POLYGAMI

WIVES RATHER MISTRESSES
M.A.Rashid
Advocate

In a recent Judgment (Saidali Vs Saleena ) a Division Bench of Kerala High Court dealt with a very controversial aspect of Muslim Personal law - Polygamy. The DB opined that " Even after 15 centuries, some people of our country seems to be very particular in following the aforesaid tenets of Islam unmindful as to whether such circumstances exist or not". Let us examine whether such circumstances exist or not.
Polygamy is a Greek word meaning "the practice of multiple marriages". There are two types of Polygamy. Polygyny is the practice of having more than one wife at one time. Polyandry is the practice of having more than one husband at one time. As historically confirmed, polygamy has been known since the origin of mankind itself. According to Hindu scriptures Many religious personalities had multiple wives. King Dashrat, had more than one wife. Krishna had several wives. In the Holy Bible Abraham had three wives (Genesis 16:1, 16:3, 25:1),Moses had two wives (Exodus 2:21, 18:1-6; Numbers 12:1)Jacob had four wives (Genesis 29:23, 29:28, 30:4, 30:9)David had at least 18 wives (1 Samuel 18:27, 25:39-44; 2 Samuel 3:3, 3:4-5, 5:13, 12:7-8, 12:24, 16:21-23)Solomon had 700 wives (1 Kings 11:3).[3]. It was understood by the leaders of Christendom that there is no intrinsic immorality or sinfulness in plurality of wives. One of the greatest fathers of the Christian Church (St. Augustine) has declared that polygamy is not a crime where it is a legal institution of a country, and the German reformers, even as late as the sixteenth century, allowed and declared valid the taking of a second or even a third wife, contemporaneously with the first, in default of issue, or any other cause." (Ameer Ali, Life and Teachings, p. 220, and also Ameer Ali, Mohammedan Law, Vol. II p. 23)
When Islam first appeared in the 7th century it effected improvements and changes in individual and social life by bringing in new laws and prohibiting or regulating the existing ones. The practice of regulated polygamy falls into the regulation category. Islam did not invent polygamy, but rather has regulated it. Before Islam, a man could marry as many women as he wanted or could afford. Islam put a limit on the number of women that a man could marry, along with some tough conditions.
The verse that allows Muslim men to marry more than one woman is as follows: "Marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if you fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one." (Qur'an, 4:3).

From this verse a number of facts are evident:
1. That polygamy is neither mandatory, nor encouraged, but merely permitted.
2. That the permission to practice polygamy is not associated with mere satisfaction of passion. It is rather associated with compassion toward widows and orphans, a matter that is confirmed by the atmosphere in which the verse was revealed.
3. That even in such a situation, the permission is far more restricted than the normal practice which existed among the Arabs and other people at that time when many married as many as ten or more wives.
4. That dealing justly with one's wives is an obligation. This applies to housing, food, clothing, kind treatment..etc., for which the husband is fully responsible. If one is not sure of being able to deal justly with them, the Quran say: "then(marry) only (Qur'an 4:3)
Another verse which is commonly used by the critics to say that even Quran disallowed Polygamy , "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). .(Qur'an 4:129) While allowing marriage with up to four wives, this verse discourages its practice by imposing some tough conditions such as achieving justice between wives, and encourages marrying only one. This is a very tough lifestyle for any man. As a result, the great majority (about 99%) of Muslim men have only one wife. This fact is true for all Muslim countries with slight differences in the marginal rate. This large percentage of monogamy was more or less maintained throughout the history of Islam. According to a survey conducted of the Ottoman archives, the percentage of men married to only one wife never fell below 92%. That is, only 8% of the total male population was married to more than one wife at any one time. As per the 1975 census of India Hindus are more polygynous than Muslims. The report of the 'Committee of The Status of Woman in Islam', published in 1975 mentions on page numbers 66 and 67 that the percentage of polygamous marriages between the years 1951 and 1961 was 5.06% among the Hindus and only 4.31% among the Muslims. According to Indian law only Muslim men are permitted to have more than one wife. It is illegal for any non-Muslim in India to have more than one wife. Despite it being illegal, Hindus have more multiple wives as compared to Muslims. Earlier, there was no restriction even on Hindu men with respect to the number of wives allowed. It was only in 1954, when the Hindu Marriage Act was passed that it became illegal for a Hindu to have more than one wife.
Why is polygamy permissible? The answer is simple: there are places and times in which there are compelling social and moral reasons for polygamy. As the above Quranic verse indicates, the issue of polygamy in Islam cannot be understood apart from community obligations towards orphans and widows. Islam as a universal religion suitable for all places and all times could not ignore these compelling obligations.
Sometimes polygamy becomes a practical solution to serious social problems. Throughout history, and still in developing and third-world countries, women depended on men's economic support. Some women may not be able to bear children. In such cases, if the husband wants to have children, he may marry again instead of divorcing his first wife. A "barren" woman may find it hard to marry again if this weren't permissible. Moreover, after wars, there is usually a shortage of young men. This was evident in Australia after World War I, as it was difficult for many widowed women or even young ladies to marry as there was a limited amount of available men. To maintain the stability of society in such instances, some men should be allowed to marry more than once. More importantly, their second wife should be a widow. For example, after World War I, the famous writer Victor Marqveritte, after the decrease in the male population of France, said the following: "18 million European women have been the victim of the system of living as a widow because of the death of their partners. As a result, they are condemned to misery, economically and morally".
By nature males and females are born in approximately the same ratio. A female child has more immunity than a male child. A female child can fight the germs and diseases better than the male child. For this reason, during the pediatric age itself there are more deaths among males as compared to the females. During wars, there are more men killed as compared to women. More men die due to accidents and diseases than women. The average life span of females is more than that of males, and at any given time one finds more widows in the world than widowers.In the USA, women outnumber men by 7.8 million. New York alone has one million more females as compared to the number of males, and of the male population of New York one-third are gays i.e homosexual. The U.S.A as a whole has more than twenty-five million gays. This means that these people do not wish to marry women. Great Britain has four million more females as compared to males. Germany has five million more females as compared to males. Russia has nine million more females than males. God alone knows how many million more females there are in the whole world as compared to males.Even if every man got married to one woman, there would still be more than thirty million females in U.S.A who would not be able to get husbands (considering that America has twenty five million gays). There would be more than four million females in Great Britain, 5 million females in Germany and nine million females in Russia alone who would not be able to find a husband. Another important thing is that 98% of the prison populations are Males.

Country Male Population Female Population
Russia 46.1% 53.9%
UK 48.6% 51.5%
USA 48.8% 51.2%
Brazil 49.7% 50.27%

• In addition, surplus of women who are not financially maintained by a husband is a cause of increased prostitution in the society.
In her book The Life and Teachings of Muhammed, Dr. Annie Besant says:

"There is pretended monogamy in the West, but in reality, there is polygamy without responsibility; the mistress is cast off when the man is weary of her ... the first lover has no responsibility for her future, and she is a hundred times worst off then the sheltered wife in a polygamous home."

"When we see thousands of miserable women who crowd the streets of Western towns during the night, we must surely feel that it does not lie in the Western mouth to reproach Islam for polygamy. It is better for woman, happier for woman, more respectable for woman to live in polygamy, united to one man, only with a legitimate child in her arms and surrounded with respect, than to be seduced and then cast out into the streets, perhaps with illegitimate child outside the rule of law, uncared, unsheltered, to become victim of any passer-by, night after night, rendered incapable of motherhood, despised by all."One can clearly see that there are many benefits which result from the allowance of polygamy. Many societal ills are left untreated, if not created or worsened, due to modern restrictions placed on polygamy.
Actually there are three kinds of polygamy practiced in Western societies:
• Serial polygamy, that is, marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce and so on any number of times.
• A man married to one woman but having and supporting one or more mistresses.
• An unmarried man having a number of mistresses.

Bertrand Russell says:
"And in all countries where there is an excess of women, it is an obvious injustice that those women who by arithmetical necessity must remain unmarried should be wholly debarred from sexual experience." (Marriage and Morals, p. 47)
George Bernard Shaw advised the people of Europe to adopt the system of polygamy to save Europe from inundation of adultery.
Another Western writer, J. E. McFarlance; writes in his "The Case for Polygamy or The Case against the System of Monogamous Marriage": "Whether the question is considered socially, ethically 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 problems to destitute families; the alternative is continued and increased prostitution, concubine and distressing spinsterhood."
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;
(3) or to allow polygamy.

Undoubtedly Polygamy is more sublime and chaste than Concubines. A mistress has no access to rights nor does her children. Even in England now Courts are recognizing Polygamous marriages. "In Conflict of Laws" John Green wood Coller observed: " The law appears to have drawn back from regarding all polygamous unions as not being marriages; since the consequence would have been that a large portion of Queen Victoria's subjects would have been bastards"

rashid@answeringlaw.com