There has been much loose talk and
irresponsible criticism of the institution of polygamy in Islam. The critics dub polygamy
as an evil and curse. They say that this “immoral” and “obnoxious”
practice causes much distress in family life. It is also alleged that polygamy is promoted
by the lower self of man; it is resorted to by man who are devoid of refined sentiments
and who have no regard for the demands of even elementary justice. That is how they pave
the way for attacking Islam and its Prophet.
The fact is that these views are based on
superficial and half-baked ideas. Christianity, for a host of reasons, is dogmatic in its
abhorrence of polygamy. Naturally, this attitude became part and parcel of western
culture. Whether this attitude of the west is based upon reason or upon sheer prejudice
will be clear if we study the issue dispassionately and objectively. Let us make one thing
quite clear at the very outset: Islam does not order or make it obligatory for a Muslim
male to have more than one wife. Rather it just permits this. Since the Qur’an
embodies the final word from God for the guidance of humanity for all time to come, it
could not be indifferent and unmindful of all sorts of circumstances and need of human
beings. As our study would show, polygamy has its own social role to play when
circumstances so require and this is supported by the conditions obtaining in our own
times proved even by our current history.
Normally, Islam recognizes only the union
of one man and one women as a desirable form of marriage. However, under special
circumstances it allows the man to have more wives than one up to the maximum of four.
Since this institution was to serve a
great social purpose in human society, the following Qur’anic verse was emphatic in
its assertion. This verse, when read in the context in which it was revealed, points to an
important social function of polygamy. The verse says:
“And if you fear that you cannot act equitably
towards orphans, then marry such women as seem good to you, two three, and four, but if
you fear that you may not do justice to them, then (marry) only one .” (4:8)
These words were revealed for the first
time after the battle of Uhd. In that battle, seventy out of seven hundred Muslims had
died. As such a great social problem for the protection of widows and orphans had arisen.
Polygamy was, in those days, an established institution of human society and was much in
vogue in Arabia. As would be seen, this verse is not introducing the concept of polygamy
for the first time, but pointing to a convenient solution of the problem-a custom that
already existed. Islam only reformed and regulated the institution along with pointing to
the social and cultural function of polygamy and asking Muslims to resort to it for
solving their problem, it also put a maximum limit to the number of wives that one may
have and gave the instruction to observe justice among all. “Justice” is
the condition precedent, an inviolable rule, enforceable as a moral obligation, and in
case of explicit violation, even through law courts.
Also, the context of the verse and its
contents very clearly show the social utility of polygamy, and its great role in solving
innumerable ills of human society to which it may fall prey, as indeed it is suffering in
the Christian west (as the well as the communist world). Is it not a fact that the world
is facing the problem of surplus the women in our own times. In certain countries it has
assumed baffling proportion. An idea of the extent of this problem may be had from what
Dr. Westermarck says in the Future of marriage in Western Civilization, “if
we reckon the age of marriage from twenty to twenty-five years, the disproportion between
the sexes makes at least three or four per cent women to be , in normal circumstances,
compelled to lead a single life in consequence of our obligatory monogamy.”
This view is corroborated by a study of the sex-wise
distribution of population in most of the Western countries. But the situation has further
aggravated in the post-war period. The following statistics, taken from the British Press,
are very revealing:
“Over three million women in
Britain are doomed to lonely lives without hope of husbands, child or a real home. The
surplus women have gradually increased in the last century. In September 1939, there were
2,818,343, more women than men in Britain. Now the toll of war has taken nearly 3,00,000
men and many thousands are hopeless cripples who will never leave their beds.”
“what is to become of thousands of girls who have lost husbands and sweethearts,
is one of Britain’s post-war problems”, declares a women correspondent of
Sunday chronicle.
“Should every man decide to take a wife it is still
estimated that nearly 4,000,000 women will go without husbands”
Shortage of men is not confined to
Britain only. America has 12,000,000 spinsters to only 9,000,000
bachelors. In many parts of Europe men are almost stamped out. (The Statesman , Delhi,
quoted by M. M. Hussein in Islam and Socialism, p. 194).
It is for this reason that Dr.
MacFarlane, in his eye-opening book The Case for Polygamy, declares:
“Whatever the question is considered socially or
religiously, it can be demonstrated that polygamy is not contrary to the highest
standards of civilization. The suggestion offers a practical remedy for the western
problem of the destitute and unwanted female; the alternative is continued and increased
prostitution, concubinage and distressing spinster hood”.
Dr. MacFarlance also
observed:
"The fact that polygamy has been practiced is itself a proof that the sexes do not
exist in the uniform proportion; and I am yet to learn that any widespread scarcity of
women has been experienced in the past as the result of such a practice. Even if there
were an equal number of men and women in the world, the enforcement of monogamous
marriages would involve as its logical corollary the compelling of every one to marry. On
this point alone, without the aid of any other argument, monogamy, as a universal system,
stands condemned." (ibid, p. 79).
The throbbing facts and convincing
arguments have made many a modern thinker realise the utility and the social blessings of
polygamy. Sir Geaofge Scott tells us that:
“In our own century there have been not a few who, noting the preponderance of women,
have a advocated plural marriage for.” (Scott, Sir George, Encyclopaedia of
Modern Knowledge, Vol. V . P. 2573).
Sometimes polygamy becomes indispensable
for the preservation and maintenance of family life. There are occasions when a second
wife is admitted to resolve some distressing situation in the family, for instance,
marrying a widow of the family to support her and her children. Wife’s barrenness and
frigidity, or some infectious disease may make it necessary to have recourse to polygamy.
The legitimate sexual needs of a man may impel him to polygamy. If the society is to be
saved from the evils of adultery, concubine, prostitution and immorality, the law and
custom of the country must take full notice of men’s nature and his needs. That is
Dr. Rom Landau says:
“In an imperfect world, such as
we live in, polygamy must be considered both natural and legitimate. To eliminate polygamy
completely we should first have to change the entire character of our civilization, then
the nature of man, and, finally, Nature herself.” (Landau, Dr. Rom. Sex, Life
and Faith- A Modern Philosophy of sex, Faber & Faber Ltd., 1946, P. 136).
Throwing light upon the reasons for this
belief, he says:
“In my own experience I have had many opportunities to study some of the most
prevalent causes of polygamy among members of modern society. In most cases I have found
that polygamous behavior or polygamous longings went hand in hand with an essentially
monogamous nature.” (ibid, P. 131)
He concludes: “All the evidence
provided by history and science makes it imperative that polygamy should be
recognized more honestly.”
George Ryley Scott, the
famous authority on sex while discussing the nature of man, says:
“man is essentially polygamous and the development
of civilization extends this innate polygamy.” (Scott, G.R History of
Prostitution, p. 21)
Similarly, Lord Mordey declared that
‘ man is instinctively polygamous. Havelock Ellis,
commenting on this statement, says that:
‘ if we interpret it as meaning that man is an
instinctively monogamous animal with a concomitant desire for sexual variation, there is
much evidence in its favor.” (Ellis, Havelock, The psychology of sex, vol. Iv , p.
495)
Professor C. Von Ehrenfels of Pargue has
gone to the extent of forcefully pleading that polygamy as the general order is much
superior to monogamy. On the basis of scientific grounds
to asserts that a “polygamic marriage order has become necessary’, and
that it will succeed monogamy because it is ‘morally superior’ (Quoted by
Havelock Ellis, op. Qit, p. 502).
French sexologist, Dr. Le Bon, predicts
that European legislation in future will recognize polygamy. He holds:
"A return to polygamy, the natural relationship
between the sexes, would remedy many evils; prostitution, venereal diseases, abortion, the
millions of unmarried women, resulting from the disproportion between the sexes, adultery
and even jealousy."
Another objection raised by the Western
critics is that polygamy is ‘uncivilized’ and out of tune with the modern times, whereas history shows that in all
periods of human civilization, in all times and climes, polygamy has remained, and even
today remains, an important social institution. Encyclopaedia Britannica bears testimony
to the fact that ‘as an institution polygamy exists in all parts of the world.’ (Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 14th Edition. Vol. XIV, P . 949)
M. Letourneau, in his renowned work
Evolution of Marriage, says:
"The
most civilized nations must have begun with polygamy, and in reality, it has been thus
everywhere and always. It is a law which has few exceptions". (Letourneay,
The Evolution of Marriage, p. 154)
Professor N.W. Ingells, in his
essay on ‘Biology of sex’, writes:
"Has man always been essentially
monogamous or has he come up from a state often designated as promiscuous ? The available
evidence points to the latter. As an animal, in his sexual makeup, and in his beginnings
as far as we can reconstruct them, he is anything but monogamous; and one would have great
difficulty in explaining biologically such a sudden change of hear, the transition
to single wife". (Ingells, N, W., “ The biology of sex and the
unmarried” in the sex life of the unmarried adult, Dr. Ira. G. While, 1964, p. 88)
Dr. Westermarck, on unimpeachable
evidence, tells us that in every civilized society polygamy has prevailed. Even the Greeks
recognized this institution and treated it with respect ‘The Athenians’, writes
Professor H. Licht in his monumental work sexual life of Ancient Greece ‘recognized
the polygamy tendency
of man acted accordingly.’ (p. 59)
POLYGAMY
IN THE WEST
Even the modern west whose abhorrence for polygamy is so
much trumpeted, bears evidence that it is polygamous Dr. Rom Landau declares:
“But though in the west the law
prohibits polygamy, ‘in space’ it finds itself forced to condone it ‘in
time”, namely, by granting divorce. A man may not have two wives simultaneously, but
no one can prevent him having ten wives over a period of years.” (Landau, Dr.
Rom, op, cit., p. 137)
But it is too much to say that polygamy
is prohibited 'in space' it has assumed new
channels and new forms. M . Letourneau tells us:
"We
perceive that, in the present day, in countries reputed to be the most civilized, and even
in the classes reputed to be the most polygamic instincts which they find difficult to
resist." (Letourneau, op. cit, p.
136).
Max Nordan writes:
"Man lives in a state of polygamy in the civilized countries in
spite of monogamy enforced by law; out of a hundred thousands men there would barely
be one who could swear upon his death-bed that he had never known but one single women
during his whole life.” (Nordan Max, Conventional Lies of Our Civilization. P.
301).
It is thus known that it is not just the
preponderance of females over males that necessitates polygamy, but at the same time there
are certain other circumstances which require polygamy to be adopted not only for the
moral but also for the physical welfare of society. Prostitution, which is on the increase
with the advancement of civilization, and which is eating into it like a cancer, with the
concomitant increase of illegitimate children, is practically unknown to countries where
polygamy is permissible in its legal from.
It is sometimes alleged that the
institution of polygamy has largely been abused by sensuous people. To this may be
submitted that there are people in every society who would abuse any institution however
necessary that may to be the proper growth of human society. In countries where polygamy
is not allowed, the sensuality of man has invented a hundred other ways of giving vent to
his carnal passions, and these are a far greater curse to society than the abuse of
polygamy. Indeed that abuse can be easily remedied by proper education of the people,
development of healthy social traditions and the organization of an efficient judicial
machinery to protect the rights of the women and the children when and where they are
disregarded. Social evils can be eradicated not by the use of brute force or by abolishing
historic institution but through a social process that can purify the society. And that is
what Islam wants to do.
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