Polygamy

Submitted by sam (United Kingdom), Feb 12, 2007 at 23:56

That's not true about Christianity stating one man should marry one woman. Indeed until the 1800's Christian men married more than one and as divorce has always been so difficult in Christianity some men would go to the lengths of killing a wife in order to make way for another or later on when the photograph was invented some men would have their wives pose with other men in order to be granted a divorce in a more easier fashion.

Marriage and divorce have never been straight forward in Christianity. Solomon and Abraham amongst others are messengers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam who married more that one. Christians only ever seem to focus their attention on Mohammed peace be upon him because he is the only messenger (the final one & only the Arab) that only Muslims have as an addition to the line of 25 prophets. There's never any challenge towards Prophet Abraham/ Ibrahim...why? The answer is obvious. I personally respect prophet Ibrahim & I'm only using it as an example to show bias.

If you read the Qur'an 'properly' you might realize that there is no condoning of marrying more than one and if anything it highlights that marriage to a second wife should not take place without valid reason (disability, wife can't have kids, wife uses sex as weapon to bribe hubby, protection), and without the ability to treat the wives equally financially, emotionally, respectfully, lovingly (the rule goes as far as that if you kiss one wife on the cheek then you should also do it to the other, if you buy something for one then also buy something of the exact same value to the other), each should have their own home and so on.

But within that paragraph in the Qur'an it finishes with...but a human does not have the ability to treat 2 equally. And you can interpret that in your own way. On top of that in Islam if a wife is unhappy with her husband and asks for a divorce then she should be granted it for reasons such as unsatisfied sexually, husband can't have kids and so on.

There are always levels in Islam which means not everything is either regarded as a direct good deed or a sin. There r some things we regard as unfavoured or disliked by God (Makrooh) but accepted and they r usually for reasons of humanity such as divorce or even polygamy. Marriage by Islamic law has to be public and marriage in secrecy is sinful, that alone will put men off the idea of marrying another.

Polygamy in many ways is also something to prevent adultery; if you cheated on your wife and made another woman pregnant (common syndrome) you will easily abandon that woman and her state of being pregnant by you. She as the mother of your baby but not your wife will be burdened and she will be the accused and you would get off without responsibility when in fact you would be the one who strayed and mostly to blame. Therefore she would be left with no right over you & her fate would be undetermined/ difficult possibly fatal if we go back to pre 1950's.

To add to that a Muslim does not necessarily understand Islam or follow it. Many Muslims don't understand the laws thoroughly and only select what is fitting or read only as far as the surface.

And honestly, don't rely on biased websites for information.

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