wive

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.

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.

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 17^th 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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

(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.

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]

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]

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".

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.

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.

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 "You are never able to be fair and just as between women, even if it is your ardent desire, but do not turn away from a woman altogether, lest you should leave her as if she were hanging in the air. If you come to a friendly understanding, and exercise self‑restraint, Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful.[25] So, how can the wording of the two verses of the surah be reconciled? And what are the criteria of the justice required?

In answer, Al‑Imarn Al‑Qurtubi says, "Allah, Exalted be He, has informed His worshippers that justice cannot be meted out to the wives in terms of affection, making love and heart inclination. Allah, Exalted be He, most properly described human disposition, making it perfectly clear that humans cannot, by nature, take command of their hearts slanting heavier towards one or the other. In view of this all, Prophet Muhammad used to fairly deal with his wives in terms of expenses, then said, (0 Allah, this is the way I was able to mete out justice to my wives in terms of what I have control over; so Allah do not blame me for what I do not have control over and which falls only under your control). Then Allah has forbidden excessive turning away from a wife to another by saying (Do not turn away from a woman altogether), namely do not deliberately do her harm ‑ as Mujahid reported ‑ but deal justly in terms of staying overnight and expenses as these two are well under one's control.”[26]

Abu‑Huraira quoted Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as saying, "He who has two wives to whom he had not meted out justice, will be coming on the Day of Judgement slanting on one of his sides."[27] Justice, as mentioned in this hadith, refers only to expenses and staying overnight, rather than in terms of love or heart inclination, as it is Allah who is in full command of human hearts.

Ibn‑Abbas, Ibn‑Jareer, and Al‑Hassan Al‑Basry said that "As if she were hanging" means: do not turn away from her, leaving her neither divorced to get another husband nor married by a husband who will take care of her and meet her legitimate rights.

Qatada has interpreted the word as meaning: do not turn away from her, leaving her as if she were imprisoned. Ubbay son of Qaab, may Allah be pleased with him, would read the verse in Arabic to sound the Arabic word which means "Imprisoned."

Ibn‑Masoud, may Allah be pleased with him, would read the verse in Arabic to sound like "leaving her as if she were hanging." These are all ways of reciting the Holy Quran, only to clarify the meaning; as thus they should not be regarded as a change in the wording of the Holy Quran ‑ Allah forbid...

Sheikh Sayyid Sabiq asserts, "Justice as required by Allah is only the external one of which one is capable, rather than justice in terms of love and affection. No one is capable of the latter; the justice denied is the one having to do with affection, love and making love to."[28]

Muhammad son of Sireen, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "Upon asking Ubaida about this verse, he replied: "Justice cannot ever be achieved in terms of love or making love."

Abu‑Bakr son of Al‑Arabi, talking about love and affection in question, has said, "no one can control love. Emanating from the heart, love cannot be taken control of, as it is Allah, the Beneficent, alone who can dispose of humans' hearts. The same applies to making love: a husband may be particularly sexually active with a wife of his, while being less active with another. If he is not so deliberately, he is not guilty. He cannot control his emotion, so he is not so assigned."

Al‑Imarn Al‑Khatabi has said, "Things should be fairly distributed by a husband to all the wives whom he has, so long as those wives are not captive slaves. Inadvisable is one's inclination towards one wife more than the other, or others, resulting in (material) rights not properly catered for, rather than the inclination of hearts which cannot be controlled."

The deceased Sayyid Qutb, a prominent figure of the Muslim Brotherhood says, "What is really required is justice in terms of dealing, expenses, and sexual intercourse. A husband is not required to give out equal sentiments to them all, as a human being cannot ever do so because it is far beyond the scope of human volition. And this exactly the kind of justice which Allah has described by saying "And you will never be able to deal fairly with them, even if you so ardently desire). This verse is manipulatively used by some as a false pretext to ban polygamy, whereas the verse does not so mean. Allah's Shari'aa is not so jocular to pass and adopt a certain pattern of behavior in one verse and bans it in another; Allah's Shari'aa does not ever give out something with the right hand and take it away with the left.

Justice urged by the verse is in terms of expenses, dealing and making love to. This is exactly the justice without which a husband may not take more than one wife. It applies mainly to external matters which have to be fully catered for by a husband ‑ nothing short thereof ‑in such a way that a wife is not favored by something at the expense of the other, in terms of expenses and making love. A case in point is the splendid example set by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who is the mankind's loftiest man. He used to mete out justice, although everyone was perfectly knowledgeable that he loved Aisha better. However, he did not ever prefer her to others in terms of staying overnight or expenses." [29]

In a nutshell, one's heart inclination or love for a wife more than the others should, as we believe, be imprisoned within one's bosom, rather than rendered into action that will hurt the feelings, or undermine the interests, of the rest of his wives or their children in favor of the most beloved wife or her children.

We are, above all, humans rather than angels. Therefore, everybody should be content with justice in terms of matters which are within human control: absolute justice exists only in the Hereafter with Allah, Exalted be He, in Whose presence no one is ever done injustice, while there is no way to compel humans to equally administer feelings and sentiments.

Allah, Exalted be He, will mercifully and justly compensate the wife who does not bask in her hsuband's love or favor. If she is patient and fearful of Allah, she will be generously compensated with whatever is good, both in this mundane world and the hereafter. Being locked in a situation of not basking in her husband's love may be a visitation by Allah to her, for which Allah will reward her on condition that she be patient and obedient to Allah's orders. In this context, we have to remind such a wife that her continued stay with her husband ‑ though not fully enjoying his love, while still having full access to her rights and her children's ‑ is far better to her than abhorrent divorce and total deprivation of all that.

This mundane world is not an eternal one, with ultimately defective and profane amenities. It is there in paradise, rather than on Earth, where there is never‑ending boons and perfect happiness.

In conclusion, if it were true that the verse number 129 of "Al‑Nisaa" bans polygamy ‑ as it has made it categorically clear that administering justice to wives is impossible ‑ Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, together with his companions, would have divorced their wives as soon as the verse had descended, contenting themselves with one wife each. As we have authoritatively been told, none of them had so done ‑ Allah forbid that the prophet or any of his companions would flout Allah's orders to divorce extra wives, if Allah has ever so ordered.

Accordingly, polygamy is truly allowed until the Day of Judgement. In support of this is a hadith which says, "Women are doomed to survive, while men will be so few that every fifty women will have a corresponding one man to control, and take care of".

This hadith carries a prophecy that will come true in yet other generations to come, and fall within those prophetic traditions dealing with the signs of the then‑approaching Doomsday. It is, however, significant as to our issue of polygamy and the imbalance in the number of the two genders.[30]

In jurists jargon, the word "division" refers to meting out justice to the wives a husband keeps in terms of staying overnight, expenses and others.[31] A husband is obliged to equally divide food, staying overnight, clothing and residing among his wives.

All the other material matters have also to be equally divided among them, regardless of the wives being rich or poor, of high class or not. If a husband fears injustice and inability to fully cater for their rights, he is not empowered to combine more than one wife.[32]

What really counts as far as expenses are concerned as given preponderance by the followers of Abu‑Hanifa, known in Arabic as Ahnaf ‑ is the solvency or not of the husband, regardless of the wives' conditions. Consequently, all the wives kept by a husband should be equally dealt with in terms of expenses, which naturally involve the upkeeping (providing enough food and water), clothing and housing for the wives. Saying otherwise in apt to trigger off disagreement and to nourish rancor and enmity among the wives and their children by the same husband.

Accordingly, perfect justice has to be dealt out in terms of expenses and altogether material matters. A father, in our belief, should also be keen enough not to make publicly felt his love sentiments of one specific wife, if he loves her better than the others. A husband should be wise and sage enough to protect the entity of the family and to stem any possible disagreement.

The first of such conditions is being the state of mind: a person who is mentally deranged is not obliged to divide among his wives; but an insane wife should have full access to sharing with other wives things dealt out by their husband, on condition that she be tranquil and quiet, not go into fits and be permanently staying in her husband's house for ease, by him, of sexual intercourse with her. Otherwise, she has no right to sharing things.

The second condition attached is being that the husband should be adult. For a wife it is not necessary be pubescent, but she should at least stand sexual intercourse. If the husband is not pubescent and has, consequently, done injustice to one of his wives, it is his guardian who is implicated, simply because it was his guardian who married him off and responsibility has to be blamed on him.[33]

The third condition attached is being that the wife should not be a recalcitrant one. If the wife is disobedient, always exhibiting unwillingness to obey her husband's orders, she has then no right to share her husband, or what he gives out, with the other wives. Sharing spousal care is not draped by any impediment to sexual intercourse, whether this impediment be a wife menstruation, post‑birth bleeding or illness; Or whether this impediment be on the part of the husband, such as illness or impotency. This is because staying overnight with a wife does not necessarily carry sexual intercourse; staying overnight is primarily intended for entertaining, rather than necessarily sexual intercourse. If a husband is so ill that he cannot move, he may stay with whomever he believes will serve and nurse him better.

This judgement is drawn from what Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, did when he was taken gravely ill immediately before his death. Having been ill on his death bed, the prophet, peace be upon him, was granted common consent by his wives, may Allah be pleased with them, to stay with his wife Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her. They so did because they realized how much he loved her and how satisfied he was with her nursing him.

Under no circumstances a wife should be deliberately left without sexual intercourse pleading that he does not love her. A situation as such is apt to send her acting perversely and corruptly. If he does not really intend to reasonably and adequately make love to her ‑ in order to make her sexually satisfied ‑ he should inevitably divorce her, and may Allah send her a husband who is better than he is, and send him a better wife than she is.

There is a sound opinion that a wife has perfect right to have her husband staying with her overnight every four nights, on the grounds that a husband can keep four wives. It is exactly the same right granted to a monogamist who is preoccupied with worshipping or work, in which case he has to stay overnight with his wife every four nights, while devoting his three other nights to worshipping.

And there is also the most probable verdict cited before, urging a husband that he should have sexual intercourse with each of his wives reasonably and adequately to make her sexually content and distract her from thinking of any other man.

Hanifites, or the followers of Abu‑Hanifa, believe that a judge ‑ if the wife proceeds against her husband ‑ should pass a ruling in favor of the wife being slept with every now and then in the way he deems sufficient to make her sexually abstinent.

Malikites, or the followers of Imam Malik, believe that a husband is forbidden to intentionally abstain from having sex with one of his wives, during her allotted time, on the grounds of saving his strength and vigor for sleeping with another one whom he enjoys better. So, if he is staying with the allotted one and felt sufficiently sexually excited to have sexual intercourse, but he did not, to keep his energy for the most beautiful wife, he is considered guilty. He is sinful because his willful delay of sexual intercourse is rightly believed to exact a heavy toll on the allotted one, even if she is neither actually harmed nor did complain.

A husband may also share things equally with his wives in accordance with his condition: if he works diurnally, he should share his time with them nocturnally; if the other way round' in case he be a watchman for example, he should share time with them diurnally. Every wife can have, for example, a night or day or two days or nights. He may also share time with them as follows: every wife a solid week or more, on condition of getting their common consent, though this opinion is diversely elaborated by various schools of fiqh[34] (jurisprudence).

A husband is forbidden to have sexual intercourse with anyone apart from the allotted wife for that night nor is he allowed to kiss another one apart from her. However, he can have access to the residence of his wife, or wives, who is not, or are not, allotted for that day or night if necessity should arise or if she, or they, needed expenses, wanted him to come to see the children or to do them any indispensable need.

Hanbalites, or the followers of Ibn‑Hanbal, believe that division among wives should be on the basis of only one night each and nothing in excess for any of them unless they so commonly consent.

Spending the night with anyone of them, a husband may, as usual, go out to mosque for praying as well as leave her to honor a promise, fulfil a duty or the like. Nevertheless, he may not deliberately go out more often during the night or day of the allotted one than the nights or days of the others. If he so does, he will be dealing injustice out to her (unless she otherwise consents).

Hanbalites do make an additional curious ruling: a husband may not have access at night to any other wife except for the allotted one unless she is in deep distress, such as being on her death bed and wishing to make a will, or the like of only grave matters. By day, he may have access to the unallotted one (whose turn has not yet come) for doing something urgently, on condition that he should not stay long with her; if he stays longer, he should compensate the allotted one ‑ with whom he should have spent the day ‑ by spending another day with her. If he has sexual intercourse with the unallotted one, he should have sexual intercourse with the allotted one (he should have one more time of sexual intercourse with her in compensation), to the contrary of a verdict formulated by Shafi'ites, the followers of Imam Al‑Shafi'i.

As for getting a new wife, we believe as more highly apt that verdict formulated by Hanifites that all wives, be they old or new, should have equal access to staying with their husband. As well, a virgin or matron (previously married) should also be dealt with on a par with each other. If a husband gets a new wife, whether she be a virgin or matron, he should start his marital life by staying with her: he should spend seven nights with her if she is virgin and three nights if she is matron. His old wives have to be compensated for this period of time he spent with the new one.

Dealing out justice to wives so requires, as exhibited by Prophet Muhammad's, peace be upon him, sunnah. However, a husband may begin his rotation with his wives with the new one, then give the others their due days or nights in proportion to what he has spent with the new one. A wife may cede her nuptial allotted time to another wife in return for something or without. If she cedes this allotted time to another wife but then made up her mind to go back on it, she is so allowed.[35]

Sawda daugther of Zamaa ‑ a wife of the nine wives kept by Prophet Muhammed at his death, peace be upon him, whose running epithet was, along with them all, "Mother of the Faithful" ‑ has once ceded her allotted night to Aisha, another "Mother of the Faithful" as she knew the prophet loved Aisha better than he loved her. Sawda has thus set the most splendid example of selflessness, nobility and generosity, preferring to please Allah and His apostle to this profane world, contenting herself with the fact that she will be resurrected among the prophet's wives ‑ and suffice be it a blessing.

In case the husband plans to travel, a distinction should be made between leaving one's place for another to settle down (like leaving rural areas for Cairo or Alexandria, or even leaving a country for another for good), one the on hand, and transitory travel for some time after which a husband will come back home where his wives are residing, on the other.

If the husband is travelling to another country for finally settling down, he should, if possible, take all of his wives, or he should, instead, draw a lot among them to take the winning one for some time and then bring her back for another one to go, and so on. If it is difficult to do so either, he has, inevitably, to divorce the one whom he does not want and retain the one whom he wants to have with him where he will be settled for good. The case in question is not precisely travelling for work or for tourism, but it is rather final emigration. Therefore, he may not desert some of his wives and take the others unless they commonly give consent which is almost impossible as an unwanted wife will lose her husband, once and for all, if he so leaves.[36]

If travel is temporary for trade, haj (pilgrimage), calling for Islam in a non‑Muslim nation, medical treatment, tourism or others, the verdict we deem as apter is that a husband should draw a lot among his wives to identify the one to accompany him. The period of this temporary travel should not be reckoned as within the calendar of the wives: it is exclusively the share of the one who has won the lot and the other wives are not to be compensated for after travel.

If a wife travels alone, she should not be compensated for what she has missed during her absence. If all wives go with their husband, he should share his time with them as he used to do in his earlier country.

Jurists believe that if the husband's house has many flats or it is a multi‑story house, with each of those flats or stories having a private door and utilities which are perfectly independent of the rest of flats (a private toilet, kitchen, a place for a clothes line), the husband may rightfully combine all of his wives in such a house, even if they do not consent individually. What counts is that each of the wives will have a privately independent flat in isolation of the others.[37]

If the house has a residence which has only one door which hinges into a single room or even a set of rooms, with a shared toilet and kitchen, a husband may combine all of his wives as such only when they all give consent. The same rule applies when they are all travelling and have to stay in one room or the same tent (as if travelling for haj, for example) in which case they can be combined by a husband, whether they so consent or not (a case in point is the crammed tents of pilgrims at Minna and Arafat).

Malikites have made a fatwa (religious judgment) that a man making love to a wife while the other wife, or wives, is, or are, watching is "haram" ‑ a term used by jurists to brand anything which is not permitted at all by religion and which carries a punishment by Allah for anyone doing it ‑ rather than just "disapproved of".

Sleeping with a wife in front of the others is not permitted under any circumstances, whether the wife being slept with is fully exposed to the others or not.[38] We fully support this sound verdict by Malikites. In fact, sexual intercourse as such is not permitted from the humanitarian viewpoint, as it hurts the sentiments of other wives, and ridiculously arouses instincts and rancor among them. It also trespasses on the decency of the one with whom the husband is sleeping in front of the others.

Man, whom Allah has honorably created, presumably diverges widely from dumb animals, and, keeping this divergence in mind, sound and unblemished human nature rejects sexual intercourse as done in such a way as in front of others. Even some animals, like cats, can impossibly copulate with each other while being closely watched by human, or even closely without seeing them. And "Exalted be He who has given to each created thing its form and nature, and has further given it guidance".

We also believe that a husband may step up the expenses of one wife than the other, or others, under certain circumstances, including having more children than the others. For example, if a husband gives a wife having five children six loaves, while giving the one with three children four loaves, he will not, axiomatically, be dealing out inequality to either of them. This division is exactly the core of justice, as it takes into account that every individual will have a loaf. Consequently, if one of the wives is gravely ill and needs medication, the other wives should thank Allah for having good health and need not request that the; be paid a corresponding sum of money as the ill one receives from a husband for medication.

If a wife‑to‑be attaches a string, when concluding the marriage contract that her would‑be husband should not take another wife in addition to her, the husband should observe the condition by not marrying anyone unless the first wife consents and cedes the condition attached. A hadith by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, reads, "The conditions which most deserve to be fully met are those which are attached to marriage." The hadith, as reported by both Al‑Bukhari and Muslim, obviously urges that conditions attached to marriage are the ones, which deserve most to be respectfully fulfilled.

As said before, the foes of Isalm have desperately been attempting, since Islam dawned on humanity up till now, to disparage, and call into serious question, Islam, using the plurality of wives the prophet married to try to deal Islam a fatal blow.

They have always been claiming that the prophet was absolutely devoted to fully satisfying his lust by rolling in the bosoms of nine wives!! When this claim was initially made by Jews in Yathreb[39] ‑ which was later to be known as Madina after Hijra ‑ the Holy Quran has eloquently exposed their allegation as motivated only by envy for, and covetousness of, the prophet since the two prophets Dawood (David) and Soliman (Solomon), peace be upon them both, had been bestowed with a large Kingdom each and had had many more wives and captive female slaves than Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, had.

Orientalists outside, as well as secularists and leftists inside, are still cheekily talking disparagingly about the prophet's lofty position and his purified sunna (traditions) out of malice towards this religion. However, Allah will be safeguarding His religion, despite their ill will, until Allah inherits the Earth and whoever is on it.

Some others follow suit because they do not know why the prophet married so many women. Profound look at his impeccable biography will easily show that some of those marriages were primarily catering for human motivation, while some others were meant to reassure estranged hearts and souls as well as to lay the ground ready for the first seed of the blessed call for Islam. Moreover, the prophet, peace be upon him, had a natural right and desire to marry because he was a human being, rather than an angel. As we have said before, marriage has been set forth in the tenets of all of Allah's prophets (even in the tenet of those who did not ever marry like Jesus and Yahia (John the Baptist), peace be upon them both). None

Let us begin with Khadija, the prophet's first wife. Khadija, the daughter of Khuwailed, may Allah be pleased with her, had, before Islam's advent, been married to Hend son of Nabbash of the Tamim tribe, whose epithet was Abu‑Hala. After his death, she married Ateeq son of Abed of the Makhzourn tribe.[41] Then Ateeq died as well.

Khadija belonged to one of the Quraish tribe's loftiest households in terms of lineage. She had an enormous wealth, which she used in trade. She used to send some men, with her money on trade missions to Syria. When she heard of Muhammad's (peace be upon him) integrity, she sent for him and requested him to take her money on a trade mission to Syria, promising to pay him as twice as she used to pay others who performed the same task. Muhammad, peace be upon him, took her money for trade in Syria, accompanied by her boy slave Maysara. There, he traded, coming back to Mecca with a multifold profit far in excess of what others used to earn for Khadija during the same journey. Khadija as previously promised doubly paid him.

Upon knowing from her boy slave, Maysara, about his miracles, peace be upon him, during the journey: a cloud shaded him and a clergyman telling Maysara that his fellow Muhammad would be the ultimate apostle to be sent by Allah, as heralded by previous holy books, Muhammad tickled her fancy more and more, and she presented herself to him for marriage through her female friend Nafeesa daughter of Umaya. Although Khadija was forty years old, the prophet agreed to marry her and was then at the age of twenty‑five.

Khadija gave birth to all of Muhammad's children ‑boys and girls‑ except for his son Ibrahim, who was born later in his life by Mary, the Coptic female slave given as a gift to the prophet by Al‑Mukawkis, the religious leader of Egypt's Copts. The prophet, peace be upon him, never married any other woman until Khadija died at the age of sixty‑five, while he was only a little more than fifty years old.

Now, we have to rightfully wonder: if the prophet, peace be upon him, had lived up to the age of twenty‑five without marriage, if he was highly commended by all of Mecca's people as the honest man of integrity, if his chaste and sexual abstinence were exemplary ‑ as conceded by the most hardened, rancorous and hateful of Mecca's polytheists ‑, and if he later married Khadija, who was fifteen years his senior, and contented himself with her as an only wife even after she exceeded sixty years of age, if all these facts have been true, what lust is there they claim to have motivated his so many marriages

The prophet, peace be upon him, was then in the prime of his youth and had not been preoccupied as yet with the heavy burdens of his blessed call for Islam. If he had been sweepingly lustful, as the foes of Islam claim, he would have married as many women as he could, as polygamy and taking concubines was a very common pre‑Islam practice, as said before,[42] without any limit.

However, the prophet, peace be upon him, never so did. Is not this an evidence that he took many wives later for loftier reasons than merely satisfying his lust, though satisfying lust should not in itself be considered a shame?

Still, there is one more point to explain, before moving to other wives, which is the fact that he always highly commended, and remained faithful to, Khadija after her death. Even after he had taken nine other wives, he was really furious whenever anybody ill‑mentioned her, even if it was Aisha. He used every possible occasion to sing Khadija's praises, citing her being very gracious to the great call for Islam. He never forgot her though she was the oldest of all those whom he married throughout his life and he later married younger ones who were, probably, more beautiful than she was.

Is it fair enough to describe a husband as such as marrying primarily for lust!? Can such a spouse be so ill thought of while he was commended by Allah, the Exalted, as having "Great manners" ‑ Allah forbid.

Now, we have to shed light on the circumstances under which the prophet, peace be upon him, married his second wife, Sawda daughter of Zamaa, may Allah be pleased with her. She was married, during the pre‑Islam period to Al‑Sakraan son of Amre son of Abd‑Shams, who was also her cousin. Having both embraced Islam in Mecca, they went out on the second emigration to Abyssinia. Having come back from Abyssinia, her husband died in Mecca and she became a widow. When she spent a period of four months and ten days after her husband's death ‑ as a Muslim wife should so spend after her husband's death without marriage to mak6 sure that she is not pregnant by de deceased husband ‑ the prophet, peace be upon him, sent for her and proposed marriage to her. Following the marriage she emigrated with him to Madina.

She had grown older by the time the prophet proposed marriage to her. With their marriage getting older, she ceded her allotted time to another wife of the prophet, who was Aisha. Ceding her allotted time, she said to the prophet, as reported by one narrator, "Oh you the apostle of Allah, I swear by Allah that I don't crave for men any more (referring to the fact that she was old and was not lustful any longer) but I pray that I would be resurrected among your wives on the Day of Judgement". The prophet, peace be upon him, accepted her ceding her allotted time to Aisha and retained her as his wife until his death,[43]peace be upon him. So, can his marriage to another old lady, like Sawda, be taken as evidence that the prophet's (peace be upon him) polygamy was meant, as mongered by the foes of Islam, only for lust and craving for women!!? Or cannot it be better described as an act of consolation by him, peace be upon him, for a Muslim widow who had no one to provide for her, nor had she any wealth, youth or beauty that would have prompted anyone else to marry her?! By Allah, such an unyearned‑for marriage was among his burdens, peace be upon him, and a heavy duty his noble soul thought it was imperative to do. Who else would have consoled a bereaved widow? And who else would have helped anyone to his feet after having slipped, would have broken captivity or would have helped to forbear misfortunes? It was he, peace be upon him, who would do so, since it was he who was sent as a mercy to the entire mankind?

Aisha, the daughter of his companion Abu‑Bakr AI‑Siddeeq, may Allah be pleased with them both, was the third wife of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. It was natural that a preacher be closely tied to the men who would later erect the lofty edifice of Islam and who would promote the call for Allah to the four comers of the globe. The best tie between the prophet, peace be upon him, and his senior companions was the sacred tie of marriage. Therefore, he, peace be upon him, married Aisha, who was then very young.

The fourth wife was Hafsa, the daughter of his other senior companion Omar son of Al‑Khattab. He married Hafsa partly as the previous marriage, namely because she was his companion's daughter, and partly to please Omar himself. Omar had offered his daughter in marriage to his companion Abu‑Bakr after his daughter's husband, Khanees son of Hudhafa of the Sahm tribe, died in action at the battle of Uhud.[44] He and Hafsa had embraced Islam and emigrated to Madina, then he died upon the coming back of the prophet from the Uhud battle. Having spent four months and ten days after her husband's death, she was offered in marriage to Abu‑Bakr by her father Omar. Abu‑Bakr declined and Omar was upset. Omar had earlier done the same thing to Othman son of Affan, another senior companion of the prophet, but he declined, and Omar was also upset with him.

Complaining them both to the prophet, peace be upon him, the prophet married her in order to please her father Omar. The prophet had also earlier honored Abu‑Bakr by marrying his daughter Aisha, as shown above. Abu‑Bakr declined to accept Hafsa as a wife when offered by Omar because he had heard the prophet, peace be upon him, mention that he would marry her. Abu‑Bakr would not disclose what he heard the prophet say. Anyway, Hafsa was not a beautiful lady, as Aisha or Safiyia, but she used to fast and pray at night a lot and loved Allah and his apostle.

So, can his marriage to both Aisha and Hafsa be considered craving for women or satisfying one's lust? Or can it better considered a necessity for strengthening the call for Allah, pleasing his senior campaign and bolstering ties between the prophet and the senior men in charge of the nascent call for Islam? Was not it consoling a martyr's widow like Hafasa who was not such a beautiful or wealthy lady that would not have tempted anyone else to marry her. It was the prophet who was a mercy and boon offered by Allah to mankind.

As for Zainab, the daughter of Khuzaima, whose epithet was "Umm Al‑Masakeen" (or Mother of the Poor), may Allah be pleased with her, she was the wife of his cousin Ubaida son of Al‑Hareth son of Abdul‑Muttaleb, may Allah be pleased with him. He fell in action as a martyr at the battle of Badr and left her with no one to provide for her. So, was it fair enough to reward a companion, who was also a martyred cousin, by leaving his widow alone?! Who else would have maintained a relation of one's kith and kin, rewarded a martyr and benevolently, advantageously and mercifully replaced him with his widow except for Muhammad, peace be upon him, the last of the prophets who was all throughout his life known as the candid and trustworthy!!? Can such a marriage be regarded as having been motivated by any sensual, or other, craving?! Or must not it be viewed as an additional burden on the prophet's shoulders?! However, she died, may Allah be pleased with her, only a few months after she married the prophet.

Then the prophet, peace be upon him, married Umm‑Salama, may Allah be pleased with her. Named Hend daughter of Suhail son of Al‑Mughira of the Makhzoum tribe, she had been married before the prophet, peace be upon him, to his paternal cousin Abdullah son of Abdul‑Assad of the Makhzoum tribe. Her husband was wounded at the battle of Uhud, and one month later his wounds healed. He then went out on a short‑term, one‑month military offensive. Having come back, his wounds relapsed sending him to his death, may Allah be pleased with him. Abu‑Salama left behind Umm.‑Salama and a lot children.

Having spent a period of four months and ten days after her husband's death, she received a marriage proposal from the prophet, peace be upon him. However, she declined, pleading that she was very jealous, old‑aged and having so many children. The prophet replied to her by saying "As for your cited jealousy, Allah will send it diminishing; as for your old age, I am older than you are; and as for your orphans, Allah and His apostle will be in charge of them".[45] That is to say, Allah and His apostle will take care of her children. This was a reason for the prophet to have blessingly got married to her: to take care of orphans and be fully in charge of this revered female companion having been widowed. And ultimately, the marriage was also in honor of the deceased husband Abu‑Salama, who had fallen as a martyr, by taking care of his widow and children and maintaining good relations with one's kith and kin as his mother was a maternal aunt of the prophet. So what lust was there behind marrying a widow who was fifty‑plus years of age and taking care of her children?

As for Umm‑Habiba (Ramlah) daughter of Abu‑Sufyan son of Harb, may Allah be pleased with her, she has a story to be told in order to clarify the noble aim envisaged by this marriage. Umm‑Habiba was a wife of Ubaidullah son of Gahsh son of Khuzaimah. They left for Abyssinia on the second wave of emigration, which was ordered by the prophet, peace be upon him, to spare the early Muslim believers the brunt of infidels' coerciveness. There, Ubaidullah converted to polytheism and became a renegade ‑ Allah forbid ‑ while his wife Umm‑Habiba, may Allah be pleased with her, remained steadfastly holding on to her faith, despite alienation, forlornness and loneliness. However, she could not have gone back to Mecca, where her father was a hardened leader of the tribe of Quraish, who used to coercively deal with, most persecute, the apostle and his companions. If she had returned, she must have been prone to being suppressed out of her faith, in return. Therefore, she should have been honored, and compensated for a renegade deceased husband, by the prophet (her husband had died earlier in Abyssinia).

So, Allah's apostle, who used to cure people's broken hearts and entertain those who are forlorn, sent to the Negus ‑ the Emperor of Abyssinia, who had embraced Islam ‑ ordering him to write out, on his behalf, his marriage contract to imm‑Habiba.

The Negus did as ordered by the prophet and sent fully honored, to him in Madina after his hijra.

Upon knowing of his daughter's marriage to the prophet, peace be upon him, Abu‑Sufyan was very much delighted and, rejoicingly, commended Muhammad as the best and most competent ever son‑in‑law. Abu‑Sufyan son of Harb said so although he was still an infidel and a foe of Islam. However, he candidly believed, as a father regardless of faith, that his daughter married humanity's greatest and noblest men.

Allah's willing was that time was around again and it so took place that Abu‑Sufyan came to Madina to dissuade the prophet from conquering Mecca after infidels had breached peace with him. The infidels of Mecca had attacked and killed the prophet's allies of Khuzaa tribe in Mecca, the sanctuary of Allah, during a "Haram" or sacred month (one of four months during which fighting is prohibited by Islam).

Feeling at a loss after the senior companions had declined to intercede for him with the prophet, peace be upon him, Abu‑Sufyan had to resort only to his daughter's house. Having arrived there, his daughter, much to his own surprise, furled her mattress from him most disgustingly. On seeing this he said to her, "By Allah, my daughter, I do not know you did not want me to touch the mattress?" Flatly, she replied by saying "It is because this is the prophet's, peace be upon him, and you are still a polytheist infidel".

Good heavens! It was a faith as deeply rooted and unshakable in the heart of the prophet's wife as a mountain which made her so daringly face up to her father who generated her. The incidence provides a vivid example of how truthful and deep faith makes Allah and His apostle more beloved, to a true Muslim, than his mother, father, son and brother.

After all, was the prophet, peace be upon him, required to let that great lady down to lose the right path having been torn between a renegade husband and a flagrant infidel father?! Who else than he, peace be upon him, would have rushed to honor and reward her for her steadfastness, patience and struggle for her faith and message? And who else would have been more equal to the daughter of a Quraish noble man than the prophet, peace be upon him, who is the head of all ancestors and descendants to come until the Day of Judgement?!

Now, we come to the story behind his marriage, peace be upon him, to Zainab daugher of Jahsh of the Assad tribe, may Allah be pleased with her, who was his cousin as she was the daughter of his paternal aunt Umayma daughter of Abdul‑Muttaleb son of Hashem. She thus belonged to one of Quraish's most thoroughbred noble and lofty households. She was also reported as having been charmingly beautiful.

When the prophet, peace be upon him, sent someone to propose marriage to her, her family mistakenly thought that he wanted her for himself. Much to their surprise, he wanted to marry her off to Zayd son of Haritha.

Having been a slave in pre‑Islam times, Zayd, may Allah be pleased with him, had ended up as a slave under the candid and trustworthy prophet, Muhammad son of Abdullah, who fairly dealt with him. The prophet, peace be upon him, so affectionately and compassionately influenced him that Zayd preferred to stay with him for ever to going back with his father and uncle (having been in pursuit of him after being sold as a slave, his father and uncle finally found him with the prophet and came to take him back). At that point, the prophet asked them to stand witness that he was adopting Zayd as a son by saying, "Zayd is my son and we mutually inherit each other". His lineal father so consented.

Although the prophet enfranchised and adopted Zayd (later Islam dismantled the adoption system resulting in Zayd regaining his name and freedom even before that) the family of Jahsh turned down the marriage proposal made by Zayd, claiming that their daughter, among other girls, belonged to a noble and dignified family and was most sought after by the best youth of Arabian Peninsula.

However, Allah Exalted be He, so desired that this marriage should forgo ahead for a great wise reason, even a multitude of reasons. The most important of these reasons is being dismantling the common practice of boasting lineal descents in order to confirm, and send more deeply rooted, the eternal, immaculate and sage rule that "The most honored of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you", the most righteous ‑ rather than the wealthiest, the most thorough bred or noblest.

On that occasion, Allah sent down His verse from the surah of "Al‑Ahzab", or clans, which reads, "It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His apostle to have any option about their decision. If any one disobeys Allah and His apostle, he is indeed on a clearly wrong path". As soon as the above verse had been sent down, Abdullah son of Jahsh and his sister Zainab, may Allah be pleased with them, acknowledged that the only option they have was to fully obey Allah and His apostle. So, Abdullah told his maternal cousin Muhammad, peace be upon him, "I will do whatever you order me". And so he, peace be upon him married her off to Zayd son of Haritha.

Although the marriage was fully consummated, Zainab still turned her nose up at him, pleading that she was more thorough bred. So persistently had she been doing so, that Zayd, may Allah be pleased with him, could not endure her anymore. Complaining her to the prophet, he requested his consent to divorce her, on the grounds that he could not live with her any longer. The prophet, peace be upon him, ordered him to be pious enough, so fear Allah that he should retain her as his wife.

In the meantime, Allah, Exalted be He, revealed to the prophet the future events that Jay in store with Allah: Zayd was to divorce Zainab, whom Allah would then marry off to His truthful prophet. The procedure as such, the prophet was further revealed to, would absolutely uproot the pre‑Islam practice of adoption. The more fair and righteous procedure, Allah told His prophet, is to call children by the names of their real fathers, rather than by the names of those adopting them. If Islam has, forever, forbidden a father to marry his daughter‑in‑law, the case is not so with an adopted son, as he is not a real son and should not so be.

Allah, Exalted be He, sent down another verse of the surah of "A]‑Ahzab", or clans, marking the same occasion. The verse reads, "Behold! you did say to one who had received the grace of Allah and your favor: Retain your wife in your wedlock and fear Allah. But you did hide in your heart that which Allah was about to make manifest: You did fear people, but it is more fitting that you should fear Allah. Then when Zayd had dissolved (his marriage), with her, with the necessary (formality), We jointed her in marriage to you: In order that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the believers in marriage with the wives of their adopted sons when the latter have dissolved their marriage with them. And Allah's command must be fulfilled".

The best interpretation of this verse ‑ (it is the best because it is the closest to the noble position of prophets, whose infallibility is unanimously agreed beyond any doubt) ‑ is provided by Imam Ali son of Al‑Hussain son of Ali son of Abu‑Taleb, whose epithet is Zainul‑abideen (which means the most devoted to worshipping), may Allah be pleased with him.

Shedding light on this verse, he said, "Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, had earlier received revelation to the effect that Zayd would divorce Zainab and Allah would marry him off to her. So, when Zayd complained to the prophet, peace be upon him, that his wife, Zainab, had been harmfully disobedient to him and that he planned to divorce her, the prophet, peace be upon him, said to him by way of politely advising him (Be fearful of Allah and retain your wife), although he, peace be upon him, had known in advance that Zayd would divorce her and he would be replacing him as her husband. It was exactly this knowledge, as referred to by the verse that the prophet hid in his heart. The prophet, peace be upon him, desisted from ordering him to divorce her on account of his knowledge beforehand that he himself would marry her, fearing the detriment that could have been done to him by polytheists and hypocrites if he had married Zainab in place of his former slave'Zayd in case he ordered him to divorce her. Therefore, Allah spoke to the prophet, peace be upon him, reproachfully for unduly fearing people's gossip when embarking upon something which Allah permitted him to do, as exhibited by telling Zayd to retain his wife, although he had known beforehand that he would divorce her. Allah, Exalted be He, told him that it is Allah who is worthy of being feared under all circumstances".

Our jurists, may Allah have mercy upon them all, said, describing the above‑cited interpretation by Zainul‑abiddin "This verse of the Quran has been best elucidated as such. This elucidation (as provided by Zainul‑abiddin) has been the one deemed as most appropriate by the Holy Quran interpreters and well‑established scholars who do not accept any historical incidents unless they thoroughly verify them. On top of those ulema (eminent scholars) are AI‑Zuhry, Bakr son of Al‑Alaa Al‑Qushairy, Abu‑Bakr son of Al‑Arabi as well as others".[46]

Imam Ibn‑Katheer, may Allah be pleased with him, has adamantly refused to acknowledge as authentic any other historical accounts ‑ cited in the context of elucidating its verse ‑ which runs on a collision course with the infallibility, and the lofty position, of the prophet, branding such accounts as concocted ones which lack authenticity both in terms of the chain of narrators and in terms of the text itself.[47]

Commenting on these unwitting historical accounts, which elucidates Allah's saying to His prophet "And you did hide in your heart that which Allah was about to make manifest, you did fear people, but it is more fitting that you should fear Allah" as dropping a hint at the fact that Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, fancied Zainab, Al‑Imarn Al‑Qurtubi said that such an alleged claim can be made only by someone who is either unwitting about the prophet's ‑ peace be upon him ‑ infallibility or by one who is playing down his well‑deserved esteem and respectability.

Al‑Hakeem Al‑~irmidhy said in his book, titled "Nwader Al‑Usul" (which means the most sought‑after of religion fundamentals), "Ali son of Al‑Hussain delved deeper into his highly‑treasured knowledge in order to come up with this elucidation of the verse which is as glittering brilliantly as a highly‑refined gem. This is because Allah talked to Muhammad reproachfully only as He, Exalted be He, had told him that Zainab would be added up to your wives; so why must you (Muhammad) have told Zayd to retain his wife, seriously taking into account people's gossip lest they should say: Muhammad has married his daughter‑in‑low, while (It is more fitting to fear Allah, rather than anybody else)?"

Al‑Nahas quoted some scholars as saying "This is not a sin having been committed by the prophet, peace be upon him, as he was not ordered to repent or ask Allah's forgiveness thereof Whereas an act can be regarded as not sinful, it cannot be accepted because other acts would have been better. The apostle, peace be upon him, hid in his heart an act which he was going to do later, so that he might not tempt people out of faith".[48]

In a nutshell, the prophet married Zainab daughter of Jahsh after Zayd son of Haritha, as ordered by Allah had divorced her. Then it was Allah who out rightly married her off to His prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, to dismantle ‑ once and for all ‑ the system of adoption and so that fathers may not feel awkward to marry the former wives of this adopted sons, who are not really their own sons. Zainab was the prophet's paternal cousin ‑ her mother being his father's sister ‑ and it was he who was in charge of her bringing up; if he himself had desired to marry her, he would have out rightly married her, rather than having married her off to Zayd initially.

Late Sheikh Muhammad el‑Ghazali has urged strongly to invalidate what hypocrites said in interpretation of this verse. He said, "They claim that it was a fancy for Zainab which the prophet, peace be upon him, hid in his heart and for which he feared gossiping people, rather than Allah. That is to say that Allah, allegedly, reproached him for not making public this fancy love!! We are thus rightfully wondering just for the sake of argument: is it in line with good morals when a man is in love with a woman that he should make this love public, much to her disgrace in Muslim society, especially if he is so emotionally perverse to be in love with someone else's wife!?? Can a man who has fallen in love with someone else's wife and has thus hidden this love in his heart be reproached by Allah?! Would he have been in a good light if he had written love poems to immortalize his love to her?!! This would have been an act of recklessness and stupidity!

And it is exactly this foolishness which some fools deem fitting to apply to the interpretation of the Holy Quran!!

Allah would not reproach anyone for concealing in one's heart a reckless and unfulfilled love. However, what the prophet really hid in his heart was a fear of a potential harm that, he thought, would have been done to him by this marriage imposed on him by Allah, reluctance to enforce Allah's orders thereof as well as a fear of people ill gossiping about him upon seeing a system of adoption ‑they had long been acquainted with ‑ dismantling.

Allah, Exalted be He, sent His prophet fully realizing that His divine orders cannot be put on the back bumer because of laboring under a certain delusion, and that, in view of a divine order, he should have inevitably yielded as ancestral messengers would do. Allah has revealed ;the 38th and 39th verses of "Al‑Alizab", or clans, surah following the previously mentioned verse to underscore this meaning. The 38th and 39th verses of "Al‑Ahzab" read as follows:

(There can be no difficulty to the Prophet in what Allah has indicated to him as a duty. It was the practice of Allah among those of old that have passed away. And the command of Allah is a decree determined. It is the practice of those who preach the message of Allah, and fear Him, and fear none but Allah. And enough is Allah to call men to account)".

Sheikh Muhammad Al‑Ghazali further says, "You never hearten anyone by saying: fear nobody except Allah, when he is about to commit a sin. You only hearten him by saying so when he is about to embark on a major virtuous act which contravenes inherited traditions. All of those verses have made it obvious that Allah never encouraged His apostle to be further indulged in love with a woman, but rather encouraged him to invalidate a bad tradition commonly in practice by his people, who even wanted him to comply with.

Therefore, Allah, Exalted be He, says in the immediately following verse, dismantling the entire system of adoption, (Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the apostle of Allah, and the last of the prophets: And Allah has full knowledge of all things)".

As for Safiyya daughter of Huyayy son of Akhtab whose father (Huyayy son of Akhtab) was the leader of Jews ‑ she was captured by Muslims after conquering Khaibar after her father, brother and husband had been killed in battle. To have mercy upon her, the apostle, peace be upon him, asked her to opt for one of two things: either to release and enfranchise her, letting her reunite with her tribe ‑ if she so wished to remain a Jew ‑ or to accept his proposal of marriage in case she decided to convert to Islam. She replied by saying, "0 messenger of Allah, I have fancied Islam and believed in you, even before you made such an offer to me. Having called on me to have one option than the other, namely to remain as an infidel or to embrace Islam, I am hereby making it public that Allah and His apostle are more beloved to me than being disenfranchised and let walk free to my people". As a result of the above statement, Allah messenger married her, making the very act of redeeming and releasing the mahr (portion) due to her on marriage.[49]

The daughter of the chief of the Jews must, obviously, have been married off only to someone who is superior to her own father in social rank. So, it was Prophet Muhammad alone, peace be upon him, who was so far superior to her father's position that he was able to marry her ‑ as he is the chief and head of all mankind. However, it would not have stood to reason to let that submissive lady ‑ after having "Ten rolling in superiority, sublimity and affluence ‑ marry just anybody who would have mistreated her or beaten her on the face.

This course of events, visualized as such, is supported by a historical account narrated by Dehya of the Kalb tribe, may Allah be pleased with him, who said to the prophet, "Give me a female slave of those captured from Jews". The prophet, peace be upon him, replied by saying "Go and take for yourself a female slave". Upon taking Safyya as his female slave, the prophet's companions saw her and said to the prophet, peace be upon him, "0 Allah's apostle, she is the chief lady of the two Jewish tribes of the Quraizas and the Nadeers. In her capacity as such, it is more fitting then that it is you, Allah's apostle, who should marry her"[50]

The prophet, peace be upon him, was prompted to marry Juwairiya on similar grounds. Named Juwairiya daughter of AI‑Harith son of Dirar, she was the daughter of the leader of AI‑Mustalaqs, who fought Muslims and was so curshingly defeated by them that his tribe were teetering on the brink of absolute annihilation for submission for ever.

Consequently, hundreds of the people of Al‑Mustalaq were taken captives as slaves, including lady Juwairiya daugher of Al‑Harith. Upon having been taken captive, Juwairiya went to the prophet saying, " I am Juwairiya, the daughter of Al‑Harith, who is the chief of his people. You must have known what has befallen me (referring to captivity and ensuing submission). I have fallen within Thabit son of Qais's portion of slaves and booty; being my master, he got me to sign a deed that I will be released upon paying nine ounces (of gold), so help me in paying the needed money".

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said to her, "Do you like something better?". She inquired what that thing was and he replied by saying "I ransom you off and marry you (if you so agree)?". She said "Yes, apostle of Allah, I do agree and accept you as husband". The prophet, peace be upon him, said, "I am, hereby, accepting you as wife". He then walked out to his companions and told them about the good tidings. Upon knowing this, his companions could not stand having the prophet's in‑lows in captivity (referring to her tribe of Mustalaqs) and rushed to release any of them who happened to have been in captivity until no one was left captive.

Commenting on the marriage, Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said "By marrying Juwairiya off to the prophet, peace be upon him, one hundred households have been disenfranchised. Accordingly, I know of no other woman who has ever been so felicitous to her people".[51] All of her people later embraced Islam and even became righteous Muslims.[52]

Hence, that marriage was a highly felicitous to Islam and Muslims from all facets, rather than intended for taking many more wives as believed by the unwitty and disseminated by hypocrites and orientalists!!

If it had been a desire, on the part of the prophet (peace be upon him), for having as many beautiful (women as possible, Allah would not have forbidden him later to marry any more wives after the said one, in which case the apostle would have married and divorced at will. However, at the time of his death, the prophet, peace be upon him, was survived by nine wives, with two of his wives Khadija and Zainab the daughter of Khuzaima, having died during his life time.

How excellent a husband and a companion he was, as aptly heralded by Allah, Exalted be He, as "We sent you only as a mercy to all creatures".

The late Grand Sheikh of Al‑Azhar, Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltout, called on young gentlemen, so capable, to marry more than one woman.

During the era when Sheikh Shaltout was the Grand Sheikh of Al‑Azhar, nubile female’s threefold outnumbered males who were capable of getting married.

Therefore, Sheikh Shaltout deemed that every such young‑man should aptly marry three girls in a bid to stem, once and for all, the problem of having so many bachelor girls. Consequently, the Sheikh's righteous comments sparked off a huge furore at the time, with Western‑minded people having agitatingly attacked the revered scholar. Nevertheless, he ventured out the storm like a firm mountain, never bowing to it as others are doing these days!!

Asked by a world TV station announcer about what he thought about polygamy, veteran Egyptian writer Anees Mansour said, "If I am in favor of a person's right to give birth to as many children as he wishes, it does not matter then whether they be born to the same mother or not ‑ it is up to the father to freely decide". In reply to another question by the same announcer whether he remains committed to trite, worn‑out principles, rather than keeping abreast of a rapidly‑changing world which does not any longer back a multitude of children as generated by polygamy (referring, of course, to the non‑Muslim world), Mansour said, "You have said that you are making your question personally, and this is my personal opinion. More candidly speaking, I am grateful to the lack of birth control for my presence, as I am the ninth among eleven children. I am not in favor of contenting oneself with only one wife, as I was born to the second wife of my father who kept two wives at a time. And I support freedom of choice".[53]

Dr. Ahmed Shalaby, a professor of civilization and Islamic history at the Cairo University Arabic‑Language Faculty, says, "Orientalists have agitatedly been making an outcry that polygamy ‑ as licensed by Islam ‑ is not acceptable. However, why should we use them as our yardstick?! It is exactly the West, which permitted mistresses, with million illegitimate children ensuing.

Undoubtedly, polygamy is more sublime and chaste than having concubines. A mistress has no access to rights, nor does her children. Polygamy is more largely to women's advantage, rather than to their detriment."[54] They even can forestall polygamy if they commonly consent that none of them should marry a married man. Nevertheless, they so do to satisfy a need, instead of remaining bachelor girls".

Dr. Fathiyya Al‑Nabarawi, a professor at Al‑Azhar University Faculty of Islamic Studies, says, "A Muslim woman rejects or hates polygamy only when she is ill‑educated and weak in faith. During the prophet's, peace be upon him, era, Muslim women did not object to polygamy, although women are naturally known to be averse to polygamy; even the prophet's, peace be upon him, wives were known to be jealous of each other.

However, the situation stabilized and society acknowledged polygamy as licensed by religion which has been sent down from Allah. A woman cannot object to polygamy as long as her husband is so financially secure that he can provide for her and his children by her; she can not object either, so long as her husband will assuredly mete out justice to, and protect, her and his children by her as against the new wife.

Is not it better that such a marriage be permitted and made public, or should men be denied access to such a marriage while granted unrestricted access to the then imperative course of action involving sin? A polygamist husband should then be held in high esteem on the grounds that he is a Muslim typically fearful of Allah.

Nevertheless, I find fault with a lot of men who, having got a second wife, keep a second marriage secret although they have got legally married. They obviously feel awkward to make this marriage public because children are brought up to regard a second wife as a catastrophe, with media fallaciously striking the same note and imported Western patterns of thought rife".

Dr. Fathiyya Nabarawi goes on to say further, "I have known some colleagues who have, from the very beginning, accepted being second wives. However, since marriages were consummated, they have been attempting to grab husbands only for themselves and to send them abandoning their first wives ‑ one of those wives has even requested her husband to divorce his first wife. Is that logical? Does such a behavior stand to reason?

Our society has been undergoing a multitude of blurry, fallacious precepts which make themselves most manifest in terms of an issue like polygamy, but they do exist ‑ though to a lesser degree ‑ in a lot more areas of our lives".

Another woman professor of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Dr. Nadia Hashem, airs her viewpoint as follows, " In terms of Shari'aa, what does the verse (Marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four) exactly mean? Does the verse signal general and absolute permissiveness, or rather, permissiveness qualified by certain curbs attached by Shari'aa?

Whereas some jurists have said that the verse signals absolute permissiveness, regardless of necessity or not, some other jurists have interpreted the verse as signaling only qualified permissiveness.

However, I advocate the latter team of jurists who believe the verse as. having permitted polygamy only qualifiedly.

Of the reasons I deem warranting taking a second wife, or more, are an ill or infertile wife, a husband who is so excessively potent that he fails to content himself with only one wife, or simply females outnumbering males in society.

There are estimated thirteen million unmarried girls ‑at, or well above, the age of marriage ‑ in Egypt, with girls above thirty years of age accounting for four millions girls.

In my own opinion, a necessity arises for polygamy against a background as such: if we do not resort to polygamy under these circumstances, a half of society's girls will remain bachelor girls unable to be sexually abstinent".

Dr. Nadia Hashem goes on to expound her viewpoint by saying that a husband has perfect right to marry another wife, or other wives, whether his first wife consents or not. This is because it is a husband who is in command of a marriage contract; in a capacity as such, he is empowered to dispose at will, on condition that a wife has not attached, when writing out the marriage certificate, a condition that her husband should not take another wife, or other wives, in addition to her.

Dr. Nadia Hashem further clarifies that women in Muslim societies do not acknowledge polygamy any more: whether they be educated or not, wealthy or poor, urban or rural, as well as religious or not. Corrupt common practices ‑ deeply sending out roots ‑ religious un-enlightenment, dominating Western precepts are gravely implicated for Muslim women's rejection of polygamy. Our society unduly upholds a common practice of turning down polygamy as inequality being done to first wives. However, Shari'aa stresses as corrupt and invalid any practice which runs on a collision course with religion. Having only scarce knowledge of religion sends a woman averting from polygamy. If she had been an utterly Muslim woman, she would have assuredly realized that she cannot, nor does she have any right to, head off a second, third or even fourth marriage by her husband, so long as her husband fulfills her own rights. Unfortunately, women's education, domination of secular precepts and the so‑termed emancipation of women have all been seriously fallaciously instilling ‑ throughout long decades ‑ into women's minds that polygamy holds women in low esteem.[55]

Steady urban and economic laws inevitably govern life, whether they be known in which case they will be cautioned against ‑ or unwittingly handled, with their impact, still, spontaneously unfolding itself.

It is social circumstances, which govern how many women an individual man should have a relation with. To overlook such social circumstances is to resist fait accompli to no avail, as the ratio of men to women can either be equal on both sides or tilting in favor of one side against the other.

If the men‑to‑women ratio is equal or when men do outnumber women, polygamy has to spontaneously fall out of practice, with every man contenting himself with the woman coercively portioned out to him.

If women do outnumber men, only one course of action has to be opted for out of the three following options:

(1) to judge that some women be deprived for life of having their sexual needs met;

(2) to permit keeping mistresses, with adultery acknowledged as thus legitimate;

A woman is widely believed even before a man ‑ to desist from either deprivation or a disobediently sinful bed. With the situation as such, she has to share another wife's husband, from whom her would‑be children will have a lineal descent, resulting in polygamy ‑ as stipulated by Islam ‑ being inevitably acknowledged.

Moreover, men do diverge widely in term of sexual desire: some men are so healthy, strong in erotica sentiments and leading a luxurious life while other men are not. To deal on a par with both a sexually‑rigid man from his earlier periods of adolescence and another who is so sexually energetic that he can be easily excited is a matter which widely misses the mark of justice.

Are gluttons not allowed to have more amounts of food than allowed for people with less appetite? So, why not sexual‑wise? It is the same token working here.

There is another wise reason for allowing polygamy: a wife may be so feeble, diseased, infertile or old‑aged that she cannot any longer satisfy her husband's sexual needs, so why should she be so helplessly let down to be victimized by these excuses?

Good company has to be retained by a husband, who is then fully empowered to bring in another wife, or other wives, who can fully perform a wife's role.

In spite of all those reasons pleaded as warranting polygamy, Islam has adamantly forbidden that polygamy be intended for giving vent to some men's sexual lust and a slant for physical pleasure and domination.

A gain should correspondingly be met by a loss; easier access to sensual pleasure should be ensued by burdening duties.

Hence, when embarking upon polygamy justice has to be assuredly and safeguardedly meted out. If a husband fears doing injustice to himself, children or wives, polygamy is thus forbidden. A polygamist should be able to provide for the necessary expenses. If the lawgiver, in which case it is Allah who has given out Shari'aa, regards inability to provide for expenses as an excuse not to marry an even one lady, such inability would rather prohibit a man to marry more than one.

The lawgiver enjoins fasting on unmarried youth so long as they cannot marry , thus ordering a man whom is unable even to have one wife and be sexually abstinent. Allah thus says in the surah of "Al‑Nour" (Light), "Let those who do not find the wherewithal for marriage keep themselves sexually abstinent until Allah gives them means out of His grace".

What about a man who has only one wife? He would rather be patient and had better be sexually abstinent; the more wives a husband keeps, the more children he is likely to have. Islam enjoins father to deal with children on an equal footing in terms of upbringing, education, honoring and loving as well as means of living however divergent their mothers may be. A father with many children should then be cautious enough not to be capricious when handling his children born to diverse mothers; as a husband a man should imperatively administer justice to his wives.

However, if a heart inclination is too stubborn to be controlled, every husband can fully observe the rules and guidelines in question, rightfully weigh his behavior and to fear Allah in whatever Allah has made him guardian of in terms of a wide spectrum of deeds and circumstances.

These are the broader confines of justice as attached by Allah to polygamy. He who can fully fulfil such limits may get married to two, three or even four wives; otherwise, he has to suffice himself with only one wife, in response to what Allah says:, "If you fear injustice, then keep only one wife".

I have seen some journalists objecting to polygamy as licensed by Islam and wondering if a man is empowered to have as many as four wives, why is a woman not allowed to have as many husbands as four?

Having thoroughly looked at those wondering journalists, I have found them out mostly lewd, cuckolds or pimps. To my own much surprise, they are leading a life bristling with adultery, aversing most to create a chaste family.

To answer this invalid question, I have to clearly state that the ultimate goal of sexual relationship is to create a family and rear children in a climate of clean custody. This cannot ever be achieved in a home where a lot of people frequent, and fight to grab, a woman whose prospective offspring cannot be identified as having descended from any of them. In addition, a woman's sexual role is that of a receiver, rather than a doer of the action, of the one being led and carried, rather than of the leader, carrier. One can visualize a locomotive pulling four carriages, rather than a carriage pulling four locomotives. Men are disposed by nature to maintain and sustain women, and to dismiss this fact as allegedly untrue is colliding with the natural course of things.

When some of the commons, verily unfortunately, unheed these confines attached to polygamy and go keeping as many wives as four without realizing the sense of justice they are enjoined to administer ‑ but rather to answer the call of lust ‑ only gross slanting and inequality will be the result.

Although a man cannot even provide for himself, he is in pursuit of another marriage; whereas he is unable to be in charge of only one wife, he goes seeking another. A polygamist may not be dealing equally, rather capriciously, with his children in terms of education and portioning out wealth; he may take another wife only to desert the first one and leave her as if hanging in the air.

Conversely, although a man may be wealthy enough to marry four women at one and the same time and to provide for whomever children they beget him, he leads a life of sexual begging ad rolling in the bosoms of trollops.

Does forbidding polygamy cure a nation's evils as such? No. To forbid what is permitted is not anything that will be a dilemma in the eye of Islamic legislation. However, if religion had remained silent about its position on polygamy, we would, rather, have made our say on it by clarifying that it is permitted to preserve public interest as above explained.

A line of demarcation has to be drawn between instituting a principle and misusing it. In as far as the role of legislation in rectifying our society and remedying its ailments is concerned‑ in terms of an imperative need to mete out justice by a polygamist ‑ let researchers be primarily occupied with adjusting the yardstick, as well as the manifestations, of justice if they so desire. Any attempt at undermining and deriding polygamy in principle is doomed as being of no avail. I can even rightfully claim that contemptuously regarding polygamy has been an immediate fallout of a sort of new Crusade against Muslim nations.

Several social classes now do regard polygamy as something evil, while they consider adultery and fornication insignificant entertainment! The problem has come to relate to understanding and acknowledging the entire religion.

Against such a background, to attempt restricting polygamy is to repulsively attempt to soil the entire society in the name of law and at the expense of Islam.

Many a prophet and good worshipping man had more than one wife and the practice was not believed to impinge upon his piety or fearing Allah. Books of the Old Testament stand witness thereof.

Islam does not regard abstaining from marriage a sort of worshipping, as monks do, nor does it consider keeping four wives a sin, as Christianity is falsely claimed to have branded. (As we have seen before, none of the four gospels forbids polygamy: the author Hamdi Shafeek).

To sin is really to give a free rein to sexual desire, or to inhibit it, letting it trickle down as underground water trickles down under the desert.[56]

[1] The surah of "Al‑Nisaa". or women, verse 54.

[2] The Generations of the Prophet's Companions, volume 8, page 233.

[3] The surah of "Al‑Qasas", or Narration, verse 9.

[4] Combining two sisters as wives had until then been acknowledged and has later been explicitly banned by the Quran.

[5] Ibn Katheer in his book the "Interpretation of the Holy Quran", the interpretation of the Surah of Sad, verses from 21‑25.

[6] He himself converted to Islam from Christianity ‑ refer to the book named "Religions on the Scales" page 109.

[7] The surah of "Isma", or the prophet's trip from Mecca to Jerusalem, verse 81.

[8] Verse number is 129, the surah of Women.

[9] Tuesday's issue, May 6th 1997.

[10] "Your Private Doctor" magazine of May 1997

[11] Ahmed Bahgat in his daily column called the "Peeping Show", Al‑Ahrarn of May 13th, 1997.

[12] "Fiqh Al Sunna", by Sheikh Sayyid Sabiq, volume 2, the chapter on the family system, edition published by Maktabatul Muslim.

[13] From the book "Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah", translated by the late Grand Sheikh of Al‑Azhar Dr. Abdul‑Haleem Mahmoud.

[14] Verse three of the surah of "Al‑Nisaa" or Women, the Holy Quran.

[15] "The Interpretation of the Great Quran", by Ibn‑Qatheer. The elucidation of verse three of the surah of "Al‑Nisaa" or Women.

[16] Please refer to "Jamiul Bayan Fi Tafseer Al Quran" by Ibn‑Jareer Al‑Tabary, the chapter on the interpretation of the surah of Al‑Nisaa.

[17] The interpretation of the Holy Quran by Imam Al‑Nasafi, the chapter on the surah of Al‑Nisaa.

[18] Fiqh Al Sunna", by Sheikh Sayyid Sabiq, volume 2, the chapter on the family system, edition published by Maktabatul Muslim.

[19] Sayyid Sabiq, op cit.

[20] Please refer to chapter one of this book, which deals with pre‑Islam polygamy.

[21] Verse number one from the surah of "Fatir", or the Originator of Creation.

[22] Ibn‑Katheer's book on the interpretation of the Quran, previously referred to.

[23] Al‑Imam Al‑Qurtubi in his book "The Book All Inclusive of the Holy Quran Provisions".

[24] Verse number 3 of Al‑Nisaa surah.

[25] Verse number 129 of Al‑Nisaa surah.

[26] Al‑Imarn Al‑Qurtubi in his book "The Book All Inclusive of the Holy Quran Provisions", the chapter on the interpretation of verse 129 of "Al‑Nisaa" surah.

[27] The hadith was reported by Abu‑Dawoud, Al‑Nasa'i, Ibn‑Majah and Al‑Termidhy.

[28] Fiqh Asunnah", by Sheikh Sayyid Sabiq, volume two, the chapter on family system.

[29] "In the Shades of the Holy Quran", by Sayyid Qutb, volume one, edition published by Darel Shrouk publishing house.

[30] This hadith is reported by Al‑Bukhari, Muslim, Al‑Termedhy, Al‑Nasa'i and Ibn Majah.

[31] "Islamic Fiqh Along the Four Schools of Fiqh", volume 4, the chapter on personal status.

[32] Fiqh Asunna". BV Sheikh Savvid Sabia. volume two.

[33] Fiqh Along the Four Schools of Fiqh", volume four.

[34] Fiqh Along the four Schools of Fiqh", volume four.

[35] The previous reference.

[36] The previous reference.

[37] The previous reference.

[38] The previous reference.

[39] Refer to the introduction of this book.

[40] Refer to chapter one, "Polygamy Before Islam".

[41] "Al‑Tabaqat Al‑Qubra" (or Generations of the Prophet's Companions)

[42] Refer to chapter one, "Polygamy Before Islam".

[43] "Al‑Tabapt AI‑Qubra", by Ibn‑Saad.

[44] Usdul‑Ghaba, "volume two".

[45] "Tabaqat", by Ibn‑Saad.

[46] The Interpretation by Imam Al‑Qurtubi, volume eight, the surah of Al‑Ahzab.

[47] The "Interpretation of the Great Quran", by Ibn‑Katheer, volume three.

[48] The interpetation of the Quran, by Al‑Qurtubi.

[49] "Al‑Tabaqat" or "The Generations of Prophet's Companions" by Ibn‑Saad.

[50] "Usdul‑Ghaba", volume seven, by Ibn Al‑Atheer.

[51] "Usdul‑Ghaba", volume seven.

[52] The "Biography of the Prophet", by Ibn‑Hisham.

[53] "Stolen Moments", a book by Anees Mansour, Daru‑shruk edition.

[54] "History and Goals of Orientalism", published by "Al‑Nahda" bookshop.

[55] "Al‑Musfirnoun" newspaper of 6 June 1997.

[56] Fiqh AI‑Sira", (Understanding the Prophet's Biography), by Sheikh