only needed a
small official document, which would have made the affair a legitimate and clean
one, and imparted legitimacy and social respectability to their son Marvin, but
they had not done so.
Egyptian veteran
columnist Anees Mansour wrote in his daily "Al‑Ahram" newspaper column on
France's politician George Clemenceau, whom he described as the tiger of
France's politics. Mansour said, "George Clemenceau who lived between 1841 ‑
1929, waged horrible political battles and defeated everybody whom he fought. He
was able to talk to twenty people about twenty subjects at one and the same
time! However, no one had ever perceived that the shrewd politician kept 800
mistresses, who gave birth to forty illegitimate children".
Mansour further said
"But when he knew that his American wife was experiencing marital infidelity, he
got up at midnight and opened the door to let her go down the street in her
nightdress. Clemenceau, like all human wolves, despised women most. Nobody else
assailed, or disparaged, women as he did either on his playful bed or illness
bed."
In Austria, the press has
exposed President Thomas Klestil as taking a mistress who was an employee with
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Newspapers have tracked their relation back to
those years when he had held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs before
he assumed presidency. The scandal triggered off has sent his wife Edith Klestil
leaving the house in anger and demanding divorce.
In 1994, Chinese doctor
Li Zi Zhui released an interesting book in the US about the life of Chinese
leader Mao Tse Tung called "The Barbaric Life of Chairman Mao". The book is
exclusively devoted to Mao's private life as closely seen by doctor Li, who was
the Chinese leader's private doctor.
Li says in his book that
Mao Tse Tung was the absolute governor of one of the world's most powerful
nations. He was a Communist tyrant whose orders could not be checked and
caprices had to be meekly yielded to. He was a savage wolf who was never
satisfied with sex, changing girls as simply as he changed his socks and shoes.
He would throw noisy balls, arranged by his assistants, to pick up whomever girl
he desires from the hundreds of young girls attending.
The author doctor
further relates that chairman Mao believed that sex was the only way to prolong
life. He developed a lot of contagious venereal diseases and took much delight
in communicating the disease to as many Chinese girls as possible, who would,
strangely enough, boast having contracted the disease as the only evidence of
having actually met the Chinese leader.
President Carlos Menem
of Argentina has also been involved in countless sexual encounters, with world
newspapers daily uncovering his scandals, though such scandalous stories have
not, of course, deterred him. Having failed to curb his scandalous adventures,
his wife has had to get divorce in the wake of a crushing dispute.
As to US leaders, one
can talk limitlessly about their love affairs and sexual encounters, as the US
people does not ever recognize anything as covert at all. The US people is a
scandal‑mongering people, especially if there is a celebrity involved, whatever
the area they may be in! They do not place any lid on the publication ‑ by any
means whether it be the press, radio or television ‑ of any person whatever, his
position, influence or wealth. Books scandalizing senior government or business
people are lapped up by Americans and are best sellers.
One such exciting book
is "Inside the White House", authored by famous US journalist Ronald Kissler. In
his book, Kissler pursues the whims and love affairs of most presidents of the
world's most powerful nation, down to the minute details of the sexual
infidelities conducted by each one of them.
The ugly president of
the US, Linden Johnson, made love to five of the eight secretaries he had right
at the heart of the White House. He would ferret for pretty women amid reception
crowds; when he found out one, he sent one of his aides to bring her to him, as
presidential wishes have to be made true.
One day Lady Bird,
President Linden Johnson's wife, opened the door of the White House's Oval
Office to find her husband in a position of indecent exposure with a secretary,
right with the same office as he received visiting world leaders. Following a
heated debate, President Johnson called his personal guards and yelled at them
that they should have done anything to stop her. One of them bravely replied,
"We did not make any mistake; this is your problem alone".
Notwithstanding, the US
president persisted in his brash behavior. All what he did was to order an
"early alarm" system at the lift to warn him beforehand that his wife was on the
way, so that he might not be caught red‑handed in the very act of marital
infidelity. If the guards see his wife heading for the lift leading up to the
Oval Office, they should give him a ring to let him know his wife is on her way
for him to get tucked.
President Johnson had
love affairs with other female journalists and girls, whom his assistants would
pimp for him. On a single occasion, President Johnson brought three girls in one
batch from his Texas farm and appointed them as White House employees to be at
his beck and call.
President Franklin
Roosevelt of the US, who came to power in 1933 and was re‑elected for a third
term of office in 1940, was highly womanizing, although he moved on a wheel
chair. His most famous mistress was a woman identified as Lucy Ratherford. He
met her regularly when his wife Eleanor Roosevelt was away.
Ruth, the former US
president Jimmy Carter's sister, was a Christianizing preacher, or, as otherwise
called in the West, was in the missionary activity. She would preach on heaven's
teachings, calling on non‑Christians to convert to Christianity. All of a
sudden, the truth unfolded: she was deeply involved in a sexual relation with
Germany's former chancellor Willie Brandt. US and German newspapers extensively
reported, in detail, on the love affair between the "married preacher" and the
former German Chancellor. The Christian preacher's husband was the last to know
about his wife's sexual infidelity.
Experiencing the same
situation was one of the most famous Christian preachers in the US and the
entire world, namely clergyman Jimmy Swaggart who engaged in a very famous
debate with the great Islamic preacher Sheikh Ahmad Didat.
The celebrated
Christianizing preacher conceded, as major television stations, in detail, were
interviewing him having a sexual relation with a prostitute. However, it was
Swaggart himself who would always, before being scandalized, preach virtue and
show in a bad light polygamy as well as other teachings introduced by Islam,
while he himself was indulged up to his ears in a filthy mire of sins which he
would forbid his followers to even approach.
Hence, Swaggart, who had
talked abusively about true Islam, has toppled over and fallen, publicly
confessing that the circles of Christianizing preachers have always been the
scene of the most horrible and repugnant prostitution, homosexuality and marital
infidelity. (And say: "Truth has (now) arrived, and Falsehood perished: For
Falsehood is (by its nature) Bound to perish").[7]
The late US president
John Kennedy acquired worldwide notoriety for having been sexually infidel with
a lot of women. His most celebrated mistress had been the sultry actress Marilyn
Monroe, who was later mysteriously murdered. The killing is believed to have
been masterminded by the US Central Intelligence Agency, CIA.
Robert, president John
Kennedy's younger brother, was also involved in a relation with Monroe at the
same time as his elder brother had an affair with her, and used to meet her in
his office, when he was the US general attorney.
President Kennedy had
taken tens of mistresses before he tied the knot with Jacquelyn. Two of his
secretaries, identified as blonde Videl and brunette Fadel, as well as a third
girl identified as Judith Campel, who worked with Mafia, were among those whom
he had been womanizing with before he married Jacquelyn.
Even the former US
president George Bush did not survive being caught in the crossfire of traded
marital infidelity charges. US, author Susan Trenfu cited in one of her books a
senior US delegate to Geneva disarmament talks as having arranged a making‑love
meeting between the then US vice‑president George Bush (during the era of
president Ronald Reagan) and Jennifer, who was an assistant to Bush. The meeting
took place in a Geneva guesthouse in 1984. Of course, major newspapers and TV
stations scandalously publicized the rendezvous.
However, it is incumbent
US President Bill Clinton who has been the most notorious human wolf of all US
presidents in post‑Kennedy era. He has been re‑elected to a second term of
office despite all the furore sparked off by his scandalous sexual infidelities,
widely exhibited by hundreds of books, researches as well as press and TV
reports.
President Bill Clinton
has himself confessed to his widely reported sexual affairs. Assertively
declining to elaborate on any of such love affairs, President Clinton has
confirmed the exposure by media of his private affairs as having led him into a
deep family crisis, which would have sent his marriage bursting at the seams.
President Clinton's
listed mistresses are to the tune of thirty women.
The most celebrated of
them all has been Monica Lewinsky, the centerpiece of the "Monicagate" scandal.
Because of his affair with her, President Clinton has been impeached, amid
public outcries that he should be ousted. Interviewed by TV, she has conceded,
in detail, to be involved in a sexual affair with the president.
Before Monica, there had
also been Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones and scores of others.
A recently published
book, called "In the Lobby of Congress", reveals scores of sexual scandals made
by reverent representatives and senators at the venerable US Congress.
Moreover, countless
sex‑motivated crimes, incidents and scandals are daily reported by thousands of
newspapers, magazines as well as radio and TV networks in the West as having
been made by celebrated politicians, sportsmen, actors and people in all walks
of life.
We have had to publish
some of those sexual scandals, which said to be done by community leaders in
those countries that ban polygamy. Polygamy is not only prohibited in such
nations, but penal codes in so many of them make it a punishable misdemeanor
which carries a prison term, whereas adultery goes unheeded if it takes place by
common consent! We are assertively saying that such an amount of filth has had
to be exposed and brought into the spotlight to let those who rise up in arms
against polygamy be knowledgeable about what an immoral alternative there is to
it.
A line of demarcation is
thus being distinctively drawn between what is wrong and what is right of the
issue in question. Polygamy is a reality which cannot be dismissed as
non‑existing, whether it be permitted ‑ as so stipulated by Islam ‑ or not as
the case is in many of the non‑Muslim communities, where illegitimate relations
do exist on the largest perceivable scale in place of polygamy.
The situation, as thus
far reviewed, constitutes a question to those dyed‑in‑the‑wool occidentalists
who adamantly resist polygamy as permitted by Shari'a, which is more graceful
and honorable, polygamy or a multitude of mistresses? Do you permit an intimacy
only on the chaste nuptial bed, or you will be doing as dictated by Satan in
both the east and west?
Men have not ever been
known to outnumber women in any country across the globe. On the contrary,
official statistical figures denote otherwise. (A separate chapter will be
devoted to a review of such statistics). Moreover, if men presumably, only for
the sake of argument, outnumber women, polygamy will spontaneously fall out of
practice and any debate over it will only be futile.
Chapter Three
EASILY ‑ REFUTABLE
OBJECTIONS
Opponents of polygamy
do, in fact, regard the practice from only the single viewpoint of wives
regardless of hundreds of millions of lonely, wretch women dotted everywhere
around the world. This has vividly been demonstrated at discussions I have had
with hundreds of men and women from countries as widely apart as Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon, Tunisia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, France, Germany, Switzerland, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Croatia, the US, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Egypt of course.
Keeping another wife is
highly detrimental, and does gross inequality, to the first wife, many polygamy
opponents polled by me do plead. They argue that a polygamist's wife loses a
half of her husband to a second wife, two thirds to a second and third wives,
while retains only a quarter of her husband if he keeps three other wives
besides her.
They also allegedly say
that a husband, married to more than one wife, cannot mete out justice to them.
They cite, out of context, a verse of the Holy Quran, saying, "You are never
able to be fair and just as between women, even if it is your ardent desire",
intentionally skipping the rest of the verse saying, "But do not turn away (from
a woman) altogether, so as to leave her (as if were) hanging (in the air). If
you come to a friendly understanding, and practice self‑restraint out of Allah's
fear, Allah is oft forgiving and Most Merciful".[8]
On the pages to follow
an interpretation of the aforesaid verse will be given, including diverse
opinions as given by commentators, in order to shed light upon the provisions
set forth by the verse which run on a collision course with the standpoint made
public by polygamy opponents.
However, an alleged
detriment done to the first wife has, above all, to be refuted. It is not true
that only getting married to another wife does gross injustice to the first one,
as they falsely claim, since she must have assuredly realized that it is Islam
which so empowers him ‑ so long as the wives kept at one time are not in excess
of four.
Therefore she has no
right whatsoever to bar him from marrying another wife, or other wives, unless
she has, beforehand, attached a relevant condition when writing out the marriage
contract. She is not empowered to make a marital tie only monogamous, whereas
Allah has bestowed upon husbands, when financially secure and physically able, a
license of polygamous marriages.
Second, Allah, as the
ultimate law and Shari'a giver, has only restrictively made access to polygamy,
making it absolutely incumbent upon a polygamist to administer justice to all
wives kept at a time. A wife under a practice as such restricted will never be
stripped of her husband, should the latter get married to another or others. He
is obliged to equally provide for all wives, and to justly distribute everything
among them including equally staying overnight with each one of them. Although a
wife in such a position will have less of her husband, she will not be losing
him, once and for all, to a mistress or more.
Third, life necessitates
that each of the two spouses should partially sacrifice their desires to their
mutual interest, to the community's public interest or even to the other
spouse's benefit if one spouse is really in love with the other. Islam abhors
egocentricity, calling for altruism rather than hideous egotism.
Nowadays, millions of
husbands travel abroad for one year or more in pursuit of their livelihoods,
leaving behind their wives and children. Much to our surprise, those lamenting
that a wife of a polygamist will have less of her husband do not ever utter any
objection to a wife totally stripped, for ages, of her husband who is always
away earning his livelihood abroad. Conversely, they promote such a practice as
a major hard‑currency earner for the government, even at the expense of wives.
The fact that hundreds
of millions of husbands are recruited in the armed services all over the world,
leaving their wives and children behind for the sake of defending one's nation,
has not ever provoked a public outcry that men should be kept beside their
families rather than sent to the army; or is it a question of only dismantling
Allah's Shari'a?
Some other men leave on
trade mission, or for studying at universities in other nations, with the
married of them having, as a matter of course, to leave alone wives until they
have completed studying in a few years' time. However, opponents of polygamy do
not object, despite the fact that a polygamist husband goes back to his wife's
bosom in a day, two days or even a week; while a husband on a trade or studying
mission is away for at least a year, or even years as exhibited above?
One more significant
fact has to be taken into account; namely a wife is not always available for
making love to. In the wake of childbirth, during a forty‑day post‑birth
bleeding period, an intimacy (sexual intercourse) is absolutely forbidden. The
husband himself may be taken ill, keeping away from the nuptial bed for sometime
as a result; he wife, in her turn, may also develop any sort of disease which
tends to estrange her from her husband for a while too. This is the natural
course of matters, which cannot be bypassed or obstinately ignored. Not least to
be forgotten is menstruation, which keeps flowing from a week to a forth night
in some cases, sending husbands away from any intimacy until it totally stops
flowing.
In a nutshell, there is
no such a husband who is glued to his wife all the time. Even a healthy residing
husband has at present to bum the midnight oil for a stepped‑up income for his
family, in which case he is always back home so late at night. Therefore, the
fact that not so many husbands are solely devoted to entertaining wives has to
be inarguably conceded. Consequently, polygamy should not thus be exaggeratively
magnified as exacting a heavy toll of gross inequality on the first wife.
Fourth, which is
preferable if a married man is enamoured of another woman: should he divorce the
first one ‑ in which case she may be ill, aged or infertile ‑ or he had better
retain her in wedlock and let her enjoy the same privileges as the other wife,
or other wives, on a par?
Fifth, is it not more
graceful and honorable for a husband to marry the woman whom he is enamoured of,
rather than taking her as only a concubine in darkness stripped of any rights,
together with her guiltless would‑be offspring who would otherwise end up in
orphanage if the father is not allowed to marry their mother?
Sixth, if
officially‑released statistics in many parts of the world have already
substantiated a claim that women more than doubly outnumber men, with persisting
war claiming more lives and sending much wider apart the already gaping
discrepancy between the numbers of both genders, how can this grave
disequilibrium be offset And what a gloomy fate is there in store for hundreds
of millions of poor, miserable ladies who have lost the spouse who maintained
the family, or stand an increasingly dimming chance of picking up husbands in
view of scarcity of men, of whom millions have perished in rabid, unbarring
war?H Should we illegitimately abandon them unmarried, just because a fewer
wives are so womanly egocentric that they cannot stand the notion of their
husbands being shared by others? Or should we leave them openly susceptible to
homosexuality, taking lovers beyond wedlock or inhibition and deprivation?
Legislation, while
catering to diverse community needs, should always keep in mind an indispensable
balance between apparently ambivalent interests of rival community classes, such
as a balance struck between employers and employees as well as between landlords
and tenants. Hence, great Islam substantially envisages a social balance between
a wider majority of the unmarried women, on the one hand, and the married ones,
on the other. It is not fair, in Egypt, as an example, to let the scales heavily
tip in favor of eight, or even ten, million wives against ten million other
women and girls who eagerly await a fair share of life. It is almost fair,
merciful and humanitarian to let them share husbands with those married women
for enjoying nuptial life, sympathy and care.
There is one more point
brought up by opponents of polygamy. They allege that a man's sexual desire
cannot only be curbed through polygamy. However, this is an obviously fallacious
claim, running counter to reality and the natural course of things. If a man has
two, three or four wives he fully quenches, in most cases, his emotional and
sexual desires, becoming much less susceptible to sinning.
Most important of all,
polygamy is not intended only for quenching lust. As mentioned above,
psychologists underline quenching an ardent desire for emotion as more
significant than merely catering to one's instinctive sexual need. Making love
should not be the only target of marriage. Emotional tranquility, passion,
mercy, begetting good offspring, social coherence by marriage relationship, as
well as taking care of, and providing for, women and children are all qualities
which are far and beyond having sex in order to curb a galloping desire.
Moreover, men are as diverse in virility ~ they are in gluttony.
Above all, polygamy, as
a system recognized by Islam, is not required to raise people to the lofty ranks
of chaste, infallible angels who worship Allah all the time and do as ordered;
nor has the great Islamic Shari'a made it imperative on Muslims to thus upgrade
themselves. We are, in the first place, fallible human beings. However, what
Shari'a really targets is to as much spare society prospective evils as
possible: a Muslim should thus be armed with all ways and means that will urge
him to lower his eyes and keep his genitals from sin. Allowing polygamy is one
such means, with the condition of imperatively maintaining equality among all
wives. The situation so created by granting easier access to polygamy tends to
help wives, in turn, to adhere to clarity, purity, lowering eyes and preserving
genitals from adultery.
Nevertheless, some will
act perversely. A case in point is when the modem state makes jobs available,
but some, despite legitimate job availability, take perverse delight in larceny,
theft or drug trafficking to make illicit gains. The modem state is only
attempting a cutback, as much as it can, on those acting perversely, and this is
exactly what the wise Islamic Shari'a envisages. To reduce the number of
offenders of Allah's orders has always been an awesome goal of the Sharia.
(Empowering husbands to have more than one wife, under certain conditions and
controls, is a means to the end of reducing those sexually offending). To
absolutely eliminate offending is impossible in the mundane world of fallible
human beings who can not resist being entrapped into sinning, although, of
course, those, grappling with the evil‑abetting soul, who repent and return to
Allah's fold are the morally best.
It is still noteworthy
that there are estimated tens of millions of widows and divorcees who keep
rummaging around for a sustainer who will act the compassionate father to their
children, even though he is not at all involved in any nuptial role, with the
actual reality supporting this.
Faults allegedly made by
some polyg4mists should not, by any means, reckoned to be true Islam. To remedy
such faults cannot be achieved by scrapping polygamy itself Rather, making
people more knowledgeable about an indispensable need for administering justice
and all‑round piety and fear of Allah is the salubrious remedy. Again, an
aberrant pattern of behavior by some polygamists should not ever be reckoned as
true Islam, simply because it swerves from its straight moral path.
In fact, what the
commons do by meting out injustice to women and unequally treating children is
the immediate consequence of a grave lack of correct Islamic tenets. Moreover,
media make things all the worse by disseminating moral I y‑ subversive notions
and values which run on a collision course with great Islam.
So nervously a young
gentleman wondered: where in the first place is that polygamy you are talking
about, while most youths cannot manage to have a job, modest flat or Mahr (money
paid by the groom to the bride in Islam) to pay to only one woman to marry? He
went on wondering: a youth like us keeps scrimping for ten years on average in
order to ultimately propose marriage to hardly one girl, so how do you demand
youth to take another wife?
To answer this question
is much simpler than our friend thinks, whom we have to excuse for what he said
in view of the fact that youths are gravely financially strapped in an economic
crisis‑ridden Islamic world, and for which we supplicate Allah to mightily lift
it.
A talk of polygamy
should, axiomatically, be addressed only to those so capable, rather than
low‑income nascent young gentlemen, for whom we supplicate Allah to support, and
provide for, from a source they could not have imagined. Capability is thus
indispensable for anyone wishing to marry, monogamist or polygamist be he.
Capability is identified
as a multi‑faceted quail. involving the following:
firstly, enough solvency
to provide for wives and children alike;
secondly, physical
strength. An ill husband is not perceived of as having many wives, while he
cannot make his first wife sexually satisfied by catering to her legitimate
instinctive sexual desire. Therefore, a would‑be polygamist should be capable of
having reasonably enough intimacies to make his two or more wives sexually
satisfied.
thirdly, there should be
psychological strength to fairly deal with wives on the part of a would‑be
polygamist. So, he should as much resist as possible his heartily slant towards
a particular one of them. Equally providing for, staying overnight with, and
even playing and entertaining wives should be sternly applied. His slanted
approach to a particular one of them, if there is such a slant, should be made
invisible and imperceptible so that he may not hurt the feelings of the other
wife or wives.
In our belief, a
polygamist husband should put on a par all of his wives, even in terms of the
number of intimacies. This is as close an approach as possible to the spirit of
the Islamic great legislation, which regards in a very bad light unfairness or
inequality in terms of anything. He should even regard, or smile at, them
equally ‑ this is closer to piety and fear of Allah. If he assuredly realized
that he would not be fair enough when dealing with his wives, he should
inevitably then suffice himself with only one wife and divorce the other wife or
wives. May Allah then provide the divorcee with another husband, who will, over
flowingly, show her compassion and love.
Strange enough is one
certain objection against polygamy, which is falsely pleaded as putting at stake
the entire family and increasing children at a time when the government has
heavily been trying to pare down the growth of population to head off a claimed
imminent population explosion.
Those who so claim are
putting the cart before the horse, as it is a ban on polygamy, which, on the
contrary, erodes the very entity of society and family. As exhibited by figures,
unmarried girls have been stepping up in number that they are, by manifold, in
excess of married women. Against such a backdrop, if polygamy is not granted
easier access, sex‑motivated perversity, homosexuality, psychological disorders,
suicide, prostitution and taking mistresses and concubines will be rampant along
the lines of Europe's demoralized communities. As for an increase in the number
of children on account of polygamy, it should be made known, beyond the
slightest doubt, that whatever soul Allah has ordained to be created, will
accordingly be created and given access by Allah to this mundane world despite
whatever objection or resistance by whomsoever.
All there will be that a
respectably‑born legitimate child ‑ whose legal birth by a second, third or
fourth revered and well‑beloved wife is being fiercely resisted ‑will instead be
born illegally as a love child and be taking his way down the street or to an
orphanage, becoming in a few years' time a hardened, professional criminal
posing a grave menace to the core of social stability and security.
Now with the situation
so far reviewed, do polygamy opponents still regard this consequence as better
than the previously explained result generated by legitimate polygamy? One more
thing has to be ultimately spelt out: if human massiveness is managed to be
properly cultivated, brought up and refined, it will generate an effective and
useful force along the lines of China, Japan and the rest of Asian tigers.
However, why can not a
woman be a polygamist wife, just as a polygamist husband? This is, of course, a
highly naive and funny question at the same time, because it overlooks the
nature of things and what Allah has lodged into the entity as well as the
physical and psychological structure of a woman, who is thus created by Allah to
be drastically different from a man. From a point of view, it is impossible to
identify an embryo's lineal descent when a wife is sleeping around within the
same period of time. A situation thus created will be that of absolute chaos
freakily involving lineal descents as well as social and legal ties. For
example, whom will this infant, thus born, be an heir to? Who is going to accept
him as husband when he cannot identify himself as having so and so father or
such and such tribe or family? Who, out of those with whom his mother has been
sleeping around with, will be in charge of taking care of, and providing, for
him?
From another standpoint,
modem science has exposed a lot of killer diseases which women susceptibly
develop when semen by diverse men flows into the same womb ‑including, Allah
forbid, uterus and vaginal cancers as well as AIDS.
That a wife should
exclusively have one husband is an eternal and immaculate system introduced by
Allah, the Sustainer of the entire universe, which if flouted, will certainly
wreak unbearable and unprecedented havoc upon humans. It is only one husband who
should ejaculate sperm into a wife's womb, and claiming otherwise only signals
fault and inevitable annihilation.
One more thing has to be
ultimately clarified: how can a multitude of men go into the bedroom of one and
the same wife? By Allah, dumb animals do desist from such a pattern of behavior,
so a human, whom Allah has honorably preferred to other creatures, had better
desist from indulging himself into such a quagmire?
Prophet Muhammad's
Traditions Concerning His Daughter Fatima
Most polygamy opponents
attempt to take advantageously the incident of Prophet Muhammad's (Peace be upon
him) declining to allow his cousin companion and son‑in‑law Ali son of Abu‑Taleb
‑ who was married to the prophet's (peace be upon him) daughter Fatima ‑ to
marry the daughter of Amre son of Hisham, whose running epithet was Abu‑Jahl
(literally: "the Ignoramus"). They inarguably plead that Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him), when refusing to let Ali take another wife besides Fatima, has
invalidated the originally valid and permissible principle of polygamy, or has
at least conceded detriment as taking a heavy toll on the first wife when the
husband takes another wife, or wives.
To invalidate the
argument those polygamy opponents say, we have, first of all, to fully cite the
prophet's (peace be upon him) hadith (saying) to know the reasons for which he
has so declined.
The hadith reports Ali
son of Abu‑Taleb as having proposed marriage to Abu‑Jahl's daughter while he was
married to Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The
reporter of the hadith, identified as Al Miswar son of Makhrama, says, "I heard
Allah's prophet address his audience from his pulpit, and I was adult enough at
the time. He (peace be upon him) said (Fatima belongs to me and I fear that she
may be tempted out of her faith). The reporter of the hadith then cited Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) as highly commending one of his in‑laws from
Abd‑Shams clan. The prophet (peace be upon him) said "He faithfully talked to me
and honored what he promised me to do" referring to Abu‑Al‑Aas son of Al Rabi'i
(and I do not forbid what Allah has made permissible, nor do I make permissible
what Allah has forbidden. But, by Allah, never will the prophet's daughter be
meeting at the same place with the daughter of Allah's foe).
In the same hadith,
though otherwise reported in different versions, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) said, "The offspring of Hisham son of Al‑Mughira have requested my consent
to marry their daughter off to Ali son of Abu‑Taleb. But, hereby, I decline to
give consent, then I decline to give them consent, then I decline to give them
consent, unless Ali son of Abu‑Taleb so wishes to divorce my daughter and marry
their own. My daughter belongs to, and is part and parcel of, me: whatever is
hurting to her is equally hurting to me; and what exacts a toll on her equally
exacts a toll on me".
In the following lines
we will be reviewing the elucidation of the aforesaid hadith, which has been
reported by Imam Muslim, (one of the biggest authors of hadiths collections) as
interpreted by Imam Al‑Nawawi.
Imam Al‑Nawawi explains
as follows:
(Jurists have stated:
this hadith carries a prohibition of anything harmful to the prophet ‑ peace be
upon him ‑while alive by any means or under any circumstances, even if this harm
is generated by a matter which is originally permitted. Prophet Muhammad ‑ peace
be upon him ‑ has made it publicly known that it is permitted to marry
Abu‑Jahl's daughter by having said, "I do not forbid something which is
originally permissible". However, he has forbidden that both women be married by
the same husband at one and the same time for two reasons. The first reason was
being that this was detrimental to Fatima, and as such it was detrimental to the
prophet ‑ peace be upon him ‑; whoever harms him brings down on him the wrath of
Allah. So, he ‑ peace be upon him ‑ has thus forbidden such a marriage for his
full compassion for both Ali and Fatima. The second reason was being he feared
for his daughter being tempted out of faith because of womanish jealousy.
The hadith has also been
explained otherwise. The hadith, thus understood, is not intended to forbid
marrying the two by Ali, but simply means that the prophet ‑ peace be upon him ‑
knew beforehand from Allah that they would not be married by Ali ‑ as Allah
revealed to him further events. As others put it, it was probable that the
prophet ‑ peace be upon him ‑ forbade marrying them both by Ali because one is
daughter of the Messenger of Allah
And the other is daughter
of the foe of Allah, thus adding such a marriage to the women listed by the Holy
Quran as forbidden to marry, in which case his saying "I do not forbid anything
which is permissible" should be explained as that he does not say anything which
offends Allah's rulings or teachings. If
Allah permits something,
he cannot forbid it; if He (Allah) forbids it he (the prophet) cannot allow it
nor can he remain silent about it ‑ as remaining silent about it could signal
consent and permissibility. Jurists thus conclude the explanation of the
hadith.)
If we have the right to
add anything, we have to assert that Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has
obviously identified the reason for his declining to let Ali son of Abu‑Taleb
marry the other woman, in addition to Fatima, as having been that the other girl
was the daughter of Abu‑Jahl ‑ the tyrant whose running epithet during his life
was the foe of Islam. He savagely and brutally fought Islam until the moment he
gave up the ghost at the very end of sinful and villainous life. Consequently,
the daughter of Allah's foe must not have been dealt with on a par with that
begotten by Allah's beloved prophet and His mercy sent to mankind.
Moreover, it could not
have been acceptable that the daughter of Allah's last messenger ‑ who belongs
to him as well as part and parcel of him as he, peace be upon him, described her
on a lot of occasions ‑ be placed in a position of profanely vying for a
husband's heart, which, naturally, entails mutual jealously as well as being
locked in heated bantering and argument as the case is in most households.
Allah's prophet and his daughter must have been loftier than that cheap clash,
involving women in every society and at any time, to win husbands' hearts.
In addition, Muhammad's
daughter presumably sets an example for all women of mankind to follow. In her
capacity as such, she must have been safeguarded against any rival women, so
that she might be totally devoted, together with her father, to the noble call
for peace and Islam.
A special mention has to
be made of the fact that there are certain provisions which exclusively apply to
Allah's prophets and messengers‑ and their sons and daughters subordinately.
Being central to the Islamic faith, such provisions have to be carefully
observed. We firmly believe that Fatima is a sister to all Muslims, as her
mother, late Khadija (may Allah be pleased with her) is the mother of all the
faithful believers as shown by the Holy Quran itself. Fatima's father, Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him), is closer to believers than themselves, and as
such he is regarded as the father of every Muslim, be it male or female.
Therefore, if his
daughter Fatima has been a sister to all female Muslims, she should not be
combined in marriage with any of her sisters, either by Ali ‑ as his two wives ‑
or by anybody else. And since Fatima is an exception case covered by a special
ruling or provision, no other case which is not covered by the Quranic text
referred to should be made analogous to her.
Ultimately, it is not
ever legal that Allah's messenger flouts or invalidates a provision, like
polygamy, even though Allah has revealed verses of the Holy Quran in
acknowledgement thereof. To say that the prophet has flouted or invalidated such
a provision is to centrally undermine the tenets of Islam and criminally call
into question Prophet Muhammad's deeds.
Chapter Four
FIGURES TALK LOUDER
Allah desires but to
manifest His might and mercy every now and then. If a believer has to obey and
give in to Allah's teachings and orders, although he does not realize the reason
or reasons behind a ruling made by Allah, non‑believers sometimes help bring
into the spotlight unawares Allah's teachings, thus causing the divine
legislation to unfold its covert wisdom only to an audience of the unbiased
non‑believers who ‑ in acknowledgement of the wise divine instructions ‑ kneel
down in awe to the great God. An obvious example in case is the permissiveness
of polygamy.
As demonstrated by the
most up‑to‑date population census conducted in the US, females outnumber males
by more than eight million women; in Britain, women are in excess of men by five
million females; and in Germany, the ratio of women to men is 3 to1.
In statistics conducted
recently by the weekly "Al Maydan" newspaper[9]
of Egypt, only one Egyptian girl out of every ten girls at the age of marriage,
which has been pushed up from 22 to 32 years, gets access to marriage. In almost
all cases, a potential bridegroom is so well over thirty-five years that he is
almost forty years of age. This should not be much to our surprise: a new
graduate has to wait for a job for ten to twelve years to obtain it, has to
scrimp for some more time and then set off ferreting for his so‑called better
halaal "Al Maydan" newspaper goes on to say that accordingly forbidden relations
have been increasingly rampant, and so has been the phenomenal common‑law
marriage against a background of millions of unmarried women. (By common‑law
marriage we mean a form of marriage in which the two would‑be spouses do not
dare having their marriage ‑ though legitimate still ‑registered with the
officials so authorized by the government). The survey ‑conducted for the
newspaper by the two female researchers Ghada Muhammad Ibraheem and Dalia Kamal
Azzam under the supervision of the National Center of Sociological and Criminal
Studies ‑ has exposed young marriage as having been steeply in decline owing to
the ever‑rising standard of life and with unemployment and housing falling well
short of the required.
Another survey, released
in the US, puts the number of illegitimate children at one out of every six
infants born (as reported by Al‑Akhbar newspaper of 2/7/1968). Undoubtedly, the
number across the US is to the tune of millions and millions of illegitimate
children annually.
Both Iraq and Iran have
appallingly been undergoing a grave imbalance between men and women in view of
the eight‑year‑old heavy war the two nations had been waging against each other.
In either of the two countries the ratio of men to women stands at 1:5 or 1:7 in
some other regions.
However, the situation
is all the more bizarre and menacing in Bosnia‑Herzegovina, which was plunged
into a filthy racial war which had crushingly and ceaselessly persisted from
1992 until 1996. The consequence has been a terrifying ratio of 1:27. Yes, only
one man to every twenty‑seven women. The social catastrophe that Muslim nation
has been undergoing owing to the scarcity of men and massiveness of women is
beyond any stretch of imagination. Communism has been clamped down on that
country for tens of years. It jettisoned criminal Communism only to be ensnared
in the jaws of a more perishing and criminal crusade. What alternative is there
for Muslim girls to do if they can not come across Muslim husbands? Should we
let them marry Orthodox Serbs or Catholic Croats just because some over
stringent women and men do not acknowledge polygamy? Or is it the fact that
those over stringent women and men prefer that Muslim girls should take lovers
(adulterers behind the scenes) along Western demoralized lines?
In a hot press report on
the "explosion of bachelor girls", Tahani Al‑Burtuqali, the correspondent in
Kuwait of Cairo‑based "Al‑Ahram" newspaper, recalls what happened a few years
ago when Kuwait's society experienced the phenomenal sending by hundreds of
unmarried girls of letters to Kuwaiti wives, in which each girl demanded the
wife to share the husband with her in a bid to keep abreast of the problem of
the rising number of bachelor girls in Kuwait's society as well as in Gulf
society in general. Another report carried by "Al‑Ahram Al‑Arabi" magazine, on
its first issue, said there were estimated 40 thousand girls. The number is not
little if compared to the entire population of Kuwait as a whole ‑ it represents
16% of Kuwait's women who account for a little more than 250 thousand people out
of an entire population of Kuwait as a whole of half a million people.
To deprive a woman of
emotion is a greater health hazard than to deprive her of sex. The pleasure
attained by a woman when having sex, in the absence of emotion, does not excite
a woman as much as a gentle word or kind fondling will certainly do, sending her
sexually excited to the degree of satisfaction. This remark is underscored by
Saed Abdul‑Azeem, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Cairo
University's Faculty of Medicine. He further explains that a woman's emotional
deprivation is the shortest way to acting perversely, sexual frigidity and a
wider range of physical and psychological illnesses alike.[10]
Dr. Muhammad
Helal Rifa'i, a gynecologist, assertively says that the lack, or even delay of
marriage makes a woman more exposed to breast tumours, uterus cancer as well as
fibroid tumours than the married ones. Having been polled, many woman patients
who frequent his clinic overwhelmingly said they prefer getting married to an
already‑married man than gloomily remaining a bachelor girl. Some of those women
patients said they even preferred being a third or fourth wife than being
permanently held captive by spinstership.
If this is the view of
science, a woman doctor can, to a greater degree of fidelity, describe what an
unmarried woman feels. A woman doctor cites in a message to Ahmad Bahgat, a
veteran Egyptian columnist with the Cairo‑based Al‑Ahrarn newspaper, statistics
as having exhibited that estimated ten million women and girls live on their own
in Egypt. She further quotes the survey as classifying those women and girls as
either divorcees, widows without or with children (who later grew up and
embarked on their own lives alone), or girls who have not been married before.
She wonders whether
anybody can imagine the magnitude of tragedy that those lonely women have to
experience. They cannot maintain balanced relations with others, but they are
distraught with tension, anxiety and a deep desire to remain isolated away from
curious eyes, forked tongues and pre‑determined charges of snatching husbands
from friends, one's kith and kin or neighbors.
This all leads to
depression, rejection of life and inability to be properly woven into the
society's fabric. The doctor is raising the alarm that those unmarried women are
more susceptible to psychologi6al as well as physical diseases, suc4 as
migraine, hypertension, arthritis, stomach and duodenal ulcers, irritable colon,
menstruation disorders, loss of hair and moral perversity, with many of them
having ultimately to marry an already‑married man.[11]
Ironically enough, some
Western nations where women alarmingly outnumber men have had to approve
polygamy as the only alternative to an imminent irreversible social explosion
which they can neither deal with nor cope with its deadly fallout. This happens
against a background of Muslims only in the name drumming up war against the
validity and legitimacy of polygamy.
Dr. Muhammad Youssef
Moussa, an Egyptian celebrated university professor and intellectual in the
first half of this century, tells a relevant story whose scene was an
international youth conference in 1948 in Germany's Munich city. At the
invitation of the conference organizers, Dr. Mohamed Youssef Moussa and one of
his colleagues attended a seminar at the aforesaid conference. The major theme
of the seminar was a post‑World War II problem in Europe of having women
outnumbering men by several fold. Having exhaustively dealt with all solutions
proposed by Western participants, the seminar turned them all down, branding
them as falling largely short of remedying the immensely difficult problem. Thus
far, neither Dr. Youssef Moussa nor his colleague had asked for the floor to
address the seminar. Addressing the seminar, they called for the only natural
alternative,
Namely adopting polygamy.
The Islam‑orientated standpoint was first astonishingly and sneeringly greeted.
However, having thoroughly, fairly and prudently mulled over the view,
researchers attending the conference ended up approving the Islamic solution to
the problem, as the one and only solution, and adopting it as a conference
recommendation. Only one year later, residents of then West Germany's city Bonn,
were widely reported by the press and news agencies as demanding the German
constitution to feature an article allowing polygamy. Hence, Allah manifests
what is right despite seculars' unwillingness.[12]
With the system of
polygamy having been in place for centuries, Muslim communities have managed to
survive countless evils and misfortunes. A comparison simply struck between
societies in Saudi Arabia, for example, and the US will show moral crimes ‑ such
as rape and prostitution ‑ as rarely taking place in the former, as against
mistresses far in excess of wives in the latter, with illegitimately‑born
children accounting for more than 45% of births in the US annually. In
accordance with official US statistics, illegitimate children had not exceeded
88 thousand infants by 1938, climbing to 202 thousand infants by 1957, to 250
thousand by 1958 and then skyrocketing to millions of infants born outside
wedlock. However, real figures usually tend to be, by a long chalk, far more
than official figures released by governments and whoever knows the other hidden
parts of the situation.
In view of all this,
France's celebrated man of letters Atienne Denez once wondered, "Is a ban on
polygamy morally useful?
He answers himself by
saying, "This is highly skeptical, as prostitution, happening once in a blue
moon in most Islamic nations, will be going widely rampant, sending immensely
destructive fallout everywhere. Women will largely remain bachelor girls,
entailing a great deal of corruption, along those nations banning polygamy”.[13]
Chapter Five
POLYGAMY NOT LEFT
UNCONTROLLED
Allah, Exalted be He,
said, "If you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with orphans, 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, or (a captive) that your
right hands possess. That will be more suitable, to head you off from doing
injustice”.[14]
Interpreting this verse
which allowed polygamy, Ibn‑Qatheer said, "If anyone of you has in his custody a
female orphan to whom he feared that he should not give mahr (marriage portion)
equal to those who are similar to her, he should then do her justice by turning
to another woman; Allah has created so many women that he will not be in a loss
for one or ones.
[15]
Imam Al Bukhari reported
‑ authoritatively – Urwa, son of Al‑Zubair, as having asked his maternal aunt
Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, about this verse. She replied by saying,
"My nephew, the verse refers to a female orphan who, as being kept in custody,
shares her money with her guardian. With her money or beauty tickling his fancy,
her guardian wishes to marry her without doing her justice (to give her a mahr
equal to the one that would have otherwise been paid to others similar to her).
So, a guardian with such
a female orphan in his custody has been forbidden to marry her unless he deals
with her on a par with any other woman who is not in his custody by granting her
the maximum mahr he would otherwise have given to an equivalent woman. A
guardian, in such a position, has been ordered, fearing injustice, to marry as
many as maximally four women whom he desires, apart from those female orphans
under his protection".
Abu‑Jaafar Muhammad son
of Jareer, in his elucidation of the same verse, reported Rabi'aa as saying,
"Allah, Exalted be He, ordered his worshippers to leave those female orphans in
their custody for any other four women whom Allah has maximally allowed".
Abu‑Jaffar has reported other (jurists) as saying, "Marry maximally four
stranger women whom Allah has allowed you to marry. In case you fear not dealing
fairly with more than one of those strangers, you have either to content
yourselves with only one wife or with those female captives in your right
hands".
Other jurists said, as
still reported by Abu‑Jaafar, "The verse can even be explained as forbidding
marrying in excess of four woman so that orphans funds may not be depleted by
guardians. A tribesman of Quraish used ‑ in pre‑Islamic times ‑ to marry to the
tune of ten women, or more or less of women. Having exhaustively spent his money
on his ten wives and thus become a destitute, such a tribesman of Quraish would
head for the funds of the orphans in his custody to splurge out on his wives or
on marrying new ones. Therefore, Allah has forbidden such a practice".[16]
Al‑Imarn Al‑Nasafy,
another great interpreter of the Holy Quran, said, "As reported, men in
pre‑Islamic times felt free to commit adultery, but never felt as free to take
orphans in their custody. So, Allah told them if you do not really feel free to
take orphans in your custody, fearing injustice to them, you had better fear
adultery, from which you should keep your genitals by marrying women whom Allah
has allowed you to marry and never hover around Allah's forbidden things. Or
they did not feel free to take wealthy orphans in their custody, whereas giving
themselves an absolutely free hand to keep as many wives as possible, although
when they are more than four wives they are more prone to gross inequality being
done to them. It is as if Allah were telling them: if you feel hand‑tied to keep
orphans in your custody, you should not feel free to do the many wives you keep
injustice either; should you fear unfairness as possibly being meted out to
those wives, content yourselves with only one wife or, otherwise, take as many
female captive slaves possible, so that you may not treat any wife unjustly".[17]
The meaning carried by
Allah's saying in the verse you fear" is as follows:
If you think you will
not, most probably, mete out fairness to the orphan, or orphans, you have in
your custody, you have to "swerve" from her to another one. In this context, a
control over having many wives is not imperative. In other words, even a
guardian who does not fear doing injustice to orphans, he may have more than one
wife (second, third or fourth wife) thus doing just as the one who exactly fears
injustice.[18]
Allowing polygamy is a general ruling, which applies to all Muslims, with
strings attached. As for what Allah said in the same verse "that will be more
suitable to head you off from doing injustice", it simply means as the verse
says "To head off from injustice", rather than (as others have unsuccessfully
interpreted it) "the least not to have so many offspring" (The Arabic word used
by Allah in the verse can mean “not to do injustice" or “not to have so many
offspring"). Al‑Tabary reported, citing Ibn‑Abbas, Mujahid and Ibn‑Omar, that
the Arabic controversial word referred to assuredly means "injustice" and
"slanting". The sense of the controversial Arabic word is not "The least not to
be poor" either, as the entire sense of the verse does not go right as such.
What is widely believed, by Islamic jurists, to be right is "Not to do injustice
or to be slanted against what is right".
Never In Excess of Four
Wives At One Time
Allah has licensed a
Muslim man to marry from one up to four wives, as drawn from the very wording of
the verse of the surah of "Al‑Nisaa" (women) and widely‑acknowledged sayings of
the great interpreters of the Holly Quran. A Muslim husband cannot have in
excess of four wives at the same time; if he fears that he is highly likely not
to deal with them on a par with each other, in case of more than one wife, he
should content himself with only one. The rule of not doing any injustice
applies to a husband of three wives: fearing injustice he should reduce them to
only two; a husband of three fearing injustice if he gets a fourth one should
content himself with only the three wives he already has.
Wise Shari'aa even bans
monogamy if the husband is fearful of doing his only wife injustice. Great Islam
is keenly interested in administering justice under all circumstances.
There is consensus among
jurists that a Muslim husband may not combine in excess of four wives.[19]
If Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has combined nine wives at one time,
this exclusively applies to him; no other Muslim should be analogous to the
Prophet.
In the following lines,
we will be elaborating on the reason and circumstances leading him (peace be
upon him) to marry every one of those wives in order to clarify any relevant
confusion or misunderstanding as well as to refute lies mongered by orientalists
and Jews alike.
Al‑Imam Al‑Shafii, may
Allah be pleased with him, said in his collection of authentic hadiths, "The
Prophet's sunna, elaborately explaining what Allah has set forth in general in
the Quran, has clarified beyond the slightest doubt that it was Prophet Muhammad
alone who was empowered to keep wives in excess of four."
Some Shiite jurists have
said that a Muslim husband may combine up to nine wives, interpreting the
relevant verse of "Al‑Nisaa" surah as follows: (two + three + four = nine)!!
Another queer and unaccepted opinion says that a Muslim husband may combine 18
wives, interpreting two as 2 + 2, three as 3 + 3, and four as 4 + 4, all
totaling 18 wives.
However, the very wording
of sunna as well as the deeds of companions and followers categorically denote
that a Muslim husband may have access only to four wives. Sunni jurists,
predecessor and descendants alike, have unanimously agreed that it was
exclusively the Prophet who was allowed to have more than four wives.
We refer our readers to
the hadiths previously cited in chapter one of this book, including that
reported by Imam Al‑Bukhari (also reported by Malik, Nasa'i and Daraqutni) that
Ghilan of the Thaqif tribe had ten wives when he embraced Islam. Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him, said to him: "Keep only any four of them you desire
and divorce the rest." Another hadith has also been previously cited in chapter
one of this book. It is that hadith reported by Abu.‑Dawoud citing Harith son of
Qais of the Asad tribe as saying, "When I embraced Islam I had eight wives.
When I so told the Prophet, he said: Keep only four of them."[20]
Ibn‑Katheer, elucidating
the verse of the Quran having to do with polygamy, saying, "Allah says marry as
many wives as two, three or four if you so wish. Allah, Exalted be He, said (Who
made the angels messengers with wings ‑ two, or three, or four),
[21]
'(2) that is to say that some of those angels have two wings, some have three
wings while others have four wings. The context here is that of Allah, the
Benefactor, mentioning His boons that He has endowed upon His worshippers, and
telling them what He has allowed them to do. So, if Allah had allowed men to
combine more than four wives, He would have made it clear in the Quran.[22]
Al‑Imarn Al‑Qurtubi,
refuting the alleged permission for men to marry more than four wives, has said,
"Those who so claim do neither understand the Quran nor the sunna at all,
abandoning what the Muslim nation's ancestors firmly believed in. They claimed
that the conjunction ('And) in the relevant verse is an all‑combining one. In
fact, it is the jurists who belong to the sect of Rafida, or Rafidites (certain
offshoots of Shiite), and some of those associated with the sect of Zahirites (a
certain Islamic sect adopting the opinion of taking religious judgments directly
from Quran and sunna texts as they are on the surface, even literally,
regardless of whatever details, explanations or restrictions jurists of other
schools of jurisprudence may have concluded) who have made that highly‑ignorant
claim. Some others have gone further to a much worse stretch by alleging that
Allah has licensed men to combine eighteen wives. This all is an example of
gross ignorance of both language and sunna alike, and flouts the nation's
consensus as well, as none of the Prophet's companions or followers who came in
subsequent ages was heard of as having married more than four wives."
Having cited all the
Prophet's hadiths in which he ordered companions to keep only any four of the
wives they had and to divorce the ones in excess thereof, Al‑Qurtubi[23]
has stressed that combining nine wives at a time was an exclusively special
thing of the Prophet, peace be upon him, with divine direction to fulfil certain
objectives for the good of the call and message itself. Then, Al‑Qurtubi has
said, "Allah, Exalted be He, has addressed Arabs in the plainest Arabic style.
Arabs, eloquent as they were, never said two and three and four when they mean
"nine." Arabs completely disagree of an Arab saying: give somebody four, six and
eight instead of out rightly saying eighteen. The conjunction "And" in the
gracious verse (Two and three and four wives) simply means :instead of two you
may marry three, and instead of three you may marry four wives." "If he gets a
fifth wife, the marriage spontaneously turns null and void and is even
punishable, though scholars have assumed diverse positions on this," Al‑Qurtubi
further said. In reply to a question why Allah has not used the conjunction "Or"
in the verse instead of "And," Al‑Qurtubi has said, "If (or) had been used, the
verse would have meant that a husband of two may not take a third wife, and that
a husband of three may not take a fourth one, while all this is permitted.
Capability to Practice
Polygamy
As mentioned before,
having access to polygamy primarily hinges upon capability. Just as marrying the
first wife, marrying a second, third or fourth wife requires financial, health
as well as psychological capability. In the lack of capability, polygamy is,
automatically, not allowed. He who cannot provide for two households has to
suffice himself with only one wife at the center of only one household. A
husband of two should content himself with the two unless he is capable, in
terms of both finance and health, of keeping a third or fourth wife, and so on.
By finance we mean
solvency to provide for the children by the wife, or wives, kept.
Health capability, in
our opinion, is the ability to satisfy sexual desires of the wives kept, as its
imperative on the husband to cuter for the legitimate and natural sexual desires
of his wife or wives. By so doing, he helps his wife, or wives, to be sexually
chaste. If the husband is sexually impotent, for example, he is not envisaged as
having any wife, even a single one, as this does her gross injustice. We also
believe that a husband, or them, sexually potent for only one wife should not
have more wives because he is thus doing her injustice, making marriage grossly
disadvantageous to her. However, every individual case has to be considered
independently of others. A husband's conscience, self‑honesty and religious
scruple are apt to dissuade him from inequality to his wife or wives. If,
notwithstanding, a husband insists on having a wife or wives whom he is not able
to adequately and reasonably satisfy her sexually, the wife (or wives) thus kept
has perfect right to proceed against him demanding a divorce on grounds of
detriment and a fear of having illegal sexual affair. A court judge is broadly
empowered to assess the magnitude of detriment in every individual case.
As to psychological
capability, it means an ability to administer justice to the wives kept, in
terms of everything available, without showing any slant towards one wife, or
his children by her, against the other wife, or wives or his children by her or
them.
In the absence of any of
the three capability prerequisites cited above, polygamy is not, by any means,
allowed.
Justice Among Wives
Allah, Exalted be He,
says in the third verse of "Al‑Nisaa" surah, "But if you fear that you shall not
be able to deal justly, then only one."[24]
Allah, Exalted be He, also says |